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15 - Goodness

Ethics

from IV - Participation and the Shape of Human Life

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 August 2019

Andrew Davison
Affiliation:
University of Cambridge
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Summary

This chapter on participation in goodness, and on ethics or a good life, has been prepared for by the previous chapter, on beauty and desire. Like the chapter on truth and epistemology before that, this chapter on goodness is robustly realist: it sees what would be morally good for a person, community, or situation to align with the reality and good of the thing considered, which it has by participation in God. The twin focuses here are virtue ethics (which is explored in terms of the alignment of the good-as-moral with the good-as-excellent) and natural law (which is explored in terms of the alignment of the good-as-moral with the good-as-beneficial). No firm wedge, however, is driven between those two approaches, which are both related to God as source and goal in participatory terms. The chapter moves to a discussion of the expectation of the coherence of the good in a participatory framework, such that the goodness that creatures have (and, here, especially human beings) is expected naturally to align with the nature of the good as communicated, for instance, in revelation. This is explored in contrast with the thought of John Duns Scotus. The chapter ends with a participatory discussion of the nature of law in its various forms, including the participatory and theological backdrop to notions of international law.

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Chapter
Information
Participation in God
A Study in Christian Doctrine and Metaphysics
, pp. 348 - 366
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2019

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  • Goodness
  • Andrew Davison, University of Cambridge
  • Book: Participation in God
  • Online publication: 15 August 2019
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108629287.020
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  • Goodness
  • Andrew Davison, University of Cambridge
  • Book: Participation in God
  • Online publication: 15 August 2019
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108629287.020
Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Goodness
  • Andrew Davison, University of Cambridge
  • Book: Participation in God
  • Online publication: 15 August 2019
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108629287.020
Available formats
×