Tag: essences

New philosophy book!

From Roman & Littlefield, the publisher’s website:

Constructivism dominates over other theories of knowledge in much of western academia, especially the humanities and social sciences. In Exposing the Roots of Constructivism: Nominalism and the Ontology of Knowledge, R. Scott Smith argues that constructivism is linked to the embrace of nominalism, the theory that everything is particular and located in space and time. Indeed, nominalism is sufficient for a view to be constructivist.

However, the natural sciences still enjoy great prestige from the “fact-value split.” They are often perceived as giving us knowledge of the facts of reality, and not merely our constructs. In contrast, ethics and religion, which also have been greatly influenced by nominalism, usually are perceived as giving us just our constructs and opinions.

Yet, even the natural sciences have embraced nominalism, and Smith shows that this will undermine knowledge in those disciplines as well. Indeed, the author demonstrates that, at best, nominalism leaves us with only interpretations, but at worst, it undermines all knowledge whatsoever. However, there are many clear examples of knowledge we do have in the many different disciplines, and therefore those must be due to a different ontology of properties. Thus, nominalism should be rejected. In its place, the author defends a kind of Platonic realism about properties.

Assessing Critical Race Theory on Human Nature and Morals

Introduction

Previously, I mentioned several key morals that Crits rightly recognize as good and right, such as justice is good, humans should be treated with dignity and equality, and racism is wrong. These are important strengths of CRT.

The Nature of Humans and Morals

Yet, CRT also presupposes that there are no essences. Instead, we are material beings in a material world. So, despite Crits’ evident presupposition that humans should be treated as intrinsically valuable, there is nothing that exists intrinsically, or essentially, to being human that defines the kind of thing we are, or how we should live. That is, there is no grounding for their presupposition. Also, on CRT, moral principles and qualities do not have an essence that defines them. Instead, morals end up being our constructs. So, for instance, justice does not have an essence to it that we need to discover and with which we align ourselves. Rather, justice is nothing but a matter of our interpretation.

Now, if justice (as well as other morals) had an essence, then there could be an identical quality that literally is in common to all instances of just people and actions. But, since there is no such essence on CRT, there is no such thing as justice per se, one quality for which we all should strive to achieve and embody. There are no morals that are true for all people in all times and places and exist apart from our constructs. Instead, morals are particulars, which shows CRT’s dependence on nominalism.

  • Let’s contrast this stance with a biblical one about humans, morals, and their natures. Biblically, humans are made in God’s image, which defines us as the kind of thing we are in contrast to any other created thing (cf. Gen 1:21 & 26). So, to be an image bearer is to be human; it is our essential nature. Moreover, the particular essence of an individual human is that human’s soul.[1] Moreover, Scripture presupposes that all humans bear God’s image, such that it is one set of qualities that can be in many instances. That is, it is a universal.
  • Since we are made in God’s image, there are moral qualities and principles that are normative for us. Scripture informs us that we are to become like Christ (e.g., Rom 8:29; Eph 5:1-2; Gal 5:22-23), which includes being like Him morally. These qualities are those of Jesus which also are appropriate for us as image bearers. And, each such moral quality is a one-in-many, i.e., a universal. Moreover, there is an essence to them that defines them as what they are; e.g., justice is not identical to love, even though they are to be partners in action. Finally, they are objectively real; they are valid and exist, whether or not any of us believes them to be so. So, they are not our products.

Some Initial Implications

First, if there are no essences to these key morals, then justice, equality, dignity, and even oppression are up to people to define as they see best. Of course, how one group defines them may vary from another, for these are just a group’s particular constructs. But, this will perpetuate inevitably the very thing Crits decry – the hegemony of the powerful. Indeed, it seems on CRT that morals can only be power moves.

Second, since humans and the rest of reality is just made of matter, it seems CRT faces the well-known problems that afflict other views that accept that same kind of ontology. For instance, physicalist views face the problem that in a physical world, it seems humans’ character and actions can be exhausted descriptively. Yet, morality is about normativity – how we ought to live and treat others. In other words, such views, including CRT, face the problem of how we can derive the moral ought from what is the case physically.

Now, some, such as Christine Korsgaard, have tried to address this problem by claiming we can impose our moral concepts onto matter.[2] Drawing upon Kant and John Rawls, she thinks we can will that our moral maxims (plans of action) be universalized for all people. Nonetheless, the end result is that we construct these morals, which still are particulars ontologically (though we will that they apply to all). They do not have essential natures, and so they are subject to our conceptualizations, with the same problem I just considered above.

The Next Steps

There are many more implications of CRT’s ontology for humans and morals, and I will continue this discussion in the next blog. I will look at what I think is a crucial issue: the lack of our intrinsic value and how that leads to many (futile) attempts today to secure our moral worth.

[1] Here, I will not investigate some Christians’ claims that we are basically physical beings without a soul. I have done so elsewhere, such as in my chapter, “Physicalism and Sanctification,” in Christian Physicalism, eds. Joshua Farris and Keith Loftin (Lexington Books, 2018). That essay addresses the prospects of becoming like Christ on a physicalist anthropology.

[2] See her The Sources of Normativity (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1996). See also my discussion of her views in my In Search of Moral Knowledge (Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 2014).