The Name of the Rose
The world is becoming a safer and more pleasant place for everyone in it. But never before have people felt so isolated and spiritually lost; and, with the advent of nuclear and biological weapons of war, the human race has never been so close to total extinction. We seem perpetually unable to decide whether these times are the greatest in human history or the worst, and we lament that all the scientific advances in the world have not made us happy, or sane, or peaceful.
Perhaps what is needed is a little perspective: the perspective of people from a world totally different to our own. Umberto Eco’s 1983 international bestseller The Name of the Rose offers a window into this world in the intriguing form of a 14th-century murder-mystery set in a remote Italian abbey. A key theme in his novel: that we should be skeptical of “prophets,” and of “progress,” in whatever guise they come.
Today we are accustomed to thinking of “progress” as a linear, positive process. This was not always so. Indeed, until relatively recently, people thought that the world was in an unending state of decline and disorder, ever since the glory days of the Roman Republic, or perhaps even earlier, all the way back to the Garden of Eden. This line of thought is best encapsulated by Eco through the words of his narrator, the novice Adso of Melk:
In the past men were handsome and great (now they are children and dwarves)... The young no longer want to study anything, learning is in decline, the whole world walks on its head, blind men lead others equally blind and cause them to plunge into the abyss... Everything is diverted from its proper course.
Naturally, Adso’s complaint is a gross exaggeration, and could easily have been uttered by any crotchety old man from the days of Aristotle to today, but it leads us to another key lesson of The Name of the Rose: the importance of respecting the work done by one’s predecessors. It has become common recently, and especially in the field of the social sciences, to discount the opinions and views of the old masters, either because we think they are archaic and useless or because we find them offensive in one way or another. We are so accustomed to looking forwards to new inventions and ideologies that we too often forget that the best and most useful wisdom is sometimes discovered by looking backwards. This is demonstrated in the way that the protagonist of the novel uses “the logic of Aristotle” and a newly-invented pair of spectacles to decipher encrypted messages and solve a series of brutal murders. The old and the new, working together.
This protagonist, Brother William of Baskerville, provides an excellent role model for the young students and leaders of today. He stresses the importance of appreciating the value of tradition and old knowledge, keeping an open mind, of thinking critically, and expressing caution, moderation, and presence of mind throughout all aspects of life. “The Devil is the arrogance of the spirit, faith without smile, truth that is never seized by doubt,” William says. In his own roundabout way, he teaches us how to be virtuous.
You should read this book because of what it says about the “big” philosophical questions, for the role-model to be found in Brother William, and, finally, because it offers a window not only into a different period of time but also into a lost and sorely-needed way of thinking. With such guidance, we may be able to thrive in this terrible and wonderful era of human history.
For more information on the book, see The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco.