Morality without Religion

Paper Summary:

This paper examines whether it is possible to have morality without religion, and comes to the conclusion that this is not possible. The writer demonstrates how all the efforts of the greatest philosophers towards secular morality have merely approximated towards the message of religion. Even then the message of philosophical morality lacks the imperative nature of religious morality, and without the exhortation to act a moral code is mere speculation. The essay considers the philosophers Plato, Hume, Kant, Kierkegaard, Nietzsche and Husserl.

From the Paper:

"What hope for secular morality if the philosopher-king cannot induce his subjects to be moral? Is the Logos of Plato a secular construct, or it is pertaining to the divine? The historians of religion plot a course in which Plato's Logos is the starting point of an evolution whose end product is Christianity, through the intermediate stages of Platonism and Neo-Platonism. Theologians, however, disagree, judging Plato's ideas to be mere anticipation of the profounder truth that Christianity contains. The Greek word 'logos' translates to 'word' or 'reason'. When the Greek Bible was translated into English the opening to the Testament of John became, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. . . . And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us" (John 1:1-3, 14). From this it becomes clear that the inner truth of Plato's philosophy and that of Christianity are identical."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Hume, D. (2006a). A Treatise on Human Nature. Charleston, SC: BiblioBazaar.
• Hume, D. (2006b). An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding. Tom L. Beauchamp (Ed.) New York: Oxford University Press, USA.
• Kant, I. (1999). Critique of Pure Reason. Werner S. Pluhar (Trans.), Eric Watkins (Ed.) Boston: Hackett Publishing Company.
• Kant, I. (1993). Grounding for the Metaphysics of Morals. Trans. James W. Ellington. Boston: Hackett Publishing Company.

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