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March 27, 2005 This is in response to a letter from B.F. which was sent to The Center for the Study of The Great Ideas after it published Dr. Dolhenty's essay Moral Mis-Education and the Decline of the American Culture in its journal. Since his reply was too long to be published there, it is being published here. Here is the text of B.F.'s letter:
And here is Dr. Dolhenty's reply: Dear B.F., This essay was written and published in a print journal in 1995 and, after reading it again for this reply (ten years later!), I would submit that the situation is worse now, socially and culturally, than it was at the time of my original writing. Now, in response to this specific inquiry, let me briefly offer the following summary and then direct the reader to some references which provide the supporting arguments for the points of the summary. If I went beyond a brief summary, I would end up writing another long-winded essay about objective moral philosophy. The basic, fundamental, objective, universal principle in realistic moral philosophy is this: Human beings ought to seek everything that is really good for them and enables them to live a "rational" life (since human beings are, in fact, rational beings). This principle is self-evident because the opposite is unthinkable, and the principle is based on our empirical observation and analysis of human nature. The criterion involved here is "right desire." It is "conformity" with right desire (a "prescriptive" or "normative" truth) that provides the foundation for the truth-claim in this case, just as conformity with the "facts out there in the world" provides the foundation for the truth-claims of "descriptive" truth. The criterion of "right desire" requires a distinction between "real" goods and "apparent" goods." We can refer to these also as "needs" and "wants." It is the "needs" that give rise to what we "ought" to seek and also provides a foundation for what we call "natural" or "human" rights. All of this, I would argue, is a matter of common sense to anyone who critically examines the matter. Now once this basic and objectively-justified principle has been established, then other principles and general propositions about ethics can be deduced from it. We can, for instance, begin to generate objectively-true propositions regarding love, friendship, social relations, the importance of knowledge, political communities, justice, individual virtues, and so forth, actually almost anything involving free human acts and human goods. However, this does not mean we will be able to develop a code of specific "do's" and "don'ts" or "statutes" similar to what moral theologians or political legislators like to do. What we will get are principles and general propositions which provide us with a way to make rational "judgments" about particular and changing circumstances. It is possible that rational individuals will disagree over the application of the principles in some contexts. While this is expected, we can, however, determine that some human acts are absolutely "right" and others are absolutely "wrong," but there are, I submit, very few of those which fall into the "absolute" category (one that does, obviously, is the unjustified killing of an innocent human being). If anyone thinks that a realistic moral philosophy will provide them with a detailed schematic of how to deal with every possible ethical situation or circumstance, he or she will be very disappointed. But, nevertheless, let me offer a few practical examples of what I think needs to be done regarding our children to keep them out of or becoming part of our current cultural cesspool, and then providing them with the tools to pursue the "right" goods and live a "rational" life. All of these, I think, are ultimately derivative from the basic objectively-justified moral principle stated above. (I have, it should be emphasized, no illusions that these suggestions will be perfectly implemented and realized, since human beings are always prone to error and imperfection. My seventeen years of teaching and administering in the public schools back in the 60s and 70s made me a decidedly realistic observer of what could actually be accomplished. However, my idealism or optimism or hope for the future is not at issue here, thank God.) One thing that is really good for us is "knowledge." It is a human "need" and a necessary one. We cannot live a "rational" life without it. So we "ought" to desire knowledge. That is a "prescriptive" truth. Therefore, we ought to inculcate a love of knowledge in our children and provide all the resources necessary for them to acquire knowledge. That means the best education our society can provide. Our public school system, however, is in a dismal state of affairs, concerned more with social engineering and being politically correct than with imparting any knowledge or, for that matter, anything of value. Our colleges and universities are in a state of intellectual chaos with little genuine teaching going on, but a lot of yelling and howling about what? -- well, nothing really, but the students get credit for it. I dare to say that it is rare these days to find any "knowledge" (justified true belief) being taught in the schools at any level. Nothing short of total reformation of our entire academic system from kindergarten to graduate school will solve this problem. And, I hate to sound pessimistic, but I don't think it can be done in the foreseeable future, and we've already lost a generation of children to all the educational fads that were created in the name of relativism and subjectivism. OK, now let me step out into another, maybe more familiar direction. One thing that is really good for us is "temperance" in regard to our physical appetites. For instance, nutrition is a human "need" and a necessary one. We must eat or we will eventually die. But to eat more than necessary or to eat to the point of obesity is not "good" for us. To do so damages our physical health. "Gluttony," an old term, but an increasingly important one today, is, in the opinion of the traditional moral philosophers, a "vice." The "virtue," by the way, is "abstinence," which means "moderating" (not eliminating!) the enjoyment of the taste of food in order to realize the good of reason or "right desire." This concept of "moderation" regarding virtually all of our physical appetites is more important today than ever before. Our media, especially television and the movies, are influencing our children to "let it all hang out" or "do your own thing," as if there are no consequences to be suffered or no payments to be eventually extracted. Parents could have an important influence here, except for the fact that so many of the parents are caught up in the same immoderate behaviors. Children mimic their parents. Children do not really listen to the "don't do as I do." The evidence that dysfunctional families raise dysfunctional children is too pervasive too ignore. I may be off the reservation here, but I seldom have seen obese children who don't have at least one obese parent, or alcoholic children who don't have at least one alcoholic parent. It could be that some think that the above two examples are not really moral problems. I disagree. Moral philosophy deals with the issues involved in the seeking of what is really good for human beings, with right desire or decisions based on right reason, and with happiness, which is the proper and undisputed end or goal of human life. At this time, our culture and, unfortunately, the children of our culture copying their adult exemplars, confuse genuine "happiness" with momentary psychological "contentment," seek "nirvana" in drug-induced escapism, think money and power are the roads to personal success and satisfaction, accept "group-think" and "political correctness" as the social norm, and know more about how to put a condom on a cucumber than they know about the history of Western thought and the Great Ideas which elevated human beings from the savage to the civilized. It is, in my considered opinion, a sad state of affairs. The best references I can give anyone regarding the essential philosophical issues mentioned above are all written by Mortimer Adler, probably the best contemporary commentator on matters dealing with moral philosophy. His explanations and arguments have influenced my own thinking since the late 1950s. The following are all books written by Dr. Adler and discuss the "objective moral principle" which makes moral philosophy as an intellectual disciple possible:
I would love to get into the Natural Law question, but that would involve a few thousand more words and I have already discussed that issue elsewhere. Suffice to say, that as much as I have admired Maritain for the past forty years, I disagree with him on the matter of God's existence being necessary to provide "obligatory power" for "enforcement" of the Natural Law. There is a tradition of pagan or secular Natural Law thought which rests the foundation of Natural Law on our understanding of human nature per se, without reference to anything beyond that. I see no problem with that tradition. The only people I can think of who would require that Natural Law lacks obligatory power if God does not exist and ordain it, are those who believe in God in the first place. There are some atheistic philosophers who are Natural Law theorists. They simply do not go the "extra mile" to Divine Law as a repository of Natural Law. While we may disagree with them on this particular point, we should, at least, welcome them with open arms at the Natural Law table for further discussion. It is the relativists and the subjectivists we are fighting on this issue. As are they. Best regards, Jonathan Dolhenty, Ph.D. Enrich Your Life With a Philosophy Book...
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