Book Review: The Unaborted Socrates by Peter Kreeft

Author: Peter Kreeft
Pub­lisher: IVP Books
Pub­lished: 1983

This is a short review of the short book, The Unaborted Socrates, by Peter Kreeft (pro­fes­sor of phi­los­o­phy, Boston College).

As the title sug­gests, this is a book deal­ing with the issue of abor­tion in con­tem­po­rary cul­ture. The book takes the form of Socratic dia­logue between four fig­ures: Socrates, Dr. Rex Her­rod (abor­tion­ist), Pro­fes­sor Attila Tar­ian (ethi­cist) and “Pop” Syke (psy­chol­o­gist).  The dia­logue takes place in a vari­ety of loca­tions in mod­ern day Athens: an abor­tion clinic, a phi­los­o­phy con­ven­tion and finally, a psy­chi­atric ward.

The dia­logue is inter­est­ing and funny, Peter Kreeft is a gifted com­mu­ni­ca­tor and writer, able to keep the inter­est of his read­ers through­out his book. The book is also short, 155 pages. How­ever with that said, the book fin­ishes exactly where it should fin­ish. The dia­logue feels nei­ther rushed nor lengeth­ened and the top­ics in this dia­logue cover all the major argu­ments for and against abor­tion. Argu­ments which, it should be noted, Socrates (Kreeft?) defin­i­tively refutes. Leav­ing emo­tion­al­ism out of the argu­ment, we find the char­ac­ters of this book dis­cussing the via­bil­ity of the fetus, the rights of the fetus and the mother, the def­i­n­i­tion of what it means to be a human being and var­i­ous other argu­ments deal­ing with loca­tion, appear­ance and devel­op­ment of the fetus in rela­tion to its humanity.

Clear, con­cise, well rea­soned and to the point, a rec­om­mended read for those inter­ested in the abor­tion argument.

Related posts:

1. Book Review: Socrates Meets Jesus by Peter Kreeft
2. Book Review: Three Approaches to Abor­tion by Peter Kreeft
3. Book Review: Between Allah and Jesus by Peter Kreeft
4. Book Review: Between Heaven and Hell by Peter Kreeft
5. Book Review: Mak­ing Sense of Suf­fer­ing by Peter Kreeft