NATURAL 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 NEW YORK,BOSTON, DORDRECHT, LONDON, MOSCOW eBookISBN: 1-4020-2224-7 Print ISBN: 1-4020-2223-9 ©2004 Springer Science + Business Media, Inc. Print ©2004 Kluwer Academic Publishers Dordrecht All rights reserved No part of this eBook maybe reproducedor transmitted inanyform or byanymeans,electronic, mechanical, recording, or otherwise, without written consent from the Publisher Created in the United States of America Visit Springer's eBookstore at: http://www.ebooks.kluweronline.com and the Springer Global Website Online at: http://www.springeronline.com 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.