Imperfect Garden: The Legacy of Humanism

Modern humanity made a deal with the devil, according to Tzvetan Todorov. We got freedom, but we also lost God and common society, and we have only a helpless and dizzying individualism to guide us. The central problem facing us now is how to survive the poison pill we swallowed when we tasted freedom. There are four basic responses, Todorov claims: conservatism, scientism, individualism, and humanism. As the reader soon learns from his characterizations, Todorov's allegiance is firmly with the humanists. Imperfect Garden takes up the standard of humanism, and Todorov situates himself alongside Rousseau, Montesquieu, and Montaigne.

For Todorov, as with the best of the humanists, life in the world is a garden that needs our tending. And though by its nature it is imperfect, at times bearing rotten and sour fruit, it can always be improved with our care, diligence, and love. Ultimately, Todorov proposes that humanism is a wager, à la Pascal: we will be no worse off for striving to mend the human condition, but we risk everything if we don't. --Eric de Place