The Greeks Showed that Objective Morality Is Possible
This quotation below, demonstrating the ancient Greek philosophers' proof of an objective foundation for ethics, is dedicated to atheists who think that since in a godless world values must be subjective, we can establish morality with only an arbitrary starting point, say, the maximization of well-being or minimization of suffering. (See my "Should Humanists Be Utilitarians?" ) Because this is an admittedly arbitrary starting point, it surely cannot serve as a launch pad for a rational morality, for as Hume would say (erroneously), although reason can tell us if our means will get us to our ends, it can be no help in saying if our ends are worthwhile. Or: reason is merely a "slave to the passions" and ought to aspire to be nothing more.) Fortunately, an alternative is available to us, which is rooted in the philosophies of Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, and the Stoics. The quote is from Roderick T. Long's Wittgenstein, Austrian Economics, and the Logic of Ac