What Hope for Reason? A Critique of New Natural Law Theory
Advocates of New Natural Law (NNL) theory express "hope" and "confidence" in the capacity of reason to resolve moral controversies associated with the beginning of life. They believe that thoughtful consideration of the issues and rational argument will bring about a social conse...
| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
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| Published: |
Oxford University Press
[2016]
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| In: |
Christian bioethics
Year: 2016, Volume: 22, Issue: 2, Pages: 238-264 |
| IxTheo Classification: | NAB Fundamental theology NCH Medical ethics NCJ Ethics of science VA Philosophy |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (Verlag) Volltext (doi) |
| Summary: | Advocates of New Natural Law (NNL) theory express "hope" and "confidence" in the capacity of reason to resolve moral controversies associated with the beginning of life. They believe that thoughtful consideration of the issues and rational argument will bring about a social consensus on the morality of practices such as abortion, third-party assisted reproduction, embryo research, and contraception. Further, it is claimed that the grounds for holding that practices like abortion or contraception are wrong are completely independent from any religious beliefs or any special grace or revelation associated with the Christian tradition. In this essay, I argue that (a) the claims made about what reason can demonstrate are ambiguous, (b) most of those claims depend on empirical conditions that have not been considered, (c) justification of the claims requires showing that the conditions of their possibility hold, and this requires metaphysical considerations NNL theorists attempt to bracket, and (d) when we make the claims more precise, we find that their justifications involve the same kinds of contingencies that are present when moral claims are based on a specific religious tradition like Christianity. The Christian has the benefit of appreciating the role such external dependence plays, and placing trust and hope in the right kind of external ground. |
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| ISSN: | 1744-4195 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Christian bioethics
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1093/cb/cbw005 |