Finding Purpose

History, Philosophy, Theology and Classic Wargaming

Right Reason

True law is right reason in agreement with nature;  it is of universal application, unchanging and everlasting;  it summons to duty by its commands, and averts from wrongdoing by its prohibitions…It is a sin to try to alter this law, nor is it allowable to repeal any part of it, and it is impossible to abolish it entirely.  We cannot be freed from its obligations by senate or people, and we need not look outside ourselves for an expounder or interpreter of it.  And there will not be different laws at Rome and at Athens, or different laws now and in the future, but one eternal and unchangeable law will be valid for all nations and at all times, and there will be one master and ruler, that is God, over us all, for he is the author of this law, its promulgator and its enforcing judge. Whoever is disobedient is fleeing from himself and denying his human nature, and by reason of this very fact he will suffer the worst punishment.”

Marcus Tullius Cicero

“Right reason” has been invoked variously in the history of western thought as a rational concept, a moral principle, and a human faculty. Milton stands as the last great literary voice of the concept of right reason, indeed of rational and ethical Christianity itself – a voice in which the voices of classical antiquity, the Middle Ages, and the Renaissance have merged into one. He is, therefore, the Christian humanist par excellence. -R. Hoopes

It [right reason]must hold that there is in human beings a faculty or power of reason taken in a broad sense as what operates in concept formation, under standing of meanings, inductive and deductive reasoning, knowledge (a priori or empirical, particular or general), judgments of probability, dialectical thinking, systematizing, and practical deliberation. Many [proponets] would insist that it includes a kind of rational intuition of first principles or self-evident truths.

THE ETHICS OF RIGHT REASON
William K. Frankena https://www.jstor.org/stable/27902784

Therefore, right reason derives from, is informed by and guided by first principles and universal truths and relies to some degree on common-sense.

Complete Topical Index

Purpose:  to clarify for simplicity, consistency, and reference the meaning of the defined terms and its use in documents related to the Fourth Turning Clash of Inter-Civilization Cultures Project