It is July 1941 on the Auschwitz focus camp. Prisoners are ordered to line up, and ten will probably be chosen to starve to demise in retaliation for a prisoner who seems to have escaped. When the Nazi commander selects Franciszek Gajowniczek, the prisoner cries out in dismay: “My spouse! My kids!” Then, to everybody’s amazement, one other prisoner steps ahead and volunteers to take Gajowniczek’s place. The guard is shocked, and the prisoner has to repeat his request: “I’m a Catholic priest from Poland; I wish to take his place as a result of he has a spouse and youngsters.” The guard accepts the provide, and Gajowniczek gratefully returns to his place among the many different prisoners. The Catholic priest who voluntarily took Gajowniczek’s place was Maximilian Kolbe. In 1982, Kolbe was canonized a saint by the Catholic Church, and Gajowniczek was current to honor the heroism of the person who saved his life.
What may encourage somebody to simply accept demise—and never simply any demise, however a gradual, painful demise by hunger—to avoid wasting the lifetime of a stranger? What may allow somebody to endure such a demise calmly and even cheerfully, to the purpose that the Nazi guards themselves expressed amazement at Kolbe’s braveness? After all, what Kolbe did went past the necessities of pure regulation—he had no ethical obligation to sacrifice his life for his fellow prisoner. However it’s nonetheless fascinating to think about what may present somebody with adequate rational motivation to make such a selection, particularly because it was removed from assured that he would reach saving Gajowniczek’s life or allow him to reunite along with his spouse and youngsters. In spite of everything, the Nazi guard may have scoffed at Kolbe’s provide and punished his boldness by taking him along with the opposite ten prisoners. And even when the provide to take Kolbe’s place was accepted, Gajowniczek’s probabilities of survival have been nonetheless slim. Additional, Gajowniczek’s spouse and youngsters have been additionally prone to die earlier than the tip of the battle, if that they had not died already. Actually, his spouse survived and he was reunited together with her after the battle, however his two sons have been killed in a bombardment.
These types of uncertainties about whether or not our decisions and actions will in actual fact give rise to the great outcomes that motivated them should not restricted to such dramatic instances as this, however the excessive stakes on this case make the issue particularly poignant. Certainly, although we don’t usually cease to consider it, a lot of the desired results of our actions—the products that we search to guard or promote by our actions—depend on a number of contingent components over which we’ve got no direct management. Even a easy act akin to taking a stroll to get some train depends upon numerous bodily, organic, and chemical causes. Our potential to attain the products we search is much more unsure when the free cooperation of different human beings is required. To take an instance prone to be acquainted to many: the success of a trainer’s efforts within the classroom relies upon in no small half on the inclinations and decisions of the scholars; alternatively, the success of a pupil searching for to study relies upon to a big extent on whether or not the trainer explains the fabric in a transparent, organized, and interesting method.
Given all of those contingencies and uncertainties with regard to the fruits of our actions, one may simply be tempted to suppose: Is it actually definitely worth the effort to attempt to shield and promote human items, appearing in morally upright, virtuous methods, even when—as is usually the case—this requires appreciable toil and sacrifice? Can there be any assurance that our efforts and sacrifices is not going to be in useless?
Additional, there are some instances through which it might appear that human items is likely to be extra successfully promoted by violating ethical norms somewhat than appearing in accordance with these norms. In such instances, what can encourage us to behave morally? What can guarantee us that, regardless of appearances on the contrary, violating ethical norms is rarely actually suitable with integral human achievement?
My purpose right here is to think about how understanding God’s relationship to human flourishing and morality can alleviate these issues, offering a deeper grounding for ethical obligation and ethical motivation. I’ll think about this primarily from the attitude of what may be identified by rational reflection—as is becoming for a piece of philosophical ethics—however on the finish of the article I’ll enterprise a couple of reflections from the attitude of Christian revelation.
God and Ethical Obligation
In The Brothers Karamazov, Dostoyevsky (by means of certainly one of his characters) famously poses the query, “With out God, are all issues permitted?” The reply to this query is each sure and no, relying on how the query is known. All through Ethics, Politics, and Pure Regulation, I argue that we are able to come to acknowledge the existence of ethical rules and norms by means of rational reflection. Data of those norms and rules—information of pure regulation—just isn’t logically depending on information of God’s existence. Additional, the ethical drive or obligatoriness of those norms is grounded on the directiveness of sensible cause’s first rules, which information us to respect and pursue human items. In different phrases, sensible cause directs us towards integral human achievement, and this essential connection between sensible cause’s directives and our flourishing provides ethical drive to these directives. The reply to Dostoyevsky’s query isn’t any, due to this fact, insofar as one can know pure regulation, acknowledge its obligatoriness, and supply a adequate rational justification for ethical norms with out information of or reference to the existence or will of God.
On the similar time, there are additional questions in regards to the ethical order and ethical obligation—questions associated to the ethical order’s final metaphysical foundations—that may solely be totally answered by recognizing that God is the supply of the ethical order. Analogously, a physicist can uncover and display the reality of Newton’s legal guidelines of movement (for objects touring under the velocity of sunshine) with out adverting to the existence of God, however there are additional questions in regards to the supply of the bodily order and its intelligibility that can’t be totally answered irrespective of God. The arguments for ethical norms offered right here, just like the arguments for Newton’s legal guidelines offered by a physicist, are adequate throughout the order of information to which they belong, however nonetheless fail to reply additional metaphysical questions in regards to the very foundations of that order. After all, an essential distinction between bodily legal guidelines of movement and ethical norms is that we are able to select whether or not or to not observe ethical norms. And because of this understanding that God is the final word supply of the ethical order does have sensible relevance insofar as it will possibly deepen our sense of ethical obligation and ethical motivation.
It’s past my scope to current a full-fledged argument for the existence of God, however the very existence of an ethical order and of human beings able to understanding that order (together with the entire universe of different contingent beings whose existence doesn’t clarify itself ) may be the start line for a number of traces of reasoning resulting in the conclusion that there have to be a essential (non-contingent) being who’s the final word, uncaused reason behind all that exists, and of its order and intelligibility. Metaphysically talking, due to this fact, the reply to Dostoyevsky’s query is sure insofar as every little thing (together with the ethical order) is determined by God as its final trigger, and with out God we might not even be right here to ask the query. Thus Aquinas, in contemplating the pure regulation from a metaphysical perspective, refers back to the pure regulation as “the rational creature’s participation of the everlasting regulation,” which is God’s governance of the universe as an entire. And although on Aquinas’s view we are able to know the pure regulation and acknowledge its obligatoriness even with out adverting particularly to God, recognizing God as pure regulation’s final supply can deepen our understanding of that regulation and of why we must observe it.
As soon as we acknowledge that the rules and norms by which sensible cause directs us towards our good have their final supply in God, we are able to then acknowledge these rules and norms as steerage from God, who is aware of and seeks what is nice for us. Grisez, Boyle, and Finnis clarify that if God is the transcendent supply of the directiveness of our sensible cause, this suggests that God is “an individual anticipating human achievement and main human individuals towards it.” Additional, we additionally acknowledge that our actions in pursuit of human items rely for his or her achievement on numerous causes exterior our direct management. For instance, in urgent on numerous keys to sort this sentence, I’m counting on the correct functioning of my muscle tissue, on the legal guidelines of physics, on the varied electrical and chemical reactions essential for the keyboard to transmit data to the pc and for the pc to operate appropriately. But all of those causes upon which I rely additionally in the end depend upon God as their transcendent supply. And so I can perceive that the fruitfulness of my actions relies upon in a really actual sense on God’s cooperation, thus seeing all of my actions as a part of a cooperative endeavor with God.
This recognition can deepen our sense of ethical obligation in a number of methods. First, if we perceive ethical norms as pointers for flourishing given to us by a benevolent God, who’s the supply of our existence and nature and thus is aware of what our good is and the right way to put it on the market higher than we do, our belief within the reliability of those norms will increase. Contemplate, by comparability, the best way through which young children belief the rules given to them by loving mother and father, as a result of they belief that their mother and father know and need what is nice for them. After all, this analogy has limits, as a result of mother and father—who, in contrast to God, are imperfect—can err of their judgment about what is nice for a kid, or impose guidelines for their very own profit somewhat than for the advantage of the kid. However the comparability nonetheless helps for instance how our sense of ethical obligation deepens after we determine the supply of ethical pointers as an individual who is aware of and seeks our good.
Second, if we see ethical norms not as impersonal guidelines, however as private invites to cooperate with God within the promotion of human flourishing, our sense of ethical obligation turns into private. Even in instances when there is no such thing as a different human being to whom we’re straight accountable for the achievement of a specific ethical obligation, we’re all the time accountable to God. To place the identical level barely otherwise, even when no human relationship is prone to be broken by our failure to behave in a morally upright means, our relationship with God continues to be on the road. Once more, fascinated about parent-child relationships may be useful right here. Simply as kids’s need to be in concord with their mother and father supplies an overarching cause to observe their pointers, fostering and sustaining proper relationship with God turns into an overarching cause to behave morally after we acknowledge that God is the final word supply of the ethical order.
Third, and relatedly, if we all know God is the supply of our existence, of all the products from which we profit, of the sensible rules and norms that information us towards our flourishing, and of our capability to know these rules and norms, then we are able to additionally acknowledge that each one of this stuff are God’s reward to us, and that we owe God a profound debt of gratitude that we are able to by no means totally repay. A technique of expressing this gratitude is to make correct use of those presents by pursuing real items in step with the ethical pointers that God has made accessible to us by means of sensible cause (and likewise, as many imagine, by means of divine revelation). We present our gratitude to different human beings on this means on a regular basis. A lady may, as an illustration, put on a necklace given to her by her husband not solely as a result of she likes the necklace, but in addition to point out her gratitude for the reward (and thus to foster and keep a loving relationship with him). And she or he may take particular care to not lose or injury the necklace for a similar cause. Her gratitude—and associated need to strengthen their relationship—due to this fact provides her a cause to maintain the reward and use it in step with the giver’s intentions, a cause that she wouldn’t have if she had merely purchased the necklace for herself. Equally, our gratitude to God provides us an extra and overarching cause to pursue human items in step with ethical norms, thus deepening our sense of ethical obligation.
God and Ethical Motivation
The subject of ethical motivation just isn’t fully separable from the subject of ethical obligation, for on the account I’ve supplied right here, ethical obligation is predicated on the connection between ethical norms and human items, and human items are what present us with a rational motivation to behave. All of the factors made within the earlier part due to this fact already inform us one thing about how recognizing God because the supply of ethical rules and norms strengthens our motivation to observe them, for a deeper and stronger sense of ethical obligation corresponds on to a deeper and stronger sense of ethical motivation. However, there may be nonetheless extra to be mentioned about God and ethical motivation, notably when contemplating the difficulties for ethical motivation offered firstly of this chapter. Particularly, how can we’ve got adequate motivation to guard and promote human items when doing so requires appreciable effort and sacrifice, and/or when the specified fruits of our actions are removed from assured? Or, conversely, how can we be motivated to observe ethical norms when violating them appears to vow nice advantages? Recognizing that God is the supply of the ethical order helps to ameliorate these difficulties, however I don’t suppose that the issue may be totally overcome until we glance past what we are able to know by means of rational reflection alone and think about the sources supplied by Christian revelation. On this part I’ll think about how we are able to reply to those difficulties for ethical motivation from a purely philosophical perspective, after which within the subsequent part I’ll think about how Christian theology can provide a fuller decision to those issues.
After we perceive that God is the supply of human items, needs us to respect and promote them (as a result of he needs us to flourish), and cooperates with us in our efforts to take action, this strengthens our ethical motivation in at the very least two methods. First, if the varied contingent components on which we rely for the fruitfulness of our actions are points of an orderly, intelligible universe ruled by the windfall of a benevolent God, we are able to have better confidence within the dependability of those components, and better hope that even when issues don’t end up as we had deliberate, the unseen hand of windfall will allow some good to come back from our efforts. This hope in windfall turns into a lot clearer and stronger when the guarantees of Christian revelation are added, however even with out these extra guarantees, a reason-based perception in a benevolent and provident God is adequate to provide us at the very least a obscure hope that our efforts to guard and promote human flourishing is not going to be in useless.
Second, and relatedly, if fostering and sustaining proper relationship with God supplies an overarching cause to behave morally, this supplies a supply of ethical motivation that’s resistant to the contingencies and uncertainties that have an effect on our efforts to guard and promote different human items. It’s true that the great of non-public integrity—most totally achieved by means of the cultivation of ethical advantage—additionally supplies one with a cause to behave morally that doesn’t depend upon the exterior results of our actions. But if one’s ethical judgments should not bolstered by the conviction that ethical norms are pointers for human flourishing given to us by a benevolent and provident God, and by the popularity that our relationship with God is itself at stake in our choice to behave in accordance with these judgments, it may be extraordinarily tough to withstand the temptation to compromise one’s private integrity with a purpose to protect or promote different items that appear extra tangible.
Think about, as an illustration, that your nation is in a simply battle, and that bombing civilian targets appears prone to deliver a swift finish to what would in any other case be a protracted battle, on steadiness saving many lives for these on either side. If you’re a political chief, refusing to authorize such bombing since you imagine that focusing on noncombatants violates the ethical prohibition on intentional destruction of fundamental human items may even appear egocentric, as in case you have been immorally prioritizing your integrity over the frequent good. That is, after all, a deceptive and inaccurate means of framing the selection, for integrity consists in loving and respecting all the products concerned, and it’s exactly this love and respect for the great in all of its fundamental dimensions that’s the floor for refusing to deliberately destroy any fundamental human good. In different phrases, violating an ethical norm is all the time opposite to integral human achievement, and thus opposite to the real frequent good. But in a state of affairs akin to this one, this consideration could seem too intangible, too tough to imagine within the face of the extra tangible calculations about what number of lives the bombing will save. Recognizing that what’s on the road on this state of affairs just isn’t just one’s private integrity, but in addition one’s relationship with God, and likewise recognizing that God seeks our good and is aware of higher than we do the right way to put it on the market, can powerfully bolster one’s motivation to behave morally even within the midst of such a tough state of affairs.
Christian Revelation and the Promise of the Kingdom of God
The issues supplied within the earlier sections present how a purely reason-based perception in a benevolent and provident God may help to deepen our sense of ethical obligation and bolster our ethical motivation, largely by strengthening our conviction that appearing morally does in the end shield and promote human flourishing. But the reassurances that rational reflection alone can present on this regard are comparatively obscure and weak. Additional, though the claims made within the earlier sections can in precept be identified by means of philosophical reflection, in apply this data may be fairly tough to realize by means of cause alone. Thus, although mine is a e book about pure regulation—about what we are able to learn about ethics and morality by means of pure cause—it nonetheless appears useful to shut by briefly contemplating how Christian revelation can extra totally resolve the difficulties for ethical motivation that have been outlined above.
As a result of it’s past my scope to current (not to mention defend) an account of Christianity’s core tenets, my dialogue right here presumes familiarity with the fundamental claims of Christianity, and focuses solely on one factor of Christian revelation that’s notably related for the issue of ethical motivation. That factor is Jesus’s proclamation of the Kingdom of God and his promise that those that imagine in him and observe his instructing (summarized within the twin commandment to like God and neighbor) will in the end get pleasure from fullness of life within the Kingdom. The promised Kingdom just isn’t offered as an abstraction or as a purely religious actuality, however is offered as a metropolis, a heavenly Jerusalem, through which the saints, with glorified our bodies, like that of the resurrected Jesus, will stay in excellent communion with God and one another, and flourish in each dimension of their being. This Kingdom is to not be understood as an extrinsic reward that lacks any intrinsic connection to our decisions and actions on this life; somewhat it’s a Kingdom that’s in some respect already current, a Kingdom that we are able to contribute to and take part in by means of our morally upright decisions and actions, and that we are able to reject and exclude ourselves from by means of immoral decisions and actions (or failures to behave).
The inherent connection between the promised Kingdom and ethical norms may be seen by recalling pure regulation’s grasp ethical precept: Select and act solely in methods which are suitable with a will towards integral human achievement. Integral human achievement is the all-around achievement of human beings inside a wonderfully harmonious group. In different phrases, what makes decisions and actions morally upright is their compatibility with membership in a super group, a group through which all members are flourishing in all the dimensions of their being, and stay collectively united in excellent peace and concord. Morally upright decisions and actions keep openness to all human items and to group with all human beings; thus morally upright decisions and actions are an implicit participation in and contribution to the best group to which the time period “integral human achievement” refers.
From the attitude of what we are able to know by means of cause alone, integral human achievement is a perfect, not an achievable objective. This isn’t solely due to the ethical obstacles to the achievement of this splendid in a world of imperfectly virtuous human beings, but in addition due to the inherent limitation of human mortality—for the best group would, in precept, be open not simply to these human beings who’re at present alive, however to all human beings, previous, current, and future. From the attitude of cause alone, due to this fact, we are able to act with hope that our actions will contribute to the approximation of this splendid insofar as is feasible, and this hope will probably be bolstered if we acknowledge that there’s a benevolent and provident God, however there are not any assurances that even this extra restricted hope will probably be fulfilled.
Christianity’s promise of the Kingdom, nevertheless, signifies that integral human achievement can and will probably be realized by means of God’s motion and with our cooperation. Certainly, the promise of the Kingdom surpasses the best of integral human achievement insofar because it features a promise of more-than human achievement—of a kind of communion with God that goes past the human good of faith, and that we’re made able to taking part in by means of the reward of grace. Right here, nevertheless, I’ll give attention to the Kingdom as a realization of the best of integral human achievement, an ideal group through which we are going to flourish on all dimensions of our being. This fullness of life within the Kingdom just isn’t an extrinsic reward, however is ready by and in continuity with our morally upright pursuit of human items throughout our earthly life. By appearing morally—sustaining openness to all human items and to group with all human beings, which is equal to loving all individuals by loving their good in all of its dimensions—we’re thus at the very least implicitly making ready ourselves for membership within the Kingdom. And all the morally upright acts by which we’ve got sought to guard and promote human items will come to full fruition within the Kingdom, even when these efforts seem to fail right here on earth, in step with Saint Paul’s promise that “within the Lord your labor just isn’t in useless.” “After we’ve got promoted on earth . . . the products of human dignity, fraternal communion, and liberty—that’s to say, all the great fruits of our nature and energy—then we will discover them as soon as extra, however cleansed of all filth, illuminated, and remodeled, when Christ provides again to the Father an everlasting and common kingdom,” states the Second Vatican Council in Gaudium et spes.
This reassurance that our labor just isn’t in useless, that our good deeds will in the end bear fruit, can powerfully strengthen our motivation to undertake tough initiatives or make nice private sacrifices to advertise human flourishing, even when the success of our efforts on this earth appears extremely unsure. Additional, understanding that the heavenly Kingdom is constituted by our love for God, for each other, and for all the products that represent our flourishing helps us to withstand the temptation to attempt to promote the great by means of immoral means, for such immoral means shut us off from and undermine the Kingdom by closing us off from and undermining love of some individual or good. Recognizing that ethical norms are God’s pointers for integral human flourishing and for build up the Kingdom the place that flourishing will probably be totally realized, we’re additionally assured that immoral means won’t ever truly be efficient in selling integral human flourishing. Certainly, it could be hubris to evaluate that we all know higher than God does how finest to advertise human flourishing, but when we perceive that God is the writer of the ethical regulation, such a judgment is implicit in any selection to make use of immoral means with a purpose to obtain an excellent finish. The Christian promise of the Kingdom due to this fact supplies the fullest resolution to the difficulties for ethical motivation that come up from uncertainties in regards to the fruitfulness of our actions, or from the obvious likelihood that violating ethical norms will extra successfully promote the human good than following them.
Conclusion
The overarching theme of Ethics, Politics, and Pure: Rules for Human Flourishing, mirrored in its title, has been to focus on the intrinsic connection between morality and human flourishing. In the end, morality issues as a result of human flourishing issues, and we must always need to be ethical as a result of we need to flourish. Performing morally, following ethical norms, protects and promotes our flourishing by contributing to and making doable our membership within the excellent human group the place our human flourishing (which is inherently social) could be full. This connection between morality and human flourishing is adequate to justify ethical norms and floor our obligation to observe them. But from the attitude of cause alone, this excellent human group—similar to the idea of integral human achievement—is an unrealizable splendid. The Christian idea of the Kingdom transforms this splendid right into a promised actuality, strengthening us with the certain hope that our morally upright efforts to guard and promote human items will in the end bear fruit.
EDITORIAL NOTE: This text is excerpted from Ethics, Politics, and Pure Regulation: Rules for Human Flourishing (College of Notre Dame Press, 2025). It’s a part of an ongoing collaboration with the College of Notre Dame Press. You’ll be able to learn different excerpts from this collaboration right here. All rights reserved.
Professor Moschella will take part within the True Genius: The Mission of Girls in Church and Tradition convention on March 26-28, 2025 on the College of Notre Dame. Recordings of the occasion periods will probably be made out there at a later date.
