Help For The Oppressed

People are truly free and responsible agents. Destiny is another argument. Supernatural destiny is said to be above power and nature. Theological debates go on about supernatural destiny and natural destiny and the relationship between destiny and evolution. The logic of Parmenides is that reality and intelligibility are in one unchanging being. The contingent events of history then become cycles of necessity with no freedom for human beings. In his view man is not responsible for his actions. Freedom and contingency are denied in that system. If anything goes wrong we can do nothing about it apparently, but really we can.

The philosophies of justice and rights also have a long history. God knows they do. They are not being ignored. Modern ideas about justice and rights are usually talked about in terms of giving everyone their due and human rights conventions. Old Testament history is also full of it. The morality of Israel is a lot higher than the morality and ethics of some of the surrounding nations. It might be due to the monotheism and deep moral consciousness of the prophets. The covenant obliges Israel to a particular way of life.

Since ancient times some people have believed that pleasure is good and pain bad and they should be the main criteria for ethics and morality. Bentham found that the greatest happiness of the individual was in the greatest happiness of the greatest number. That only leaves minorities and their rights and justice. The motive for obeying the rules necessary for a social life is the pleasure gained from obeying and the pain felt in disobeying.

Philosophers have always said good is the fundamental thing in morality; the right act is that which produces the most good. Deontologists argue that duty is the fundamental notion not its consequences and good is secondary. Right is independent of good. Acting from a sense of duty however has no purpose. The moral act is not for itself or anything else other than duty, whereas the virtuous act is done willingly and for a good motive, though motive is not always in man’s control.

The theory of final causality, teleology, is often found debated in biology but it is criticised by many modern scientists as being pre-scientific. Those who reject causal explanations will reject teleology. It can give explanations about individual and interacting natural units. The tests for scientific explanations are observation and experiment. Observed phenomena can be analysed backwards from effect to cause looking for prerequisites in matter, forces and structures and step-by-step processes to produce the observed effects. These teleological phenomena are subject to value judgements about natural processes always producing good effects. The end does not justify the means.

Anyone who is suffering despair, hardship, feeling overburdened, stressed or oppressed must be confident that there is someone there for them. They must be assured they have somewhere to go and someone to turn to in troubled times. Someone who will listen. Give them rest, some peace. There is a way out. Someone can help.