Lon L. Fuller reviewed A Dialectic of Morals: Towards the Foundations of Political Philosophy by Mortimer J. Adler at The University of Chicago Law Review (1942).
"If there is anything that distinguishes our ethical thinking from that of former times, it is the disappearance of the notion of man's nature. This is the missing constant in our thought. It is the lack of it that explains the relativism which inheres in all our ethical judgments, for without it, no condemnation of evil can carry real conviction. Jefferson and Marshall would never have defined our present differences with the Fuhrer as a choice between different 'ways of life.' They would have said quite simply that Hitler is wrong. They would have said that man cannot make himself a beast of prey without ceasing to be a man, without losing, in other words, his capacity to enjoy what he seeks to obtain through rapine. They would have regarded Mein Kampf not simply as a wicked book, but as a mistaken book."Recommended Citation
Fuller, Lon L. (1942) "Review of A Dialectic of Morals: Towards the Foundations of Political Philosophy by Mortimer J. Adler," University of Chicago Law Review: Vol. 9 : Iss. 4 , Article 18.
Available at: http://chicagounbound.uchicago.edu/uclrev/vol9/iss4/18
(via Chapman University, Leatherby Libraries)
#good #man #nature
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