Justice and Charity by Michael P. Krom

Author:Michael P. Krom
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Ethics/Philosophy;REL067070;REL028000;PHI022000
ISBN: 9781493424368
Publisher: Baker Publishing Group
Published: 2020-05-08T00:00:00+00:00

1. Introduction

In chapter 1 we showed the inadequacy of the contemporary perception that ethics (1) is about rule following, (2) must be either objective or subjective, and (3) is limited to one aspect of our lives—namely, situations in which one must do one’s duty or what one ought to do as opposed to what one wants to do. As Aquinas understood it, moral philosophy is about character formation; is both objective and subjective insofar as it tells us how humans in general, and each one of us in particular, ought to live; and is about our lives as a whole since its task is to teach us the path to happiness. One of the extended examples we used was of a young Frisbee player, and we showed how even this recreational activity involves moral components. As we discussed, every action we perform must be situated within the context of our lives as a whole, and of the lives of those whose paths cross ours: in one situation she is playing with her friend who is low in spirits, in another she is neglecting to do her homework. In each case the action is the same in the physical sense, but morally speaking we can praise her for an act of friendship or blame her for neglect of her studies. While we must know what is right and wrong in the abstract, more precisely we must know what to do here and now. Happiness is not the reward for following the rules; it is the fruit of joyfully embracing a life of giving others their due. In a word, moral philosophy teaches us to follow the path of justice and provides a fleeting glimpse of this path’s heavenly destination.

In chapter 3 we applied this general moral framework to care for material goods. And, again, we saw that economic philosophy cannot be studied in isolation from moral philosophy, nor by treating humans as abstractions who buy and sell widgets. As we put it there, one cannot be good at economics but bad at ethics. Determining a fair price requires a solid understanding of the human desire for happiness, and thus how material goods can be put in the service of the virtues that are truly valuable. Economic philosophy cannot deal in widgets, but must deal in goods that are more or less valuable in the concrete lives of those who buy and sell them. Further, my property is mine only in the qualified sense that this is the best arrangement for promoting the good of the community as a whole. The goods entrusted to me and to you have their value to the extent that they can be used in acts of justice, liberality, and the like. An extended example we used in part 2 was of buying a neighbor’s 1986 Dodge Omni, and we saw how many objective and subjective factors must be weighed in the balance in order to be just toward him.

What does all of this have to do

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