Fiction, the flesh of ethics

The work of Frédérique Leichter-Flack, The Laboratory of cases of conscienceopens with a case examined in the Babylonian Talmud. Two men are walking in the desert, only one of whom has a canteen. If he keeps all the water for himself, he will have enough strength to reach an inhabited place, but his companion will die ; if he shares the water, both will die. On the course of action to be taken, the opinions of the rabbis differ. As for the reasons for this divergence, it is permissible to question: is it due to a difference in the hierarchy of ethical principles, or to a difference in the way each person concretely represents the scene, based on the very meager elements provided ? Because, as F. Leichter-Flack points out, to express a sensible opinion on such a dilemma “ the essential thing is missing, that is to say the details. (…) How can we decide what is right to do when we lack so much information to base our decision? ? » (p. 11). This is often the case with cases of conscience examined by traditions, here Talmudic, elsewhere philosophical: we cannot help but think that our indecision, faced with the situations they present to us, is primarily due to their artificial character, skeletal, “ underdetermined “. In reality, so many other elements would intervene, some of which would tip the balance in one direction or another.

The place of literature in moral thought

Ethical dilemmas are not, however, a pure invention of masters of wisdom, philosophers, dialecticians. When reality confronts us with such dilemmas, where can we find the resources to enlighten our judgment? ? According to Simone Weil, adopting the right position does not result from the application of principles, however refined and sophisticated they may be, but from attention to a situation. “ Generally speaking, the most serious errors, those which distort all thought, which lose the soul, which place it outside of truth and good, are indistinguishable. Because they are caused by the fact that certain things escape attention “. This is why theoretical ethical reflections, blind as they are to the very matter of reality, prove, in practice, to be of little help. On the other hand, it is not enough to open your eyes to see: to truly understand a situation it is useful, even essential, to be able to compare it to others. But our concrete experience is limited: it is therefore good that it is coupled with a fictional experience. Not only is the latter able to sharpen our faculties of attention, but also, by offering itself to joint reflection, it allows the confrontation of points of view and the development of shared wisdom. Hence, between the abstraction of theory and the idiocy of facts, the eminent place of literature. For F. Leichter-Flack, literature contributes “ to the development of a model of moral reasoning anchored in a specific context, but relevant beyond it » (pp. 13-14). Literary fiction, she adds, “ carries within it a formidable reserve of meaning that theoretical reasoning cannot fill. She learns to deal with emotion, not to believe that in matters of justice ideas can be enough » (p. 15). “ A refuge from the complexity of the world, literature is the place of open questions which resist all the provisional answers that each era, each society formulates for itself. » As such, F. Leichter-Flack’s essay presents itself, in the author’s own words, “ as a new attempt to put the resources of literature at the disposal of the present time » (p. 16).

The approach adopted consists of starting from questions, situations or news items in recent news, and referring to one or more literary works – short stories or novels – able to shed light on the issues. In a sense, current events revive interest in literature and, conversely, literature is able to improve our understanding of the present. There is nothing systematic about the work: no clearly delimited field of reflection at the start, no work studied for itself and in the multiplicity of its aspects, but a back and forth between contemporary questions and readings of romantic fiction. Such an approach has its qualities, it also has its limits. We can however estimate that the limits are here granted to the subject: by not examining “ thoroughly » a question or a work, by simply entering into a work with a question, and in return throwing a certain light on this question through the work considered, F. Leichter-Flack’s essay never ceases to solicit his reader, to encourage him to reread the novels mentioned, to make him think of other texts to deepen the question, and this space left for participation is ultimately much more conducive to the development of ethical reflection than would be the case. an impeccably structured presentation and carefully marked.

Some examples

Rather than cataloging the questions and works examined, it is better to give a few examples. One of the authors contacted by F. Leichter-Flack is Victor Hugo who, driven by his literary genius, wrote enormously. In this powerful flow where we find everything, a few moments are selected, particularly well chosen. So, in Ninety-threethe episode of the burning tower, when the mother’s cry stops the Marquis de Lantenac in his flight, makes him turn back to save three children at the cost of his capture by the revolutionaries. “ Lantenac’s gesture is not preceded by a deliberation ; it seems triggered by the pressure of context » (p. 93). The ethical moment arises not from a decision of the autonomous subject, as with Kant, but from an outpouring of compassion, as with Schopenhauer. However, F. Leichter-Flack emphasizes that “ in Hugo, emotion serves to save the lives of children, but it stops there, in no way claims to teach that the lives of a few children are always worth more than all political causes » (pp. 94-95). This arbitration, the Republicans of June 1832, in Les Miserablescannot avoid it. When the failure of the insurrection becomes certain, those manning the barricade are ready to die to the last man. F. Leichter-Flack draws a timely parallel with Antigone. Initially driven by the feeling that funeral honors should be paid to her brother Polyneices, Antigone, as the struggle with Creon escalates and becomes desperate, is invaded by a sort of deadly fanaticism: “ everything seems to happen as if death no longer cost him » (p. 119). However, nothing is more suspect than such martyrs. On the barricade, Combeferre’s speech is needed to temper the intoxication which makes people cry “ Long live death »: he reminds the men present that they owe it not only to the cause they defend, but also to the beings for whom it is worth defending this cause. “ What gives or takes away ethical value and moral legitimacy from a martyr is not only due to the cause he defends, to the idea of ​​the Good in the name of which the sacrifice takes place. (…) Courage is not not fearing dying for your ideas, but cherishing the life you sacrifice at the very moment you give it up to preserve its meaning and value. » (p. 124).

Another widely mentioned author is Melville, for Billy Budd And Bartleby. With Bartleby, F. Leichter-Flack intends to explore the question of the limits that should be accepted, or not, to solidarity. The good Samaritan, once he has rescued the injured man and paid the innkeeper, continues on his way. But what happens if the person we helped continues to ask for care, for which we do not see an end? ? To what extent are we required to assist our neighbor? ? The question is important — it is even considerable. Let us be permitted to think, however, that Bartleby is not the best chosen work to explore it. A person to be assisted, this is how the narrator-employer sees Bartleby. But one of the most dramatic aspects of the story is precisely the inability of the narrator and the system he embodies (remember that he is a Wall Street lawyer) to adopt another point of view on Bartleby. Much more convincing is the evocation, on a related subject, of The Metamorphosis by Kafka. It is invigorating to read, from the pen of F. Leichter-Flack, that “ Kafka can today be used for something other than predicting the totalitarian future of which we are the heirs » (p. 189). In fact, even if it means making Kafka a prophet, he is much less, in this short story, about totalitarianism, than about the situations that more and more families are currently faced with: seriously ill or extremely diminished beings. have today, due to the growing means of medicine, a much longer life than in the past, and such a situation does not go without weighing on the existence of their loved ones. “ Through its ambivalence, Kafka’s short story allows us to test, in situation, and in their very reversibility, all the arguments pro And contra that we find today mobilized on the issue of euthanasia and decisions to terminate life » (p. 210). The Metamorphosis does not provide an answer – nor does it ask us, moreover, in the particular case that it presents to us, to decide. For F. Leichter-Flack, the essential thing is elsewhere: “ The important thing is less to know how to resolve these fictional dilemmas, than to understand their meaning, to untangle their different threads, to tame their tragedy – in order to be able to identify, in the encounters of the existence, that which requires intervention, requires a choice, or incurs a responsibility. Literature does not say where is good and where is evil, but teaches us to look more closely at what we often take too quickly for one or the other » (p. 216).