"Ought to's"

Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr, in his article "Natural Law" written for the Harvard Law Review November, 1918 writes:

"We all, whether we know it or not, are fighting to make the kind of a world that we all should like-- but that we have learned to recognize that others will fight and die to make a different world..."

"The jurists who believe in natural law seem to be to be in that naive state of mind that accepts what has been familiar and accepted by them and their neighbors as something that must be accepted by all men everywhere."

"... The question remains as to the Ought of natural law."

Holmes suggested throughout the piece that there are no "oughts" in the world we live in. By laying the foundation for legal pragmatism, Holmes desires a world without certainty and truth. Perhaps these ideas are the consequences of progressivism in American culture and politics. But I think the issue is more fundamental than progressivism, for the idea that man is purposeless in a dark world of chance Holmes calls the "Can't Helps."

In The Problem of Pain Lewis seems to identify this thinking as an element in all developed religion. It is the second of four strands their identify within Christianity:

"All the human beings that history has heard of acknowledge some kind of morality; that is, they feel towards certain proposed actions the experiences expressed by he words 'I ought' or 'I ought not.' These experiences resemble awe in one respect, namely that they cannot be logically deduced from the environment and physical experiences of the man who undergoes them."

Thus Holmes seems to be rebelling against one of the most fundamental assumptions of mankind. This is nothing new under the sun for man will always resist the truths of his Creator. Holmes may be among the first to introduce progressive ideas into our justice system. But these ideas are not new and certainly not original to Holmes.

Meditations on the "Meditations"

Failure to observe what is in the mind of another has seldom made a man unhappy; but those who do not observe the movements of their own minds must of necessity be unhappy.

Men exist for the sake of one another; teach them or bear with them.

Enter into every man's ruling faculty; and also let every other man enter into yours.

Let no act be done without a purpose.

In one way an arrow moves, in another way the mind. Yet the mind, both when it cautiously examines the ground and when it is engaged in its inquiry, is nonetheless moving straight ahead and toward its goal.

Reading the "Meditations" by Marcus Aurelius has been really refreshing. I love it how he understands the nature of man within a community. Thus man should be teachable and should learn from others seeking a higher purpose, which is the same goal of knowing truth.

Unity of the Bible

"But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman..."

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"For to us a child is born, to us a Son is given..."

The first passage is from Galatians (4:4) and the second is from Isaiah (9:6).

Amazing how the Bible should be read as a whole for its story is told as a whole.

Merry Christmas...