Single Idea 6217

[catalogued under 22. Metaethics / A. Ethics Foundations / 2. Source of Ethics / d. Biological ethics]

Full Idea

Some truths of natural law, concerning guides to moral good and evil, and duties not laid down by civil law and government, are necessarily supplied ot the human mind by the nature of things and of men.

Gist of Idea

Natural law is supplied to the human mind by reality and human nature

Source

Richard Cumberland (De Legibus Naturae [1672], Ch.I.I)

Book Reference

'British Moralists 1650-1800 Vol. 1', ed/tr. Raphael,D.D. [Hackett 1991], p.79


A Reaction

I agree that some moral truths have the power of self-evidence. If you say they are built into the mind, we now ask what did the building, and evolution is the only answer, and hence we distance ourselves from the truths, seeing them as strategies.