Single Idea 21826

[catalogued under 22. Metaethics / A. Ethics Foundations / 2. Source of Ethics / b. Rational ethics]

Full Idea

Since there is a Soul which reasons upon the right and good - for reasoning is an enquiry into the rightness and goodness of this rather than that - there must exist some pemanent Right, the source and foundation of this reasoning in our soul.

Gist of Idea

The Soul reasons about the Right, so there must be some permanent Right about which it reasons

Source

Plotinus (The Enneads [c.245], 5.1.11)

Book Reference

Plotinus: 'The Enneads', ed/tr. Mackenna,Stephen [Penguin 1991], p.359


A Reaction

This is pretty close the Kant's concept of 'the moral order within me', and Plotinus even sees it as rational. Presumably this right is 'permanent' because the revelatlons of reason about it are necessary truths.