"Tell them I've had a wonderful life."
~ Ludwig Wittgenstein, 1951
It matters where one starts when one thinks about value, especially the kind of value we call moral. Often people begin focusing on commands, rules, proscriptions. Confronted with a command that one ought not to do such and such, it is natural to ask, 'What if I do?' Once that question is asked, the search is on for the justification of morality, typically, for whether moral rules serve our (enlightened) interests - social and personal. If they don't, many people believe, then morality has no rational justification. If moral rules do not serve the purposes for which they are devised, they think, then morality is merely a gratuitous interloper in human affairs.
Extract from A Common Humanity: thinking about love & truth & justice by Raimond Gaita
No comments:
Post a Comment