Democracy and the Ethical Life: A Philosophy of Politics and Community (Second Edition, Expanded)

III. The Duality of Human Nature

The Duality of Human Nature III I have argued in a preliminary fashion that politics has a transcendent moral end and that a truly civilized society is possible only if the demands of the ethical life are recognized and respected. A treatment of the implications of that observation for democracy requires a more extensive explication of the ethical philosophy which is being advanced. More detailed answers must be given to these questions: what is the nature of the ultimate standard by which the quality of social and political life has to be judged and to which democracy, like other forms of government, must be adjusted? How does the structuring principle of man's ethical life order his actions? Before that principle is related to democracy, it also needs to be related to the more general ideas of community and culture . Man's ethical conscience has been described earlier as a sense of sacred purpose. The latter term lends itself to a religious interpretation. For some Christians, I have said, it might seem preferable to speak of the guiding presence of the Holy Spirit. Although it is not the intention here to introduce a theological perspective, it is doubtful that man's ethical life as understood in the following discussion could be sharply distinguished from religion. Even if not bound up with a certain theology, a life centered in the recognition of a transcen52 THE DUALITY OF HUMAN NATURE 53 dent spiritual goal for man would appear to come very close to it. 1 Allegiance to an ethical end conceived as an ultimate of meaning and worth could involve a spiritual commitment similar to that which is ordinarily associated in the West with the worship of a personal God. The view of the ethical life which will be developed here is deeply colored by the Christian tradition, but it also draws on the classical teaching of Plato and Aristotle, whose theology is quite different from that of Christianity. My purpose is to give an account of moral experience while staying short of theological claims about the nature of the divine reality in the direction of which man is ultimately pointed by ethical conscience . Ethical philosophy does not have to compete with theology. It leaves the possibility open of putting the elements of the ethical life in a broader context. It does not necessarily deny the claim that the facts of the ethical life take on additional significance when viewed from the privileged perspective of revelation. At the same time, if the structuring principle of man's ethical life is a manifestation of divine reality, it is evident that what philosophy can say about it has theological ramifications. We are proceeding on the assumption that up to a certain point, which probably cannot be clearly defined, the ability to grasp the facts of man's ethical life is not dependent on accepting a particular theology. A Christian, a Buddhist, a Platonist, and an Aristotelian, for example, all recognize the presence in man of a transcendent spiritual awareness and a tension between that sense of higher destiny and contrary in1 Paul Tillich is prepared to use the word faith even about those who do not believe in transcendent reality, those he calls "humanists." Their lives may still center around an "ultimate concern," and "if faith is understood as the state of being ultimately concerned about the ultimate, humanism implies faith." Paul Tillich, Dynamics of Faith (New York: Harper & Bros., 1957), 62. My own theory implies a "faith" that does have a transcendent object. 54 DEMOCRACY AND THE ETHICAL LIFE clinations. Their differing theological views do not preclude far-reaching agreement on the basic nature of man's moral predicament. But what about the person who claims to have no inkling of a transcendent goal for man? Will he be without referents in personal experience for the following account of the ethical life? It should be stressed in response that the term ethical conscience is not intended to signify some unique, specialized reality revealed only to a privileged few. Its referent is so general , in fact, that it helps to define the human. To be sure, some must have a less confused conception of it than others, as is true of any subject; varying degrees of insight into the nature of man are implied in the recognized need for philosophical scholarship. While it cannot be ruled out categorically that there are actually individuals...