Here I defend the idea that there is natural moral law.
I need to go into the issue of natural law and the ninth amendment of the USA Constitution.
In short: Natural rights come from the concept of natural law-which in turn comes from the idea that human beings can perceive objective morality.]
To defend the idea that there is natural law is a two fold project. I need to prove that universals exist and (2) that moral laws are universals that are perceived by reason. [This fact is what caused Kant to try to find one a priori universal rule for morality.] I will quote Huemer to add me in this project.
"What is a universal? I have here two white pieces of paper. They are not the same piece of paper, but they have something in common: they are both white. What there are two of are called "particulars" - the pieces of paper are particulars. What is or can be common to multiple particulars are called "universals" - whiteness is a universal.
First: Universals exist necessarily. For instance, yellow is a universal. It is something that lemons, the sun, and school buses, among other things, all have in common. Yellow is 'abstract' in the sense that it is not a particular object with a particular location; you will not bump into yellow, just sitting there by itself, on the street. Nevertheless, yellow certainly exists.
Here is an argument for that:
1. The following statement is true: (Y) Yellow is a color. 2. The truth of (Y) requires that yellow exist. 3. Therefore, yellow exists. Therefore universals exist.
The reason this needs to be proven is because scientism is the primary ideology of our age. It is the belief that only atoms and their properties exist. "It hardly need be pointed out that the illusions scientism engenders are so pervasive and so insidious that it is practically impossible to get anyone who is subject to them to consider the possibility that they might be illusions." (Peter van Inwagen)
"It would be very difficult to actually argue that the discoveries of modern science show that there is no such subject as ethics. Exactly what experimental result does or could possibly lend support to such a conclusion is hard to say." (Huemer)
Some of the problem about the existence moral values comes from Hume and the "is- ought" problem. [You can't derive a ought from a "is".]: However this is wrong. I can derive the value judgment that Hitler was evil from the fact that he had eleven million people murdered.
Now let me show that reason perceives moral values.
Let me give some examples of things that reason perceives. "1+1=2" and "the shortest path between any two points is a straight line". A metaphysical intuition, "The number of planets in the solar system is a contingent matter." As physical intuitions, try "Forces cause motion" and "Physical causes are local; there is no action at a distance." Finally, as a moral intuition, consider "Torturing people just for the fun of it is wrong."
It seems to many people that moral values are strange. They don't exist in any particular place. We don't bump into them as we walk down the street. But the same could be said for the number "2." Saying that ethical (or mathematical) statements are true or false does not imply that there exist some ethereal substances that are values (or numbers). Rather that some things have quantities (for mathematics) or some things are good or bad (for ethics).
The reason that many people have not noticed that stealing (welfare) is forbidden in the Torah is that what radical ideologues are most interested in is political power. This means that people will continue to be used as the necessary bait to bring about the "changes" that radical ideologues deem important for power.
An essay about the United States must deal with the problem of disinformation -- a formidable and perhaps Sisyphean task of persuasion, since the disinformation in question is not the result of pardonable, correctable mistakes, but rather of a profound psychological need. This is why you never hear of the basic principles that the U.S.A. was founded on and why these principles are ignored today by the very government elected to safeguard them.
In sum: Universals exist. Moral principles are universals that are perceived by reason. Natural rights are a negative way of saying the Ten Commandments of the Torah. One of them is "Thou shalt not steal." (These are called negative rights just like "Thou shalt not steal" is called a negative commandment.--a "Thou shalt not" is a negative commandment. In the Torah there are many of these. But there are also positive commandments like, "Thou shalt honor thy father and thy mother." The Bill of Rights is a like a negative commandment. It is a limitation on the government not to interfere with peoples' lives- and not to steal their property. An example of something forbidden by the Constitution of the U.S.A. is to promise a sector of voters free money in return for their votes. This would be considered stealing by the Torah and the Constitution. Thus Welfare is against the Constitution. [See the Federal Papers for more information.]
The way people are duped into voting for the Democratic party which is the main source of this type of theft is the fact that people want to be nice guys. They think by voting to give other people's money away makes them nice. In the Jewish world this has a common name. It is called being frum (religious) at someones else's expense. This is very wide concept in the Jewish world. It can refer to a whole range of behavior like praying so loud in synagogue that it makes other people unable to concentrate on their own prayers. Or learning Talmud until late at night and then coming into your dorm room and waking up other people. But this is a great example of this type of behavior --in the worst way possible. If you want to be nice then give your own money away. You don't give other peoples money away, and then consider yourself generous.
I need to go into the issue of natural law and the ninth amendment of the USA Constitution.
In short: Natural rights come from the concept of natural law-which in turn comes from the idea that human beings can perceive objective morality.]
To defend the idea that there is natural law is a two fold project. I need to prove that universals exist and (2) that moral laws are universals that are perceived by reason. [This fact is what caused Kant to try to find one a priori universal rule for morality.] I will quote Huemer to add me in this project.
"What is a universal? I have here two white pieces of paper. They are not the same piece of paper, but they have something in common: they are both white. What there are two of are called "particulars" - the pieces of paper are particulars. What is or can be common to multiple particulars are called "universals" - whiteness is a universal.
First: Universals exist necessarily. For instance, yellow is a universal. It is something that lemons, the sun, and school buses, among other things, all have in common. Yellow is 'abstract' in the sense that it is not a particular object with a particular location; you will not bump into yellow, just sitting there by itself, on the street. Nevertheless, yellow certainly exists.
Here is an argument for that:
1. The following statement is true: (Y) Yellow is a color. 2. The truth of (Y) requires that yellow exist. 3. Therefore, yellow exists. Therefore universals exist.
The reason this needs to be proven is because scientism is the primary ideology of our age. It is the belief that only atoms and their properties exist. "It hardly need be pointed out that the illusions scientism engenders are so pervasive and so insidious that it is practically impossible to get anyone who is subject to them to consider the possibility that they might be illusions." (Peter van Inwagen)
"It would be very difficult to actually argue that the discoveries of modern science show that there is no such subject as ethics. Exactly what experimental result does or could possibly lend support to such a conclusion is hard to say." (Huemer)
Some of the problem about the existence moral values comes from Hume and the "is- ought" problem. [You can't derive a ought from a "is".]: However this is wrong. I can derive the value judgment that Hitler was evil from the fact that he had eleven million people murdered.
Now let me show that reason perceives moral values.
Let me give some examples of things that reason perceives. "1+1=2" and "the shortest path between any two points is a straight line". A metaphysical intuition, "The number of planets in the solar system is a contingent matter." As physical intuitions, try "Forces cause motion" and "Physical causes are local; there is no action at a distance." Finally, as a moral intuition, consider "Torturing people just for the fun of it is wrong."
It seems to many people that moral values are strange. They don't exist in any particular place. We don't bump into them as we walk down the street. But the same could be said for the number "2." Saying that ethical (or mathematical) statements are true or false does not imply that there exist some ethereal substances that are values (or numbers). Rather that some things have quantities (for mathematics) or some things are good or bad (for ethics).
The reason that many people have not noticed that stealing (welfare) is forbidden in the Torah is that what radical ideologues are most interested in is political power. This means that people will continue to be used as the necessary bait to bring about the "changes" that radical ideologues deem important for power.
An essay about the United States must deal with the problem of disinformation -- a formidable and perhaps Sisyphean task of persuasion, since the disinformation in question is not the result of pardonable, correctable mistakes, but rather of a profound psychological need. This is why you never hear of the basic principles that the U.S.A. was founded on and why these principles are ignored today by the very government elected to safeguard them.
In sum: Universals exist. Moral principles are universals that are perceived by reason. Natural rights are a negative way of saying the Ten Commandments of the Torah. One of them is "Thou shalt not steal." (These are called negative rights just like "Thou shalt not steal" is called a negative commandment.--a "Thou shalt not" is a negative commandment. In the Torah there are many of these. But there are also positive commandments like, "Thou shalt honor thy father and thy mother." The Bill of Rights is a like a negative commandment. It is a limitation on the government not to interfere with peoples' lives- and not to steal their property. An example of something forbidden by the Constitution of the U.S.A. is to promise a sector of voters free money in return for their votes. This would be considered stealing by the Torah and the Constitution. Thus Welfare is against the Constitution. [See the Federal Papers for more information.]
The way people are duped into voting for the Democratic party which is the main source of this type of theft is the fact that people want to be nice guys. They think by voting to give other people's money away makes them nice. In the Jewish world this has a common name. It is called being frum (religious) at someones else's expense. This is very wide concept in the Jewish world. It can refer to a whole range of behavior like praying so loud in synagogue that it makes other people unable to concentrate on their own prayers. Or learning Talmud until late at night and then coming into your dorm room and waking up other people. But this is a great example of this type of behavior --in the worst way possible. If you want to be nice then give your own money away. You don't give other peoples money away, and then consider yourself generous.
