Baggett, David J.

Liberty University Digital Commons

Liberty UniversityDigitalCommons@LibertyUniversityFaculty Publications and Presentations School of Religion3-2001Review: Finite and Infinite Goods: A Frameworkfor EthicsDavid J. BaggettLiberty University, dbaggett@liberty.eduFollow this and additional works at: http://digitalcommons.liberty.edu/sor_fac_pubsPart of the Biblical Studies Commons, Comparative Methodologies and Theories Commons,Epistemology Commons, Esthetics Commons, Ethics in Religion Commons, History of PhilosophyCommons, History of Religions of Eastern Origins Commons, History of Religions of WesternOrigin Commons, Other Philosophy Commons, Other Religion Commons, and the ReligiousThought, Theology and Philosophy of Religion CommonsThis Article is brought to you for free and open access by the School of Religion at DigitalCommons@Liberty University. It has been accepted forinclusion in Faculty Publications and Presentations by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@Liberty University. For more information,please contact scholarlycommunication@liberty.edu.Recommended CitationBaggett, David J., "Review: Finite and Infinite Goods: A Framework for Ethics" (2001). Faculty Publications and Presentations. Paper159.http://digitalcommons.liberty.edu/sor_fac_pubs/159Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner.  Further reproduction prohibited without permission.Finite and Infinite Goods:  A Framework for EthicsDavid BaggettThe Review of Metaphysics; Mar 2001; 54, 3; ProQuest Religionpg. 641BOOK REVIEWS SUMMARIES AND COMMENTS* ELIZABETH C. SHAW AND STAFF ADAMS, Robert Merrihew. Finite and Infinite Goods: A Framework for Eth-ics. New York: Oxford, 1999. xiv + 410 pp. Cloth, $45.00-In this sub-stantive book, Robert Adams distills and crystallizes much of his previ-ous work into an impressive two-tiered ethical framework: a divine nature theory of the Good and a divine command theory of the morally obligatory. The result is an expansive, integrated, and sophisticated eth-ical theory that merits great attention. Four major parts comprise the book: "The Nature of the Good," "Loving the Good," "The Good and the Right," and "The Epistemology of Value." Beginning in part 1 with a theory of the intrinsic Good that is both the-istic and Platonic (in terms of standards, not archetypes), Adams offers a bottom-up ethical framework in which the Good is transcendent and infmite. His nonconsequentialist theory is bottom-up because it begins with a semantic analysis of value language, but its eventual focus is on metaphysical questions. Generalizing insights from direct reference the-orists, Adams suggests that what is given by the semantic meaning of a moral term is a role that the nature of the referent is to play. Aiming at a measure of both realism and internalism, he argues that the character of our pursuit of excellence determines what would satisfy the pursuit, fIx-ing the SignifIcation of our value terminology to an objective property. Adams takes three things, namely skeptical of value-free evaluations, science-inspired epistemology, and the loss of a critical stance, as verid-ical intimations of a transcendent Good. God best fIlls the role of the ex-cellent, the appropriate object of Eros. Finite goods are to be under-stood in terms of their standing in a relation of resemblance to God. In denying the Manichean notion of an analogous transcendent bad, Ad-ams avoids minimizing the gravity that moral horror can have as a viola-tion of the sacred. Part 2 has for its overarching topic how it is good to love the Good. Adams combats an overmoralized ideal of love as pure benevolence by insisting that God's loving something other than himself makes sense as the sheer desire for a relationship with the beloved for its own sake. Such particularistic love is motivated by more than just a general love of persons, an impersonal appreciation of the beloved's qualities, a *Books received are acknowledged in this section by a brief resume, report, or criticism. Such acknowledgement does not preclude a more detailed examination in a subsequent Critical Study. From time to time, technical books dealing with such fields as mathematics, physics, anthropology, and the social sciences will be reviewed in this section, if it is thought that they might be of special interest to philosophers. The Review of Metaphysics 54 (March 2(01): 641-693. Copyright © 2001 by The Review of Metaphysics Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner.  Further reproduction prohibited without permission.642 ELIZABETH C. SHAW AND STAFF teleological valuing as a way or means of realizing an ulterior end, or a desire for maximizing average well-being. Celebrating the beloved is motivated instead by qualitative reasons like the excellence in and worth of the beloved. Not only is love the supreme standard of God's excellence, it is also a motivational ideal for human beings. Adams de-fends love of God as the integrating, comprehensive principle of motives and values consistent with an interest in any good thing for its own sake. Adams devotes a chapter to the symbolic value of martyrdom and wor-ship, by which one, even in relatively helpless situations, can symboli-cally be for the Good as such. Part 3 emphasizes moral obligation understood in relation to a social context. Based on the semantic features of obligation, Adams prefers an idealized adaptation of the social requirement model in his divine command theory over natural law, ideal observer theory, or divine will theory. Answering the salient autonomy objection, Adams's theonomy affmns several traits of autonomy while rejecting total inner-directed-ness and features an invitation to care about a true Good independently of the commands. Responding to arbitrariness objections, Adams's the-ory dictates that a good God cannot credibly be thought to have com-manded Abraham to kill Isaac. After carving out space for individual vo-cations relevant to moral obligation, he argues that considerations of excellence have a legitimate place in political ethics. He insists that there are distinctly religious reasons to uphold rights that most concern liberals, then he makes lots of interesting applications, not shying away from controversial political topics. Part 4, which remains sketchy, stresses that we require faith in vari-ous moral ends that is flexible, tenacious, and courageous. Adams de-nies that his theory faces unique epistemic challenges, for it does not re-quire explicit knowledge of God in competent users of value terminology. Indeed, he insists that a wide range of beliefs about what is good comes before sound theorizing about the nature of goodness, be-liefs formed through a complex array of social doxastic practices re-sponsive to a range of inputs and culminating in an albeit fragmentary vision of the transcendent Good. Adams considers the subject matter of ethics and the divine activity in making it known to be the most essen-tial points in his favored conception of socially mediated revelation, both general and specific. Unfortunately, an undue haste to square revelation with prior ethical conviction can result in hasty traversals of the hermeneutical gap and in indifference to important authoritative passages or points of theology. Adams's tendency to characterize as "fundamentalists" sCriptural inter-preters more conservative than himself will do little to assure readers that his own creative or sensitive interpretations do not result in a thin-ning of theology. Though the book's biblical exegesis can be questioned at points for conflating interpretation with evaluation, its philosophical contribution is remarkable. It would make an excellent choice for rigor-ously analytic graduate courses on ethics at seminaries and universities where an interest in theistic ethics survives. Providing reasons why such an interest should survive is the book's most important contribu-tion.-David Baggett, Wayne State University. 

Review: Finite and Infinite Goods: A Framework for Ethics

Abstract

Similar works

Full text

Available Versions

Liberty University Digital Commons