Fact, Value, and God

Philosopher Arthur F. Holmes surveys the historical ways of grounding moral values objectively in the nature of reality, pausing along the way to consider such major landmarks in Western thought as Plato, Aristotle, Augustine, Thomas Aquinas, Ockham, the Reformers, Kant, Hegel, and Nietzsche.

Holmes is not convinced that we live in a value-free universe, that fact and value are ultimately unrelated, or that we have to create all our own values rather than discovering the good. He explores the fact-value connection in the larger context of metaphysical and theological views. What emerges is a pervasive—and convincing—link between religious and moral beliefs.

Contents:

Preface
1. Cosmic Justice and the Pre-Socratics
2. Plato and the Improvement of the Soul
3. Aristotle and Nature's Teleology
4. The Divine Logos and the Goodness of Creation
5. Augustine: God and the Soul
6. Thomas Aquinas: A Creational Ethic
7. Scotus, Ockham, and the Reformers: What God Commands
8. Right Reason and the Scientific Revolution
9. Human Nature and Moral Teleology
10. Kant's Moral Worldview
11. Hegel: Idealist Ethics
12. Ethics as Empirical Science
13. Nietzsche: Fact and Value with No God
14. In Retrospect