I Want! I Want!

Why should I shape myself into the form of a good man? Well, what’s wrong with wanting to be that way? On our being introduced, I reach out my hand to shake yours. Why should I? To be polite, as a sign of basic respect. Why grant respect? Because that’s the sort of man I want to be.

Can value be as flimsy as desire? What justifies mere wants? Where is morality’s grip on all of this? One longstanding answer is that God’s will justifies wants, grounds value. Whose God? and of what era? Why is His will self-justifying? God’s will is an excuse, a note from home.

Other answers will cite such large concerns as social utility and the physical survival of the race or of the biosphere. And these will serve as handy structures upon which to hang mediant actions, but only for people who have decided already that they care for the well-being of the whole, that they should respond to the needs of future generations or of other forms of life.

So anything goes? There is no wrong or right? Non sequitur. Consider that if value is ungrounded today, it must always have been ungrounded, yet we still ended up with the golden rule. Prisoners need chains; pilgrims don't.

Some people insist that there just are rights, there just is evil, and so on, regardless of the details. This is desperate, but its gesture finds an object: we are, every one of us, born into a world stuffed to excess with values. These values are, however, historically, culturally, sexually, and ideologically contingent, often competing and inconsistent. They cry out to be culled and sorted, woven by those who make the effort into harmonious and productive lives. The moral vacuum is a myth.

There is no easy way here – and that is important. Natures will be shaped, actions taken, values assigned, options rated, choices made. We should not expect these things to be easy.