Ethics and Human Nature
“Ethics and Human Nature,” La Salle University, PA, US. Kerlin Memorial.
Haldane spoke for over an hour about his specific area of philosophical studies: ethics and, in particular, the concept of “natural ethics.” Haldane identified himself as a “Thomist philosopher of the analytical school,” thus associating himself with both the Catholic philosophy of the medieval theologian Saint Thomas Aquinas and the more modern analytical school of philosophy. Haldane outlined the basic elements of analyzing morality which ranged from the easily comprehensible—such as the nature of right and wrong—and the more complex—such as what he terms “metaethical theorizing,” an advanced form of judgment of ethics. Haldane identified different philosophers across different schools of thought, including Aquinas, Hume and C.S. Lewis as inspirations toward his own approach toward ethics. The end of his lecture, he fielded questions from the audience about some of the complex questions concerning ethics and Catholic teaching on ethical matters.
