Let us suppose, for the sake of argument, that morality is subjective. What are the consequences of this position?
- A particular moral system is not universally believed.
- A particular moral system is not universally binding.
- No one can persuade anyone else to adopt their particular moral system.
- No one can dissuade anyone else from committing acts that appear morally repugnant to the former.
- The law loses its foundation (law presupposes binding morality).
- If the law loses its foundation, crime may increase (though not crime in the moral sense).
- If the law loses its foundation, punishment of crime loses its foundation. Punishment will no longer be “justified”.
- Presuppositional logic (implicature) will be adversely affected.
- There will be a psychological disjunction between the “conviction” that X is morally wrong in all cases (or in principle) and the “knowledge” that X is not morally wrong in an objective sense.
The list could go on, but these are the significant issues. While conversations around these areas can be productive, they require a meeting of the minds. When many unbelievers ask why morality should be objective, we should not be drawn into answering that question unnecessarily. Oftentimes the question behind it has more to do with a particular sin or wound that the questioner is dealing with. Attempts to support a subjective morality have more to do with excusing a particular problem than they do with a concern about the philosophical basis for our moral value judgements.
It is also interesting to note that most people – when in a neutral situation – make a distinction between justice and the law of the land. If legal positivism were true, the phrase “unjust law” would be incoherent. One could argue that it is incoherent and we have not noticed it, but it seems to me that the burden of proof lies one the person who seeks to prove its incoherence, not on the person who assumes its coherence.
“A law can be unjust”: is this an analytic statement or a synthetic one? We need to consider what someone means by this statement – is it in reference to the content of a law or its application?
All Along the Watchtower 
Great post!
A law can, of course, be unjust, and many are. But, as you state, that assumes a common moral code, in our case Judeo-Christianity. But Islam is a different system (so are at least some others) and so it may be possible to say that it is just within its parameters. I’m convinced it’s an inferior moral system, but that is my opinion.
Many of us believe that secular humanism has also become a religion, I don’t. I think its underlying morality is nihilism, the denial of all morality. That too is my opinion.
So how do we move on in a practical matter? There are several options, none are attractive, some very ugly. But I am afraid we will find, as Abraham Lincoln did in the Gospel of Mark that: “A house divided against itself cannot stand. I believe this government cannot endure, permanently, half slave and half free. I do not expect the Union to be dissolved — I do not expect the house to fall — but I do expect it will cease to be divided. It will become all one thing or all the other.”
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Thanks, NEO. A very apt quotation, and one that is relevant to the state’s response to Islam too.
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It was meant to, that’s why I thought of it.
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Good post Nicholas.
All law presupposes a framework or foundation upon which laws are, in order to be ‘ordered’, made to fit within the framework of a society. Thereby, the better defined the ethos of that society and the more authentic the true defined authority upon which lares are created [i.e. the Law Giver] the more consistent and fair the laws should be.
Since, there is no other Law Giver of Higher authority than an Authority that is Immediate (Authority by virtue of the Person Himself) it only makes sense that the framework of a truly just governing body must create laws within the bounds of the structure or framework of the most Authoritative Law Giver that can be found or imagined.
God alone is the the only one who posses, by virtue of Who He is, the Framer of all Created Order, Who holds this title. Thereby, unless one sets out to embody the Law of God into civil law can enshrine some reflection of the Truly Just Laws that God has set forth for His Creation. Anything else will be far inferior and will not have a framework that will hold up to scrutiny nor will it have a mediate authority [bestowed upon the lawgivers by the True Authority] to fashion law or to enforce and to exact punishments for the breaking of such laws.
Since the world has still not embraced the True God of Christianity and many other beliefs enter into the minds of men as to who or what is the God of all gods we have a divided world that will perpetuate a disparity in laws. Certain laws, such as the murder of people indiscriminately or the seizure of privately held property, seems almost universal and are either motivated by self-preservation or by the natural law that is written in our hearts.
I guess we have to get over ourselves; things will not be just or fair until the world bends it knees to Christ the King; the King of kings and build our societies in accord to the moral and ethical precepts which He has given us. And even then, in this fallen world, we will struggle and stumble to understand His laws as given or to avoid mistakes in hard to judge cases. We do the best we can do and in that desire we should try as hard as possible to keep our societies, if founded on Christian morality, from being polluted, watered down or subverted by incorporating elements from other societies and cultures. We only lose the reflected good of our own societies to the polution of edicts and taboos founded upon strange gods and/or our own desires.
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Another, but simpler way of looking at this, is that any morality will be subjective if it is built upon the shifting ‘sands’ of popular thought, in a particular society at a given time in history. The only way that morality can be ‘considered’ objective is if it is built on a never-changing foundation of the rock of Truth. And Christ is the Rock, the Way, the Truth and the Life . . . “Jesus Christ the same yesterday and today and for the ages.”
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There are two quotations from the Brothers Karamazov which reach the very heart of reality and morality.
“The man who lies to himself and listens to his own lie comes to such a pass that he cannot distinguish the truth within him, or around him, and so loses all respect for himself and for others. And having no respect he ceases to love, and in order to occupy and distract himself without love he gives way to passions and coarse pleasures, and sinks to bestiality in his vices, all from continual lying to other men and to himself.”
“Love all God’s creation, both the whole and every grain of sand. Love every leaf, every ray of light. Love the animals, love the plants, love each separate thing. If thou love each thing thou wilt perceive the mystery of God in all; and when once thou perceive this, thou wilt thenceforward grow every day to a fuller understanding of it: until thou come at last to love the whole world with a love that will then be all-embracing and universal.”
Both are spoken by the Staretz Father Zosima based on a real Staretz of the Optima Monastery.
Father Zosima’s discourse to Alyosha is profoundly influenced by Isaac the Syrian’s mystical treatise on a merciful heart.
What is a merciful heart? It is a heart on fire for the whole of creation, for humanity, for the birds, for the animals, for demons, and for all that exists. By the recollection of them the eyes of a merciful person pour forth tears in abundance. By the strong and vehement mercy that grips such a person’s heart, and by such great compassion, the heart is humbled and one cannot bear to hear or to see any injury or slight sorrow in any in creation. For this reason, such a person offers up tearful prayer continually even for irrational beasts, for the enemies of the truth, and for those who harm her or him, that they be protected and receive mercy. And in like manner such a person prays for the family of reptiles because of the great compassion that burns without measure in a heart that is in the likeness of God.
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