Conatus: REVISED EDITION by Tom Wallace - HTML preview

C O N A T U S

strange one. It seems like a different question to ask whether people can be good in themselves and whether an inanimate object, such as a stone, can somehow be morally good. Whether this really is a different question or is simply a matter of degree depends perhaps on whether a person has decided that only humans have consciousness or whether consciousness is ubiquitous throughout physical reality. The former would suggest that only humans and perhaps some of the ‘higher’ animals can be described as having intrinsic moral attributes. The latter would seem to at least leave open the possibility of a morality that pervades all of matter. This alternative might be described as ‘Good will’. This was the term used by Kant to mean unconditional intrinsic goodness (see Groundwork of the Metaphysic of Morals). Therefore, from the idea of innateness, we have a potential basis for morality and ethics, even if actual moral rules are not somehow explicitly written into the universe or discernible with quite the same clarity as physical laws.

Plato argued that moral decision-making involves a rational intuition of eternal moral principles. These principles are perceived in the same way as we perceive mathematical truths. So let’s look at our options in relation to a universe that has innate moral principles. This might have its appeal, in that if there were moral rules somehow built into the universe then there would be no ambiguity over what’s right and wrong. But we’d have to ask, what if no-one knew the innate morality, or knew of it but chose to ignore it, or just went along with it for the sake of appearances but were not really following it?

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