Friday, November 08, 2024

It's the motivation that's missing!

But there is also a more radical critique of such code fixation that Taylor’s really after: codes don’t make people care for their neighbor. In other words, codes are inadequate as moral sources precisely because they do not touch on the dynamics of moral motivation. It was not a code or a rule that produced forgiveness in Nelson Mandela. This points up precisely what's missing in modern moral philosophy: attention to motivation. “For clearly moving higher in the dimension of reconciliation and trust involves a kind of motivational conversion” (p. 707) — and no code can bring that about. So the “nomolatry” and “code fetishism” of modern liberal society are an inadequate source for morality. In other words, modernity can't have what it wants on its own terms.—James K. A. Smith, How (Not) to Be Secular, 128–29 (emphasis original)

<idle musing>
That's the end of this book. Not sure that having read it will make tackling Taylor's massive book any easier! But hopefully you learned something. I know I did. Next up will be Walton and Walton, The Lost World of the Torah.
</idle musing>

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