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Ethics and the Sacred: Can Secular Morality Dispense with Religious Values?

Ethics and the Sacred: Can Secular Morality Dispense with Religious Values? AbstractIn this paper I explore the role that the concept of the sacred can play in our moral thinking. I accept that the assertion that ‘human life is sacred’ can be one way of articulating the special value of individual human lives as in some sense inviolable. I cautiously allow that the idea of ‘sacred value’ might also apply to other things such as certain kinds of human commitments, uniquely precious art-works, and some other kinds of living things. In conclusion I offer reasons for resisting the claim, made especially by Roger Scruton, that the experience of the sacred, when properly understood, draws us ineluctably into a religious view of the world. http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Analyse & Kritik de Gruyter

Ethics and the Sacred: Can Secular Morality Dispense with Religious Values?

Norman, Richard
Analyse & Kritik , Volume 39 (1): 20 – May 24, 2017
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References (2)

Publisher
de Gruyter
Copyright
© 2017 by Walter de Gruyter Berlin/Boston
ISSN
0171-5860
DOI
10.1515/auk-2017-0001
Publisher site
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Abstract

AbstractIn this paper I explore the role that the concept of the sacred can play in our moral thinking. I accept that the assertion that ‘human life is sacred’ can be one way of articulating the special value of individual human lives as in some sense inviolable. I cautiously allow that the idea of ‘sacred value’ might also apply to other things such as certain kinds of human commitments, uniquely precious art-works, and some other kinds of living things. In conclusion I offer reasons for resisting the claim, made especially by Roger Scruton, that the experience of the sacred, when properly understood, draws us ineluctably into a religious view of the world.

Journal

Analyse & Kritik – de Gruyter

Published: May 24, 2017

Keywords: Sacred; life; sanctity; irreplaceable; inviolable; Dworkin; Scruton

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