Table Of ContentNATURAL LAW AND THE POSSIBILITY OF A GLOBAL ETHICS
Philosophical Studies in Contemporary Culture
VOLUME 11
Series Editor
H. Tristram Engelhardt, Jr., Department of Philosophy, Rice University, and Baylor
College of Medicine, Houston, Texas
Associate Editor
Kevin Wm. Wildes, S.J., Department of Philosophy and Kennedy Institute of Ethics,
Georgetown University, Washington, D.C.
Assistant Editor
Lisa Rasmussen,Instructor, University of Alabama, Birmingham
Editorial Board
Stanley Hauerwas, Duke University, Durham, N.C.
Maureen Kelley, University of Alabama, Birmingham
Terry Pinkard, Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois
Griffin Trotter, Saint Louis University, Missouri
The titles published in this series are listed at the end of this volume.
NATURAL LAW AND THE
POSSIBILITY OF A GLOBAL
ETHICS
Edited by
MARK J. CHERRY
Saint Edward’s University,
Austin, Texas, U.S.A.
KLUWER ACADEMIC PUBLISHERS
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TABLEOFCONTENTS
Acknowledgements vii
GEORGE E. MARTIN / Foreword ix-x
MARK J. CHERRY / Natural Law and the Possibility of a Global Ethics:
An Introduction to a Culture in Crisis xi-xix
SECTION I
CONFRONTING MORAL PLURALISM: ASSESSING UNIVERSAL xxi
APPLICABILITY
Chapter 1
JOSEPH BOYLE / Natural Law and Global Ethics 1-15
Chapter 2
MARK J. CHERRY / Natural Law and Moral Pluralism: Epistemological
and Metaphysical Challenges 17-38
Chapter 3
CHRISTOPHER TOLLEFSEN / Natural Law and Modern Meta-Ethics: A
Guided Tour 39-56
Chapter 4
FABRICE JOTTERAND / Moral Identity and the Natural Law Theory: A
Response to Tollefsen’s “Natural Law and Modern Meta-Ethics: A
Guided Tour” 57-67
SECTION II
ENGAGING THE LIMITS OF HUMAN NATURE 69
Chapter 5
NICHOLAS CAPALDI / Global Ethics and Natural Law 71-88
Chapter 6
DANIEL MCINERNY / Natural Law and Conflict 89-100
Chapter 7
WILLIAM J. ZANARDI / Natural Law and Historical Mindedness 101-113
Chapter 8
ANA ILTIS / An Assessment of the Requirements of the Study of Natural
Law 115-122
vi TABLE OF CONTENTS
SECTION III
BEYOND RATIONALISTIC PHILOSOPHY: ASSESSING 123
UNIVERSAL ACCESSIBILITY
Chapter 9
B. ANDREW LUSTIG / Natural Law and Global Ethics 125-140
Chapter 10
THOMAS J. BOLE, III / The Perversity of Thomistic Natural Law
Theory: Reflections on Lustig’s Criticisms 141-147
Chapter 11
ROBERT B. KRUSCHWITZ / Natural Law and the Free Church Tradition 149-162
Chapter 12
RICHARD J. BAUTCH / Natural Law and the Free Church Tradition: A
Biblicist Responds 163-168
SECTION IV
THE NATURAL LAW TRADITION AND A CULTURE IN CRISIS 169
Chapter 13
PHILLIP M. THOMPSON and KEVIN P. LEE / Insights and Hindsights
from Seeking a Global Ethic 171-188
NOTES ON CONTRIBUTORS 189
INDEX 191-200
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The development of this volume benefited through the kind efforts of many. Its
origin was a series of conferences funded largely through two generous grants from
the Matchette Foundation with additional assistance from Saint Edward’s University
and the Center for Ethics and Leadership. I would like to thank the contributors, who
recast their essays several times over the course of three years, long after the final
conference, to craft the final versions which appear in this volume. A special debt is
owed to H. Tristram Engelhardt Jr., Ana Iltis, Fabrice Jotterand, Lisa Rasmussen,
and Corinna Delkeskamp-Hayes, who, in addition to being excellent colleagues,
tirelessly supported the development of this project. Mollie E. Cherry thoroughly
edited early versions of many of the manuscripts, detailing appropriate editorial
corrections. This volume would not exist without her kindness and love.
I also wish to recognize the on-going generosity of Saint Edward’s University,
the School of Humanities, the Department of Philosophy, and the Center for Ethics
and Leadership, especially Donna Jurick, SND, Louis T. Brusatti, William J.
Zanardi, and Phillip M. Thompson. Each has been instrumental, though in different
capacities, to the success of this project. The final editing of the volume benefited
from the careful labors and critical insights of Heather Lewis.
vii
GEORGE E. MARTIN
FOREWORD
Saint Edward’s University, Natural Law Theory, and the Catholic
Intellectual Tradition
The University is … “the place to which a thousand schools make contributions; in
which the intellect may safely range and speculate, sure to find its equal in some
antagonist activity, and its judge in the tribunal of truth. It is a place where inquiry is
pushed forward, and discoveries verified and perfected, and rashness rendered
innocuous, and error exposed, by the collision of mind with mind, and knowledge with
knowledge. It is the place where the professor becomes eloquent, and is a missionary
and a preacher, displaying his science in its most complete and most winning form,
pouring it forth with the zeal of enthusiasm, and lighting up his own love of it in the
breasts of his hearers” (John Henry Cardinal Newman, The Idea of a University, 1854).
This volume is a contribution to the literature of natural law theory: a philosophical
tradition which seeks principles and precepts for morality, law, and other forms of
social authority, whose prescriptive force is not dependent for validity on human
decision, social influence, or cultural convention. Natural law moral principles and
precepts are held to be generally accessible as a function of the rationality that all
persons share in virtue of their common humanity. The ancestry of this
philosophical project is deeply embedded in Western philosophical history and the
Catholic intellectual tradition with roots in Plato (427-347 B.C.), Aristotle (384-322
B.C.), the Stoics, St. Augustine (A.D. 354-430), St. Anselm (A.D. 1033-1109) and
the founding of the University of Paris (A.D. 1208).
Natural law moral philosophy and theology enjoyed broad audience and
considerable influence among philosophers and theologians from the high middle
ages through the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries due in large measure to the
scholarship of such figures as Thomas Aquinas (A.D. 1225-1274), Francisco de
Vitoria (A.D. 1480-1546), Francisco Suarez (A.D. 1548-1617) and the scholastics.
The principles of natural law were at the core of discussions of such diverse fields as
civil and ecclesiastical authority, international relations and dietary laws, human
rights and social obligations, as well as colonialism and just war theory.
In recent years, there has been a remarkable resurgence of interest in natural law
theory among moral, political, and legal scholars. Much ink has been consumed
seeking to identify basic principles of practical reasoning and to derive from such
principles moral norms to guide individual and legal decision-making. According to
Aquinas, law is, “…nothing else than an ordinance of reason for the common good,
made by him who has care of the community, and promulgated” (Aquinas, ST I-II,
Q 90, A4). The aim of natural law theory, as Aquinas notes, is to produce and
ix
Mark J. Cherry (ed.), Natural Law and the Possibility of a Global Ethics, ix—x.
© 2004 Kluwer Academic Publishers. Printed in the Netherlands.
x GEORGEE.MARTIN
preserve human happiness, social justice, and the common good.
This volume’s historical conception resulted from a core set of papers written for
the 2000 and 2001 annual Natural Law Philosophy Colloquiums held at Saint
Edward’s University in Austin, Texas. Funded primarily through two generous
grants from the Matchette Foundation and supported by the School of Humanities,
the Department of Philosophy, and the Center for Ethics and Leadership at Saint
Edward’s, these colloquiums critically engaged the foundational challenges to
securing natural law moral precepts and principles as well as to grounding legitimate
authority for the purpose of incorporating such moral content in institutional and
public policy.
The authors of the papers continued to dialogue long after the colloquiums and
made alterations and additions to the original papers. Their work resulted in the
papers that compose this volume and addresses several issues: epistemological
questions regarding the accessibility of principles of practical reasoning, discursive
rational analysis and the challenges of post-modern moral pluralism, metaphysical
concerns regarding human nature and the character of a flourishing human life, the
ethical underpinnings of just social policy and the limits of moral political authority.
Such issues have been central to Western moral philosophical analysis since the
time of the Ancient philosophers. They continue to be vital to the exploration of the
humanities, sciences and professions in the Catholic intellectual tradition at Saint
Edward’s University. As the University’s mission statement affirms, we take
seriously the obligation to produce graduates who are “prepared, through training in
critical and creative thinking as well as moral reasoning, to analyze problems,
propose solutions, and make responsible decisions.” Throughout their education our
students “… develop an understanding of the human person which is derived from
reason and open to faith.” They are encouraged to confront the critical issues of
society, to clarify their personal values, and to recognize their responsibility to the
world community. Educating oneself and providing service to others, after all, must
be life-long commitments.
The papers gathered here will help clarify the issues at stake in personal moral
choice and the development of just public policy. They will also encourage further
dialogue and, in keeping with the Saint Edward’s University’s mission, help to
communicate the dignity of the human person and the obligation of all people to
pursue a more just world, beyond the confines of the academy to the national and
international community.
It is a great pleasure to present this discussion as a part of the Philosophical
Studies and Contemporary Culture book series.
President, Saint Edward’s University
Austin, Texas
MARK J. CHERRY
NATURAL LAW AND THE POSSIBILITY OF A
GLOBAL ETHICS
An Introduction to a Culture in Crisis
1. THE NATURAL LAW TRADITION AND A CULTURE IN CRISIS
The recent history of moral philosophy and theology discloses a profound shift in
moral commitments within the dominant intellectual culture. These changes have
been especially prominent in medicine. Where once abortion had been forbidden, it
is now widely practiced. Where once physician-assisted suicide and euthanasia were
rare, they are now emerging as accepted practices in Belgium, the Netherlands,
Oregon, and Switzerland. In the terminology of John Paul II, a culture of life has
been replaced by a culture of death. Two recent encyclical letters of the Pope of
Rome signal recognition of these significant changes. In Veritatis Splendor the
Roman Pontiff characterizes the anti-traditional character of much of contemporary
moral reflection as marked by “...an overall and systematic calling into question of
traditional moral doctrine, on the basis of certain anthropological and ethical
presuppositions” (1993, 8). In Evangelium Vitae, John Paul II places this difficulty
within a major cultural crisis and a shift in the presuppositions of moral theory. “In
the background there is the profound crisis of culture, which generates skepticism in
relation to the very foundations of knowledge and ethics, and which makes it
increasingly difficult to grasp clearly the meaning of what man is, the meaning of
his rights and his duties” (1995, 21). The result is, as the Roman Pontiff recognizes,
a transformation and fragmentation of culture, a fragmentation that sets the stage for
the emergence of fundamental moral differences that divide morality into not merely
different, but mutually antagonistic accounts of proper moral conduct.
How can one reform a culture so that it supports the cardinal elements of human
flourishing? Answers to this fundamental and pressing question depend on one’s
background anthropology; in particular, on the relationship among human goods and
the demands of the cardinal elements of human flourishing. Whereas social policy
must be created to span a diverse set of individuals, cultures, and communities, such
policy is never neutral. It inevitably promotes the social and moral acceptance of
certain practices, endorsing particular moral values and metaphysical understandings
over others. Political struggles thus regard both the form and content of what will
become the prevailing moral and cultural ethos. As this volume makes clear,
morality, moral epistemology, and social political reform must be set within the
xi
Mark J. Cherry (ed.), Natural Law and the Possibility of a Global Ethics, xi—xviii.
© 2004 Kluwer Academic Publishers. Printed in the Netherlands.
