Raz

Overall I think I grasp the article fairly well with the exception of a few areas. One thing which I am a bit confused on is the whole idea of humanism and how he is using it. I understand that his view on right-based moralities is missing something, like Ernie points out, so he is putting forth a pluralistic view by which morality should be founded on? Morality should be founded on fundamental principles and one of these fundamental principles is humanism. So is he suggesting that humanism is founded on rights? And how does he use the word humanism?

I understand most of his argument concerning that right-based moral theories are impoverished; most use ought and duty interchangeably, don’t allow for supererogation (beyond the call of duty), and cannot allow intrinsic moral value or virtue and the pursuit of excellence. Then he goes on to talk about how right-based moral theories have a real moral loss, by being individualistic, how is he using individualistic humanism? And goes onto to say that individualistic moralities say that collective goods have instrumental value only, is this where he proves that humanism cannot be individualistic because of the fact that they can allow for collective goods to have intrinsic value, such as art and art being a public good enriches the lives intrinsically?