Precarious conditions of rational action
+ Begin with the notebook’s powerful summary (as it still seems) of the argument.
: see notebook:2021-10-13f,16a,23b,26b,27g
: see notebook:2021-11-21b : reason and morality express|show the same existential concern
: N.B. notebook:2021-9-20a : optimal cosmic fit, which could be described earlier
: note : this suggests an instance of cosmological fine tuning,
but one that is immune from the anthropic objection
: privately cf. @ ~/code/WP3/way/ethic/._/cosmic_fit.brec
: see https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/fine-tuning/
: see https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/fine-tuning/#AnthObje
: re `earlier` see e.g. `Relate optimal fit` @
~/code/WP3/way/ethic/._/a_failure_of_reason_boneyard.brec
: N.B. notebook:2021-11-8d : an objection to consider
+ Consider for salvage:
- We see there {in what nightfall reveals} a formal thing like an ethic,
a form for what matters, a structure that cradles a thing of value.
+ In the final sentence that ushers what ‘gives me entry|access to that society and ethic’,
this is no longer the formula of a postulate/premise, but rather the recognition
that the bounden ends entail (at least some) conditions of rational action.
: re `gives me entry\|access` see notebook:2021-10-13f
: private
─────────────────────────
inference of conditions
┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈
+ Resolve the precarious conditions of rational action.
/ Viz. those apt to be suboptimally realized.
: privately see notebook:2021-8-5g
- Resolve them as those safeguarded and supported by the institutions of contemporary society
on one hand, and medieval and early-modern societies on the other.
+ Explain how they condition rational action.
: privately see notebook:2021-11-13c
ends justification
: cf. @ `^+entailment by duty$`
/ Viz. justifying one’s ends.
+ Suggest a relation between ends justification and freedom of will (as opposed to action).
/ To hang references on, not theory, which surely has already been worked out.
+ Hang references on that suggestion.
: see `^*Schneewind.+1998.+The invention of autonomy` @ sources.brec : p. 290.4.
His quote of Harrington is promising, though he does not discuss it in this light.
+ Read Honderich’s *How free are you?*.
freedom of action
: cf. @ `^+entailment by duty$`
────────────────────
entailment by duty
┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈
ends justification
: cf. @ `^+inference of conditions$`
- Willing the bounden ends entails, through practical reasoning, a requirement
for ends justification.
∵ One must critically examine one’s ends to ensure that no unjustifiable end
conflicts with a bounden end, as that would be contrary to duty.
+ For this purpose, define unjustifiable as both unreasonable (rationally ungrounded)
and amoral.
: re `unreasonable` see `^*principle: Reason in its practical use requires` @
axiologic_uncertainty.brec
: re `both` see `^*no rational ground for morality and moral certainty$` @
`^+Notes?$` @ moral_uncertainty.brec
- Such a conflict would not be open to arbitration by prudence because an unjustifiable end
weighs nothing in the balance against duty.
: re `an unjustifiable end.+against duty`s see `^*principle: ${same}`i @ rights.brec
freedom of action
: cf. @ `^+inference of conditions$`
- Willing the bounden ends entails, through practical reasoning and action,
a requirement for freedom of action.
- Willing the bounden ends entails action directed to those ends.
- It entails thought *at the least*, and thought requires action to sustain it.
One must keep oneself going.
/ The only exceptions that obtain in practice are an incapacity for self maintenance
or a resolution to die.
/ Normally, of course, one needs no prompting from duty. Nature has equipped us
to carry on both individually and collectively, and continues to urge that we do.
But *that duty also enjoins it* matters if, from this fact, by way of an ethic
of clear norms, we can inform the structure of a society that better supports it,
a society that bridges the gap between what nature has bestowed and the cosmos
at large promises.
: re `(individually).+\R.+(duty.+enjoins it)` see `One must keep oneself going`
: re `(collectively).+\R.+(duty.+enjoins it)` see
`^*H\. The.+macrocommunity of humankind extant` @ moral_uncertainty.brec
: re `gap` see `If you have what it takes to reach me` @
http://reluk.ca/project/way/ethic/axiologic_uncertainty.brec
: re `promises` see `I will give you time and space unbounded in which to carry on` @
http://reluk.ca/project/way/ethic/axiologic_uncertainty.brec
?+ Does not duty’s enjoinment of a will to our carrying on collectively (H)
entail action *beyond* that of sustaining thought, at least by some?
: re `H` see `^*H\..+humankind extant` @ moral_uncertainty.brec
- We’ll persist one generation at most if all we do is think, and the probability
of attaining moral certainty during that period is too small to take seriously.
personal security
- Each of the foregoing conditions entails, in turn, a condition of personal security.
: re `foregoing conditions` see `^*ends justification$` @ `^+entailment by duty$`
: re `foregoing conditions` see `^*freedom of action$` @ `^+entailment by duty$`
+ Qualify this condition as likewise precarious and warrant the qualification.
\ 🅮 This file has been dedicated by its author(s) to the public domain. To the extent possible
\ under law, the author(s) waive all copyright and related or neighbouring rights to this file
\ under the terms of a CC0 1.0 waiver. See `LICENCE.txt` in the base directory of this waycast.