An Ethic of Trust

W. Royce Clark

doi:10.5771/9781978708716

Summary

The proximity of many different religions, each with its own unique metaphysics and ethics, did not exist in the ancient world when those religions came into existence. Many went uncontested for centuries, and many merged with governments to shape the laws for the entire people of a culture or nation. Theocracies can exist only where there is no plurality of religions or where the minor religions do not mind the dominant one dictating policy for all citizens. In the word’s two greatest democracies, the U.S. and India, despite the diversity that a democratic society presupposes, a majoritarian religion continues to assert an advantage over others to shape the social contract.

An Ethic of Trust: Mutual Autonomy and the Common Will-to-Live addresses this problem, moving beyond sheer utilitarianism. W. Royce Clark argues that because of religious pluralism, a nation’s ethic must be grounded on “freestanding” principles. This means that its base must be universally obvious, and its principles must be agreeable to all citizens. The base is instinctual, the “will-to-live” which is present in all living creatures, and the recognition of that can influence people to agree to a voluntary unity and a couple of other basic principles to which all would agree, principles which embrace differences within relationships, whether in a marriage or a constitutional republic. But to voluntarily agree to these requires a genuine mutual trust and mutual autonomy which can maximize unity while allowing individual liberties.

To arrive at this point, Clark blends scholars who are often cast as opposites—Albert Schweitzer, Friedrich Nietzsche, and John Rawls—to forge a new path for an inclusive ethic for a nation, within which both the religious and non-religious will have equal freedom and stability.

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Bibliographic data

Copyright year: 2021
ISBN-Print: 978-1-9787-0870-9
ISBN-Online: 978-1-9787-0871-6
Publisher: Lexington, Lanham
Language: English
Pages: 418
Product type: Book Titles

1. Dedication No access
2. Contents No access
3. 1. Notes No access
1. The Problem No access
2. Thesis, Sources, and Scope for an Ethic of Trust No access
3. Some Basic Definitions No access
4. Notes No access
1. One Voice and One’s Vote No access
2. The Divisive Desire for an Impossible Theocracy No access
3. A Diminutive History of Human Responsibility and Religion No access
4. From Historical Reality to Images of Reality to Aspirational Symbols No access
5. Religions’ Different Contingent Perspectives, Figures, and Ethics No access
6. Present Ethical Issues and Irrelevant Ancient Absolute Ethics No access
7. The Challenge of Autonomy: Stages of the “Metamorphoses” of Maturing No access
8. Notes No access
1. Prospect and Retrospect: Decadence and Determination No access
2. Earlier and Continuing Religious Attempts to Address the World’s Ethical Problems No access
3. The Rude Awakening: The Dissolution of Trust and the Twin Towers No access
4. Religion’s Ethical Anacoluthon: The Presupposed Absolute to Finish the Sentence No access
5. Toward Mutual Human Trust and Autonomy: Prerequisite for Living Together No access
6. Notes No access
1. Critical Reflection versus the Institutions’ Retention of Metaphysics of Infinity No access
2. Theological Awakening: The Gradual Implosion of Theism No access
3. Conclusion No access
4. Notes No access
1. The Mythical End and the Mystical End No access
2. Detachment from the World as Release to Serve Others No access
3. From Theory to Existential Service: The Real Ground of Ethics No access
4. Mysticism of Being, Agnosticism, and the Common Will to Live No access
5. Instinctual Trust and the Development of Trust in Mutual Autonomy No access
6. Universal Ethical Mysticism versus Supra-ethical Mysticism No access
7. Truthfulness and Trust as the Ethics of the Will-to-Live No access
8. Minor Variations on the Eschatological Theme No access
9. Extensive Recent Eschatological or Apocalyptic Developments No access
10. Conclusion No access
11. Notes No access
1. The Quest for the Connection between Instinct, Reflection, and Actual Behavior No access
2. “Instinct” as End? No access
3. The End as Life-Process? No access
4. The Will to Power and Sublimation No access
5. Honesty, Truth, and Trust No access
6. Conclusion No access
7. Notes No access
1. Early Christian Conceptions of Universal “Guilt” and an “Evil World” No access
2. Inevitable Human Depravity and the Dehumanizing of Jesus the Christ No access
3. The Metaphysics of Infinity’s Persistence through Prioritizing Being over Becoming No access
4. On Realizing That Community or the Species Has More Potential Than Self No access
5. To Rediscover and Redescribe Oneself beyond Illusion No access
6. Instinct, Reason, Character, and Attitude No access
7. Acceptance of the World Tied to Acceptance of Self No access
8. Notes No access
1. The Connecting and Ethical Element: An Agreement or Social Contract No access
2. A Contract Based on a Concept of Justice as Fairness No access
3. On Narrowing the Scope and Expectation of the Conception of Justice No access
4. Toward a Political Rather Than a Metaphysical Conception of Justice No access
5. Other Considerations on the Principle of Equality and the Difference Principle No access
6. The Role of Trust as the Common Unmentioned Element No access
7. Conclusion No access
8. Notes No access
1. Being Responsible for the “Will-to-Live” No access
2. Two Spheres for the Two Sets of Ethics: Political and Metaphysical No access
3. The Universal Ability to Respond Even from within Poverty to Others’ Suffering No access
4. Sacrificing Oneself to Save Homo Sapiens: The Complexity of a Great Moral Example No access
5. Notes No access
1. Table of Cases No access
Index No access Pages 405 - 416
About the Author No access Pages 417 - 418