Morality, Rationality, and Natural Law -- Robert P. George

This article seeks to identify the rational basis of our moral norms, such as prohibiting murder, rape, torture, etc. To this end, it is important to realise there are things ‘worth doing or pursuing for their own sake’ and that ‘make sense to act to promote or realize…even when we expect no further benefit from doing so’. Because these actions are more than instrumental, and we perceive their intrinsic value, ‘they are themselves constitutive aspects of our…fulfilment as human persons’. They appeal to our understanding and constitute our practical reason in guiding the many choices humans must make. This stands in stark contrast to utilitarianism which seeks to guide action based on the ‘proportion of benefit to harm overall’ and tries to reduce human goods to ‘some common factor of value’. This reductionism is very misguided, argues the author. If we ‘believe that ethical thinking proceeds from a concern for human well-being and fulfillment’ we should espouse the ‘first principle of moral judgment…choose those options, and only those options, that are compatible with the human good considered integrally’.

© The Witherspoon Institute (Princeton, N.J.)