I have spent the last 15 years or so on a journey of deep philosophical exploration. At some point, I realized that I did not just want to join the conservative or libertarian “side.” I wanted to understand—really understand—the underlying philosophy of classical liberalism. I wanted to do the philosophical math myself.
One of the things that sent me on this journey was frustration with the justifications I had heard for classical liberal ideas…
John Locke and the other natural lawyers, for example, made repeated appeals to “right reason.” They were making claims and coming to conclusions, but when it came to the moment to prove the conclusion, I found myself wanting more. It felt a little like they were question-begging. Wasn’t there some sort of syllogism to justify the claims they were making? Something where the premises are true and the conclusion follows from the premises?
I could tell that they were correct—that the principles they espoused were right. But it was more my intuition that was telling me so, rather than any formal reasoning. I found myself wishing that they had “shown” more of their work, as we were always told to do in math class.
Then there are the claims made by religious believers that God is the source of morality. Here too, my intuition and personal beliefs tell me that this is generally correct. I feel that morality is real. I feel that it must somehow be rooted (at least partially) in nature, and thus must somehow have been created by the Creator of nature.
Yet these claims are often also accompanied by at least a tacit implication that no further thought is needed—almost as if to say, It is so because God has ordained it so, and it is an act of impiety to question any further.
That doesn’t work for me.
You may or may not be a believer in a theistic God, but just go with me here for a second. If such a God—a concerned, benevolent God—exists, then surely He is not arbitrary. He created a rational universe that operates according to rational laws. Thus, He is a God of reason. A God of reasons.
He has to have reasons why He made morality the way He did. Surely we can know those reasons. Surely we can use logic to discover the why.
It cannot be God simply saying, “Because I said so” and leaving it at that. The created universe allows us—indeed, requires us—to use reason in every other endeavor. Why would morality be separate from that?
It oughtn’t to be, and isn’t. It is possible to use reason to explain why morality works. That has been my focus for a decade and more.
Of course, it is also essential to understand that morality is on a continuum, with some aspects being more subjective and others being more objective in nature. My focus has been on the objective. And down at that end of that continuum, I believe the moral principles are provable.
Natural law is real. The moral implications of natural law are real, and they are discernible through reason and inquiry.
The great thing about that is that even atheists do not have to follow some arbitrary or relative morality, simply because it’s the one that “sounds” the best to them. Through logic, they can discover, or be convinced, that the “Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God” are objectively true, and thus objectively worthy of observance.
And that is a good thing.
I bet you'd prefer a comment on the ideas you've written about here but, for the moment, I can't take my eyes off that beautiful image and am lost in imagining what it would feel like to be in that space with those colours, that fabric, the light streaming in, and the serenity born of the devotion to focus, thinking, writing....
I want to throw a few things against the wall and see if any stick. First is faith, without faith should there be no hope? Second, people that die, say they see the bright light, meet a relative that has passed or believed they were in heaven and then come back to this world, is this a firing brains last bit of energy? What happens to a persons energy at death, a beating heart, lungs inhaling and exhaling. Is death the only time energy dies and is not transferred into something else? I’ve never posted what I’m going to say now, in 2005 my wife and I bought a house in NH. We have had dozens of strange happenings there. Im a local contractor in Ma. and never believed in spirits or ghosts etc. But there’s something or someone on this property. One night in the garage I was standing next to an extension ladder I had just hung on the wall, I was 5 feet from the ladder staring at it and someone or something ran their hand down the ladder rings as loud as could be. WTF I thought. Doors slamming, windows shutting, hearing music, lights go on, tvs go on, etc. So is this a spirit or ghost? I’m telling you there’s something on this property. I’m not crazy, J.Goodrich