(DOWNLOAD) "John Kekes and the Predicament of the Secularist." by Modern Age # eBook PDF Kindle ePub Free
eBook details
- Title: John Kekes and the Predicament of the Secularist.
- Author : Modern Age
- Release Date : January 01, 2007
- Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines,Books,Professional & Technical,Education,
- Pages : * pages
- Size : 186 KB
Description
GERHART NIEMEYER once began an essay on modernity's loss of the knowledge of true goodness with the blunt observation that "There is an order of goodness in the universe, and human knowledge can attain to it. The proposition is made here as an assertion and an affirmation. In the context of the question raised by this paper it comes as a premise which, if we did not have it, would leave us without anything to talk about." (1) Without a given order of goodness we could discuss the weather or the molecular structure of DNA or the design of computer software, but there would be no grounds on which we could seek the truth about moral and political order or the meaning of our existence, for we would know only our individual incommunicable worlds of private preferences and subjective sensations. It is just as if there were no objective order of numbers and mathematicians had, therefore, nothing to talk about other than to express their personal tastes in numerical arrangements. Although Niemeyer could readily diagnose modernity's loss of consciousness of the true nature of good, as a remedy he could only hope for regenerative experiences that would re-awaken "the awe-filled love of truth and goodness," the love that defines humanity and provides the foundation of meaningful discourse. Now imagine the predicament of a reflective, morally sensitive man, well-versed in the philosophical and literary traditions, but also steeped in modernity, a man who has made it his life's work to provide his fellow human beings with a detailed theoretical account of meaningful "good lives," but who has not apparently been gifted with either spiritually regenerative experiences or even an awareness of a need for them, and, as a result, "does not share the assumption of the religious world view that a morally good order permeates the scheme of things." (2) What can such a man have to talk about?