What We Can't Not Know: A Guide - Hardcover

Budziszewski, J.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 189062649X ISBN 13: 9781890626495

Publisher: Spence Pub, 2003

Synopsis

J. Budziszewskis newest book is about the lost world of common truthswhat we all really know about right and wrong. We are passing through an eerie phase of history. The things that everyone really knows are treated as unheard of, and the principles of decency are attacked as indecent. Exposing the emptiness of contemporary moral fashions, Budziszewski explores the rules of human conduct that we cant not know. Budziszewskis purpose is to "bolster the confidence of plain people in the rational foundations of their common moral sense." He shows that certain moral truths"as real as arithmetic"are part of the equipment of a rational mind. They are not only true for all, but at some level known to all. Yet, paradoxically, they are under attack. He explains why. Addressing "the persuaded, the half-persuaded, and the wish-I-were-persuaded," Budziszewski shows the unanimity of Protestant, Catholic, and Jewish traditions about these common truths. But what about the unpersuadedthose who deny the reality of the moral law, who are on the other side of the great dispute over the basic norms for human life Civility, he insists, does not require that this unprecedented gulf be papered over. Whats needed are charity and clarity, which he provides in abundance. "A few times in a generation, if we are fortunate, moral intelligence finds a voice as lucid, engaging, and relentless as that of J. Budziszewski," says Richard John Neuhaus, publisher of First Things.

About this title

Review

According to the natural law, a concept Christianity adopted and modified from Greek and Roman philosophy, knowledge of God's existence and of fundamental moral principles constitutes humanity's universal common sense. It isn't innate, however, but must be inculcated through traditional moral systems, such as the Tao, the dharma, and the Ten Commandments. Budziszewski invokes the last as best known to most of his potential readers and cites Judaic and Christian scripture, yet this is no religious tract but a philosophical exposition and a disputation on current moral attitudes and issues, especially abortion. Framing the entire presentation in terms of a lost world of moral consensus, Budziszewski says the natural law grounds a rational worldview that has been discredited by sin and guilt, and displaced by worldviews grounded in sensation (he is particularly cogent on the varieties of modern atheistic or agnostic feelings). But the natural law weltanschauung could be reestablished, and Budziszewski concludes his superb guide with broad advice on how to do so (for one thing, we must repent abortion). --Ray Olson

About the Author

J. Budziszewski is a professor of government and philosophy at the University of Texas at Austin. Among his several books are The Revenge of Conscience: Politics and the Fall of Man and The Line Through the Heart: Natural Law as Fact, Theory, and Sign of Contradiction.

Edition details

• Publisher: Spence Pub
• Publication date: 2003
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 189062649X
• ISBN 13: 9781890626495
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 264