Modern Age - Winter 2018 - 72

Modern Age

*

Winter 2018

best disposition for penetrating the springs of the acting animal.
We must go against this tendency if we want to do justice to the
point of view of action. All this matters for our approach to the
question of natural law.

The question of natural law
The very notion of natural law presupposes or implies that we have
the ability to judge human conduct according to criteria that are
clear, stable, and largely if not universally shared. It demands that
the motley diversity of the human phenomenon, which is apparent
to anyone, be reduced to a single set of characteristics common to
all humanity, and thus suitable to provide the foundation for rules
of justice that are comprehensible and acceptable by all. We have
suggested that the principal motives of human action-the pleasant, the useful, and the noble-constitute such characteristics.
There is the question, however, how we can accord a decisive role
to the motives of action, that is, to the factual bases of human acting, in an investigation into natural law, that is, into action's norm.
Sometimes the emperor of our philosophical scruples isn't wearing much. A case in point are the modern philosophers who are
eager to reproach their predecessors or some of their colleagues
for confusing "is" with "ought," or succumbing to the "naturalistic
fallacy." But in reality there is neither a leap nor a chasm nor an
abyss between "is" and "ought," but only a gentle slope along
which we can confidently walk. This, I say without vanity, is what
I am now doing. To consider attentively the way in which human
beings act, to grasp the reasons of their actions, and from this to
discern the best way to judge and guide such actions-this not
only involves no paralogism; it in fact constitutes the only way to
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Modern Age - Winter 2018

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Contents
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Modern Age - Winter 2018 - Contents
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