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Quest for Meaning: Values, Ethics, and the Modern Experience
By: The Great Courses, Robert H. Kane
Narrated by: Robert H. Kane
Series: The Great Courses: Modern Philosophy
Length: 12 hrs and 13 mins
Lecture
Release date: 08-07-2013
Language: English
Publisher: The Great Courses
4.7 out of 5 stars4.7 (16 ratings)
====
Publisher's Summary
Is there an ethics that we can all agree on without stifling pluralism and freedom? What would such an ethics look like? Most important, how should you, as a thoughtful person, find your way among the moral puzzles of the modern world and its cacophony of voices and opinions? These are just some of the engaging and perplexing questions you'll tackle as you join Professor Kane for this thought-provoking, 24-lecture examination of the problems surrounding ethics in the modern world.
The contemporary issues you'll consider include conflicts between public and private morality, the degree to which the law should enforce morality, the teaching of values in the schools, the role of religion in public life, the limits of liberty and privacy, individualism versus community, and the loss of shared values and the resulting discontent about politics and public discourse. Professor Kane's approach is as searching and comprehensive as any you could ask for. His lectures range over a rich array of literary, religious, and philosophical sources representing thousands of years of civilization. Most intriguingly, they spur you to ponder the possibility of recovering the ancient quest for wisdom and virtue in a way that respects the insights of modern thought and the achievements of modern pluralism. Whatever your thinking on such questions, whatever your own personal question for true meaning, you can rest assured that it will be immeasurably enriched by the harvest of reflection you glean from these compelling lectures.
PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying reference material will be available in your Library section along with the audio.
©1999 The Teaching Company, LLC (P)1999 The Great Courses
===
David Jackson
22-05-2017
Food For Thought
An excellent overview and critique of moral philosophy, with a dignified and practical approach to seeking objective truth in a pluralist society.
====
Quest for Meaning: Values, Ethics, and the Modern Experience
Robert H. Kane, Ph.D. Professor, The University of Texas at AustinCourse No. 455
Professor
Course Overview
Reviews (48)
Questions (2) and Answers (3)
Robert H. Kane, Ph.D.
InstitutionThe University of Texas at Austin
Alma materYale UniversityLearn More About This ProfessorCourse Overview
What are true human values? What is worthy of our highest honor and love? What purposes should order our existence? Is there any objective way to tell right from wrong? If life indeed has a meaning, can it be known and stated? What form would that knowledge and statement take?
These are fundamental questions. And most of us have surely asked them of ourselves in one way or another.
Such introspection has been going on for millennia, as Professor Robert H. Kane explains. And the devoted search for answers to these questions—for wisdom about the human condition—has shaped cultures around the globe.
Yet today, the very possibility of such wisdom is being challenged.A Challenge from Postmodern Thinkers
"Postmodern" thinkers assert that we can no longer seriously pursue questions of purpose and objective meaning.
Others may not go quite as far, but few would deny that a sense of profound uncertainty about basic human values haunts the modern age:Our world appears to be a place of waning moral innocence.
Discord and confusion over both beliefs and behavior seem to be on the rise.
Fewer and fewer convictions are held in common.
Our public discourse suffers increasing fragmentation as subjectivism and relativism gain ground.
How and why have we come to this?
Is the postmodernist challenge correct? Do questions about objective values mark the limits of a dream that is now all dreamed out? Are we hopelessly trapped within our own partial and relative perspectives, doomed never to discover what is authentically true and good?
Or is it still possible to aspire toward objective standards of meaning in a way that takes into account the realities of pluralism?
And even if the need for a common ground is granted, must we not ask whose morality will be represented? Is there an ethics that we can all agree on without stifling pluralism and freedom? What would such an ethics look like?What Should Guide Your Own Thinking?
Most important, how should you, as a thoughtful person, find your way among the moral puzzles of the modern world and its cacophony of voices and opinions? What criteria should guide your thinking about ethics and your stands on issues of the day?
These are some of the questions you'll tackle as you join Professor Kane in this thought-provoking examination of the problems surrounding ethics in the modern world.
The contemporary issues you'll consider include:conflicts between public and private morality
the degree to which the law should enforce morality
the teaching of values in the schools
the role of religion in public life
the limits of liberty and privacy
individualism versus community
the loss of shared values and the resulting discontent about politics and public discourse.
Professor Kane's approach is as searching and comprehensive as any you could ask for.
His lectures range over a rich array of literary, religious, and philosophical sources representing thousands of years of civilization.Discover the Riches of the Axial Period
You begin with the Axial Period (c. 800-300 B.C.) which the philosopher Karl Jaspers identified as the seedtime of many of the world's great religious and wisdom traditions.
Its many bequests to us include:the Hindu Upanishads
the teachings of Buddha, Zoroaster, and the biblical prophets
the thought of Confucius and Mencius
the founding of philosophic rationalism in the Athens of Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle.
Professor Kane explains that modern thought has completely separated fact from value, and examines the consequences of this divorce. Modern science has especially contributed to this dissolution because it seeks explanations in causes, not intentions.
This threatened the older wisdom traditions and left modern thinkers with the challenge of finding a ground for ethics that could not be reduced to individual preference or social convention.
These thinkers included such influential modern philosophers as Descartes, Hobbes, Locke, Rousseau, Hume, Kant, and John Stuart Mill, as well as more recent figures like John Rawls.
They rose to the challenge in a variety of complex and sophisticated ways, seeking a basis for ethics in common human feeling, reason, utility, or the notion of a social contract.An Indispensable Companion to Contemporary Ethical Debate
These ideas all remain influential today, and are the subject of current debates that Professor Kane explores with great subtlety and insight.
For that reason alone, this course is indispensable to anyone who is serious about understanding the shape and origins of our current ethical situation.
Reflecting on Plato's prescient criticisms of democracy in the Republic, Professor Kane also asks how our society will fare amid this growing moral debate.
Viewed against the larger backdrop of human history and current world events, freedom and democracy appear as exceptional achievements, forged in an era of much greater moral consensus than we know today.
Can democracy's continued health be taken for granted if procedures alone hold it together while citizens increasingly disagree about basic questions of what is right and wrong, permissible and impermissible?Rediscovering the Quest for Meaning
Most intriguingly, Professor Kane spurs you to ponder the possibility of recovering the ancient quest for wisdom and virtue in a way that respects the insights of modern thought and the achievements of modern pluralism.
This discussion is structured around a fascinating contemporary parable about a gathering of representatives from many different cultures and belief systems at a remote monastery high in the Himalayas.Could these delegates agree on any common approaches to the search for meaning without compromising their distinct beliefs and truth claims?
What might their dialogue be like?
Could it bear fruit?
If so, what might those fruits be?
Does the vision sketched in this parable suggest a viable way of proceeding? Can thoroughgoing pluralism coexist with deeply held convictions about the best way of life? Do our current contentions over ethics mean that we are living through a transition to some new Axial Period?
Whatever your thinking on such questions, you can rest assured that it will be immeasurably enriched by the harvest of reflection you glean from Professor Kane's compelling lectures.ide Full Description
24 Lectures
Average 31 minutes each
1Values and Modernity
2
An Ancient Quest, A Modern Challenge
3
Pluralism, Religion, and Alien Cultures
4
Are Values Subjective?
5
From Experience to Worth
6
Hume and the Challenge of Relativism
7
Cultural Diversity, Human Nature, and the Social Sciences
8
Kant’s Appeal to Reason
9
Bentham, Mill, and the Appeal to Utility
10
Social-Contract Theories (Part I)
11
Social-Contract Theories (Part II)
12
Some Critiques of the Modern Project
13
Retrieving the Quest for Wisdom
14
Wisdom, Ancient and Modern
15
Dilemmas of Might and Right
16
Public and Private Morality (Part I)
17
Public and Private Morality (Part II)
18
Plato on the State, the Soul, and Democracy
19
Democracy and Its Discontents
20
The Parable of the Retreat
21
Searches in the Realm of Aspiration
22
Love and Glory, the Same Old Story
23
The Mosaic of Value
24
Meaning and Belief in a Pluralist Age
===
===
The Quest for Meaning
Robert H. Kane
3.92
105 ratings16 reviews
What are true human values? What is worthy of our highest honor and love? What purposes should order our existence? Is there any objective way to tell right from wrong? If life indeed has a meaning, can it be known and stated? What form would that knowledge and statement take? These are fundamental questions. And most of us have surely asked them of ourselves in one way or another.
Such introspection has been going on for millennia, as Professor Robert H. Kane explains. And the devoted search for answers to these questions—for wisdom about the human condition—has shaped cultures around the globe. Yet today, the very possibility of such wisdom is being challenged.
A Challenge from Postmodern Thinkers
"Postmodern" thinkers assert that we can no longer seriously pursue questions of purpose and objective meaning. Others may not go quite as far, but few would deny that a sense of profound uncertainty about basic human values haunts the modern age:
Our world appears to be a place of waning moral innocence.
Discord and confusion over both beliefs and behavior seem to be on the rise.
Fewer and fewer convictions are held in common.
Our public discourse suffers increasing fragmentation as subjectivism and relativism gain ground.
How and why have we come to this?
Is the postmodernist challenge correct? Do questions about objective values mark the limits of a dream that is now all dreamed out? Are we hopelessly trapped within our own partial and relative perspectives, doomed never to discover what is authentically true and good? Or is it still possible to aspire toward objective standards of meaning in a way that takes into account the realities of pluralism?
And even if the need for a common ground is granted, must we not ask whose morality will be represented? Is there an ethics that we can all agree on without stifling pluralism and freedom? What would such an ethics look like?
What Should Guide Your Own Thinking?
Most important, how should you, as a thoughtful person, find your way among the moral puzzles of the modern world and its cacophony of voices and opinions? What criteria should guide your thinking about ethics and your stands on issues of the day?
These are some of the questions you'll tackle as you join Professor Kane in this thought-provoking examination of the problems surrounding ethics in the modern world. The contemporary issues you'll consider include:
conflicts between public and private morality
the degree to which the law should enforce morality
the teaching of values in the schools
the role of religion in public life
the limits of liberty and privacy
individualism versus community
the loss of shared values and the resulting discontent about politics and public discourse.
Professor Kane's approach is as searching and comprehensive as any you could ask for. His lectures range over a rich array of literary, religious, and philosophical sources representing thousands of years of civilization.
Discover the Riches of the Axial Period
You begin with the Axial Period (c. 800-300 B.C.) which the philosopher Karl Jaspers identified as the seedtime of many of the world's great religious and wisdom traditions. Its many bequests to us include:
the Hindu Upanishads
the teachings of Buddha, Zoroaster, and the biblical prophets
the thought of Confucius and Mencius
the founding of philosophic rationalism in the Athens of Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle.
Professor Kane explains that modern thought has completely separated fact from value, and examines the consequences of this divorce. Modern science has especially contributed to this dissolution because it seeks explanations in causes, not intentions.
This threatened the older wisdom traditions and left modern thinkers with the challenge of finding a ground for ethics that could not be reduced to individual preference or social convention. These thinkers included such influential modern philosophers as Descartes, Hobbes, Locke, Rousseau, Hume, Kant, and John Stuart Mill, as well as more recent figures like John Rawls. They rose to the challenge in a variety of complex and sophisticated ways, seeking a basis for ethics in common human feeling, reason, utility, or the notion of a social contract.
An Indispensable Companion to Contemporary Ethical Debate
These ideas all remain influential today, and are the subject of current debates that Professor Kane explores with great subtlety and insight. For that reason alone, this course is indispensable to anyone who is serious about understanding the shape and origins of our current ethical situation. Reflecting on Plato's prescient criticisms of democracy in the Republic, Professor Kane also asks how our society will fare amid this growing moral debate. Viewed against the larger backdrop of human history and current world events, freedom and democracy appear as exceptional achievements, forged in an era of much greater moral consensus than we know today. Can democracy's continued health be taken for granted if procedures alone hold it together while citizens increasingly disagree about basic questions of what is right and wrong, permissible and impermissible?
Rediscovering the Quest for Meaning
Most intriguingly, Professor Kane spurs you to ponder the possibility of recovering the ancient quest for wisdom and virtue in a way that respects the insights of modern thought and the achievements of modern pluralism. This discussion is structured around a fascinating contemporary parable about a gathering of representatives from many different cultures and belief systems at a remote monastery high in the Himalayas.
Could these delegates agree on any common approaches to the search for meaning without compromising their distinct beliefs and truth claims? What might their dialogue be like? Could it bear fruit? If so, what might those fruits be? Does the vision sketched in this parable suggest a viable way of proceeding? Can thoroughgoing pluralism coexist with deeply held convictions about the best way of life? Do our current contentions over ethics mean that we are living through a transition to some new Axial Period?
Whatever your thinking on such questions, you can rest assured that it will be immeasurably enriched by the harvest of reflection you glean from Professor Kane's compelling lectures.
==
First published January 1, 1999
===
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Bob Nichols
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January 21, 2015
Kane argues that modernity has eroded meaning. In prior times, we had certainty regarding objective, absolute truth. Now we have subjectivity and relativism and this is a problem. We’ve “sundered” fact from value and live valueless lives, stripped of meaning.
Kane is excellent in his examination of various philosophical traditions that have attempted to place value (and meaning) on an objective foundation. In this regard, he looks at Spinoza’s feeling-emotion tradition, Hume’s appeal to human nature, Hobbes and Rawls’ social contract theories, Bentham and Mill’s utilitarian theory, and Kant’s reasoned ethics. Kane then attempts to seam together modern-day thinking with the “wisdom of the ancients.” Here he pulls in MacIntyre’s “After Virtue” with its emphasis on “excellence” and Plato’s views on wisdom, truth, knowledge and the Good. He suggests that there is ample evidence that universal (hence, absolute, objective) values exist and that they are seen in the various formulations of the Golden Rule, the Mosaic commandments and in the Jeffersonian “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.” In these, we have, he asserts, evidence of objective truth and objective value – about the way things are and the way things ought to be. Kane sets up “The parable of the retreat” in which dogmatists and relativists remove themselves, leaving the discussion to those who are open about finding new grounds for objective truth and value. Kane focuses on the need for love, which includes respect for others, and on our need for glory, which is about MacIntyre’s excellence. This is the least interesting part of these lectures and is not convincing.
Kane repeats a common assertion that Darwinian survival and reproductive goals don’t provide much meaning for who we are. But, when Moses said that “Thou shall not kill,” or lie or steal, why did he say that? Could it be that he saw the disorder and disunity that this would create, compromising the freedom (and interests of) for all, as Hobbes later observed? Interestingly, Kane doesn’t mention the other commandments that do not serve his purposes so well (e.g., “You shall have no other gods before Me,” You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain,” Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy”), but these might illustrate our biologically-driven tribalism. Could it be that the many expressions of the golden rule are universal because they are embedded in our nature as free, biological beings: If each is to be free, then this means that we must respect the freedom of others to avoid the Hobbesian “war of all against all.” In Kane’s reference to the Jeffersonian mantra of life, liberty and happiness, where did these values come from? Life is survival. Liberty is our need to be free to do what we need to do for our survival and happiness. It’s interesting that this freedom to serve the body and its needs is precisely the opposite of what Plato’s truth is about, though this need for freedom that is embedded in our biology may very well be the objective value that Kane is looking for in these lectures. And, by tying our freedom to the freedom of others, we also have the motivation to follow a golden-rule like standard as it’s in our interest to respect the freedom of others.
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Fountain Of Chris
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October 14, 2022
One of the OG Great Courses lecturers. I miss when they would intersperse jokes in their courses. This one is worth a re-listen someday.
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Jun
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October 18, 2022
"If there is no God, anything is permitted." Through Ivan Karamazov, Dostoevsky challenged the atheists' grounding of ethics. This challenge has been haunting the modern era, and I view this lecture series as an attempt of responding to this central question of the modern human. Divided into three parts, the first part of this course traces intellectual roots of the Western civilization to the Axial Period to describe how the sunderings of modernity -- of scientific explanation from purpose, of fact from value, and of theoretical from practical inquiry -- create modern moral confusion by introducing pluralism and uncertainty. The main responses to such moral confusion, i.e. subjectivism (mainly positivism and existentialism) and relativism, are also introduced. The second part describes the project of modernity to address the problem of relativism -- sentimentalist, rationalist, utilitarian, contractarian alternatives in modern ethics -- as well as their criticisms. The third part preaches a pluralism different from postmodernism: the aspiration, or the search, of objective truth as well as of objective value or worth (love and glory), by considering all points of view. Using the framework of moral sphere developed by himself, Professor Kane claimed that this openness to all would not lead to indifference, but rather to determining which is more worthy and to achieving a mosaic of value. In detailing this aspiration and its challenges, a series of moral and social issues are discussed, from traditional commandments, pacifism, the demarcation of public morality and private morality by Liberty-Limiting Principles (including Harm Principle, Offense Principle, Legal Moralism Principle, and Paternalism Principle), to Plato's political and social criticisms of democracy in and their contemporary responses, as well as plurality and secularization as challenges to religion. Most of the lectures themselves are clear and interesting and great learning experiences, but part three is not very well logically structured and it is sometimes not clear what I'm learning this for.
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David
426 reviews
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September 4, 2022
Prof Kane says that the main job of all teaching is to bring order out of chaos. And he did some of this in his lessons on ethics, morality, and values—but not entirely. Although, who really could?
For me, the most interesting of Kane’s discussions is that one of the major objectives among ethical theorists (amateurs and professionals) is universalization. There appears to be an innate desire to universalize moral principles by deriving objective moral standards that apply to everyone, everywhere, all the time. It seems to me that this translates to a desire for moral absolutism. Kane uses the example of quantum theory – if it turns out to prove true, it will be true for all people, whether they agree with it or not. Some theorists seem to be enamored with this idea and use the term “vulgar relativism” as a pejorative name for what is really cultural relativism.
Kane asks the question, “How can we get to some universal ethical values without appealing to religious authority or final causes in nature?” He calls this the Project of Modernity in Ethics and identifies four trends in modern ethical theory that search for some sort of universality: The Sentimentalist Option holds that ethics derive from common feelings and sentiments that all humans share. The Rationalist Option contends that there is a common form of reasoning from which ethical principles are derived that all humans could arrive at irrespective of any cultural differences. There is also the Utilitarian Option which attaches to the principle of the greatest good for the greatest number. Finally, the Contractarian Option points to the social contract as the fount of ethics.
This is a helpful way of categorizing the methods used to universalize ethics, but each of these has its own set of problems, which for me, renders them unsatisfactory. Perhaps an alternative name for the Project of Modernity in Ethics is the Project of Barking Up the Wrong Tree.
At the end of the day, I find this lecture series helpful, but there is still a lot of chaos in the study of ethics and morality.
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Don Heiman
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February 2, 2023
In 2013 The Teaching Company’s Great Courses released University of Texas Philosophy Professor Robert Kane’s 24 lecture course “Quest for Meaning: Values, Ethics, and the Modern Experience.” This 12 hour course discuses the conflicts between public and private moral values, school education teachings, shared community values, and religious ideologies from the time of Platonic thought (axial age) to our present time (postmodern age). Kane’s lectures reflect the wisdom of Plato, Saint Augustine, Aristotle, Kant, Kari Jaspers, Claude Strauss, and many more renown philosophy experts. These thought leaders explore cultural anthropology, different human reason motifs, common values of goodness, and the social proclivities that are used by communities to overcome individual and social evils. Kane also explains how values are objective and worthy in the conflict between relativism and collective wisdom. He concludes his course with overviews of the principles that anchor social contracts, universal ethical value sets, and the “human duty to do good.” His Quest for Meaning lectures are very insightful and highly relevant to social principles of love and glory. (L)
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February 19, 2019
This was a Great Courses series that I listened to on Audible. The courses are in easy to listen to 'lectures' (around 40 minutes in length) and the download also comes with a course guide.
The course is structured into three parts:
1) The history of how the Western civilisation experienced a loss of moral innocence and how this led to contemporary confusion over values (Lectures 1-5);
2) How philosophy has attempted to respond to this confusion of values (Lectures 6-12), also called the 'Modern Project', which covers relativism, cultural diversity, human nature, appeal to reason, appeal to utility, and scoial contracts; and
3) Explores ways to renew the 'ancient qust for wisdom and meaning' (lectures 13-24), which covers public and private morality, wisdom, Plato, democracy, religion and morals in a pluralist age.
Personally, I admit I did not fully appreciate the full lecture series and am still re-reading and re-listening to better understand the content; and this in itself is a great indicator of the work doing it's job of making one think about the meaning of life.
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Timo
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November 27, 2018
I'd have given this lecture series 4 stars...but the Lecturer went off the rails in the second half with his "objective subjectivity" claims. He breezed past really troubling areas in his theory as though he'd proven them beyond doubt.
That said, I really liked his style, and I thought the first half, the overview of values and ethics, was outstanding. So, I'd recommend it for that. AND had I been able to interact with the professor and discuss his ideas in person, I'm sure I'd find it a profitable and engaging experience. But presented in 12 lectures as though he'd established it was difficult to stick with. But I did. :)
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Mehrsa
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April 30, 2019
Excellent audiobooks that covers the history of the philosophical tradition, specifically as it relates to morality. He goes from the early axial era to modern day, but without much discussion of non-western traditions.
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Zeyad Waleed
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June 30, 2023
Enjoyed it!
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Groot
226 reviews
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March 3, 2016
This series of lectures on the philosophical outlook on values, ethics and morals is the best work in philosophy that I've come across. It is clear, comprehensible and interesting even in a topic I've always found soporific, self-indulgent and often risible. I'm listening to it again, and I almost never do this.
This is from some years ago (1999), but it remains relevant. For an example, it helps to understand the odd and alarming changes in politics today, through an understanding of practice and culture, especially what impels Trumpism. (The term "practice" here comes from philosophy and anthropology, and is similar to the sense of the practice of medicine, say, but extends further to religious, alimentary and all other cultural realms. It is how we practice our lives, with implicit focus on habits, customs, rituals, training, specific knowledge and the other necessities of correctly carrying out a practice.)
In the first part of the 20th century, there was an enthusiasm for relativism, moral and cultural, along with the rise of the blank slate theory of no human nature, and the belief in the perfectibility of mankind through socialism and progressivism. Anthropology, in particular, reveled in how different cultures were so very different.
One of the most enthusiastic of the molders of humanity, the National Socialists of Germany, caused a kerfuffle, however, what with World War II, the holocaust, and their concentration camps. The Nuremberg Trials, in particular, forced many to articulate rationales for condemning those who were, after all, following orders, yet committed atrocities.
It turns out that the search for an overarching system of ethics that allow us to rise above crass relativism (the technical term) has been the focus of Philosophical Ethics for some centuries now. There are four main approaches.
The first is known as the Sentimentalist approach, with its best known adherents being Hume, Adam Smith, and Confucius. It bases its approach on promoting the best sentiments of mankind, such as generosity, desire for honor, and the approval of others, etc., and for suppression of the bad sentiments via rigorous moral education.
The second is known as the Rationalist approach, with Kant as its voice. It seeks to base a universal ethics on an understanding of Practical Reason (in contrast with the Pure or Theoretical Reason of science). Through use of categorical imperatives, it seeks universal ethical principles that must never by violated, such as the dictum that lying is always wrong.
The third is the Utilitarian approach, and is the best known, with proponents such as Bentham and Mill. They use utility, a sort of currency of happiness, to measure and compare outcomes, with a focus on the greatest good for the greatest number. In contrast with the Rationalists, they are consequentialists, flexible in their basic ethical principles.
The fourth approach is the Contractarian, looking at social contracts, and includes Plato, Hobbes, Locke, Rousseau, and Rawles. They seek to come up with rules almost from a game theoretic approach.
But I would say that Trumpism stems from another, fifth, approach, and many of Trump's enthusiasts will recognize its appeal. This is the Communitarian approach, which does not accede to the rejection by the other approaches of what they find most important. The game theory of Utilitarians, the veil of ignorance of the Contractarians, the categorical insistence of the Rationalists, even the optimism of the Sentimentalists, all try to reduce humans to stick figures which are interchangeable with any other human.
But what of our culture, our music, our families, our religion, and all else we treasure most? The Communitarian does not say that one culture is better than any other, but it does allow the people in a culture to declare their own preference for their own culture, and have that be a legitimate philosophical tenet. It does not say that one race is superior, but it encourages the building of a race's culture by allowing, even promoting, freedom of association.
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Top review from the United States
JustinHoca
VINE VOICE
4.0 out of 5 stars Great overview of the history of philosophy and its application in ethics
Reviewed in the United States on December 23, 2015
I checked out this course because we're at a time when ISIL is beheading people who don't share their view of the truth and using rape and torture as a form of prayer while at the same time, biologist/atheist Richard Dawkins and others are writing that we can be certain that there is no God-- also a clear and exclusive truth claim. Both ISIL and Dawkins believe wholeheartedly that they are correct and all others are wrong, either infidels or idiots. As someone with a Christian worldview, I can respect others' rights ultimately because the Bible, on which I place great authority, says that all men are created in God's image. But to make the case that everyone should respect life like I do would require appeal to some sort of universally-held views.
Over the past few years I've read some books by the New Atheists like Dawkins, Harris, and Hitchens along with several other professing atheist physicists and biochemists who are searching for the beginning of the universe or life. I have yet to hear any of them respond with logical consistency to the question of on what basis they make their moral judgments about life if there is no such thing as universal truth, a soul, consequences, etc? If we are just a random collection of molecules who will be spread across the universe, and morality and human rights simply stories we tell ourselves to help us survive in the evolutionary process, then why is my choosing to scatter your (or anyone else's) atoms before you would choose to do so considered any worse than me burning firewood? Tim Keller (The Reason for God) writes that he's never met a moral relativist who is logically consistent.
Dr. Kane's series is his attempt to get at the question given our modern postmodern context. (Dr. Kane's own work, The Significance of Free Will, apparently utilizes physical science and philosophy to defend the incompatibility of free will and determinism.) His walk through the history of philosophy lowers my estimation of Durant's The History of Philosophy, which I recently reviewed. He does a much better job than Durant of showing the practical implications of each philosopher's work (admitting there are differences in the philosophers covered by the two authors). I highly recommend this series as informative and thought-provoking, but with a caveat-- it is deeply unsatisfying in its conclusion. Spoiler alert: His basic conclusion is that we need to keep an open mind and be less confident about what each of us sees as Truth while all striving to find common ground in the hope that we can all agree on at least a few things. Dr. Kane seems to say that if everyone approaches things with an "open mind" it will be enough to eliminate the problem of everyone arguing for his particular truth view. But what happens if we reach a conclusion about the Bible being valid through open-minded investigation? There are certainly some life-long Christian apologists with PhDs in philosophy and other fields who argue they reached their conclusion through open-minded investigation. So, I find the author's comments of "quest" ultimately unsatisfying. 4.5 stars out of 5. If interested in the full review, read below.
