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 fit, which could be described earlier : 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. 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