MACNEILE DIXON'S "The Human Situation"

The Human Situation
by Macneile Dixon
Edward Arnold, London, and Penguin, Harmondsworth.

While the British philosopher, Macneile Dixon, is not well known today, in the 1930s he published a book which the New York Times described "... as perhaps the most important book of its kind which the 20th century has yet produced".  The author was the Regius Professor of English Language and Literature at the University of Glasgow from 1904 until his retirement in 1935.

The Human Situation by Macneile Dixon was my "best book" for 1990.  It will also be the best book I will read in 1991 or, for that matter, in 1992, or almost certainly in any other year.

Published in the late 1930s, The Human Situation comprises the Gifford Lectures (renowned in philosophical circles) delivered at the University of Glasgow from 1935 to 1937.  It is, to my admittedly limited knowledge, perhaps the greatest book of this century.  It represents an intellectual achievement of a magnitude that staggers the imagination.  The range of knowledge which this great work exhibits would seem to be almost beyond the compass of a single human being.  But even that is not its most impressive feature.  This all-encompassing knowledge is merely the foundation of a philosophical inquiry of extraordinary profundity and penetration, an inquiry enlivened by the humanity, wisdom, tolerance and humour of the author and by the magnificently sustained force and beauty of the prose.

The Human Situation, in essence, represents an irresistible assault on the dogmas and dogmatism -- religious, political, social, scientific -- to which today's world in particular seems peculiarly prone.

This is not a book which one picks up and reads from cover to cover in a few sittings.  It demands far too much of the reader for that.  It is a book that one takes down from the shelves and opens almost at random when one feels the need of the intellectual stimulus and enlightment to be derived from association with a rare and great mind.

Nevertheless, a connecting theme shines through the pages.  The theme is the author's abiding regard for the endurance and courage of the human species and, above all, his deeply felt concern for the individual person and his hatred of systems of thought which would confine the individual within the narrowly restrictive boundaries of some man-made ideology.

While he is not uncritical of religious dogmas, as of all dogmas, the author's sympathies are with the men of religion who accept the wonder and mysteries of the world, rather than with the rationalists and ethical idealists who dispense with the magic and the miracles and all hopes of an existence beyond the present.

Macneile Dixon is, indeed, profoundly sceptical of all man-made systems of thought.  "Not a philospher of them all", he writes, "has, in my opinion at least, written the first sentence in the book of the human soul".  While not uncritical of some aspects of the teachings of the Christian Church, he says that Christianity, "to its eternal honour has stood steadfastly for the sanctity of the individual".  And he goes on, "To imprison the human spirit is the unpardonable sin, the attempt to make men automata, to force them into the same mould.  No means will ever be found to induce human beings to surrender themselves, either body or soul, to a dictated felicity, to satisfactions chosen for them, whatever vulgar Caesars rule the world.  And upon this rock all forms of regimentation, of standardised existence will eventually shipwreck.  Every type of compulsion is hateful, always has been and always will be hateful, as long as men are men".

Macneile Dixon has a fierce contempt and hatred for all forms of collectivism, even those based on humanitarian considerations.  "In their anxiety for human welfare, in their collectivist schemes, the sentimentalists have overlooked the individual man.  They submerge him in the sea of their universal benevolence.  But who desires to live in the pauperdom of their charity ... the last and greatest insult you can offer the human race is to regard it as a herd of cattle to be driven to your selected pasture.  You deprive the individual of his last rag of self-respect, the most precious of his possessions, himself".

To extract the essence of Macneile Dixon's teaching, one must read and study him again, and then again.  But this truly monumental work, The Human Situation, is so full of intellectual treasures, one to be found on almost every page, so rich in purple passages of inspiring, memorable prose, that the effort will be greatly rewarded.  As the New York Times said at the time of its publication, "To read this book is to share an exciting adventure".