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*Pathfinder & Starfinder
Alignment thread - True Neutrality
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<blockquote data-quote="pemerton" data-source="post: 6758502" data-attributes="member: 42582"><p>Another thought on this.</p><p></p><p>I've recently re-read Walter Ullman's History of Political Though in the Middle Ages. One important topic in that book is his account of the reception of Aristotle in the high Middle Ages, and the effect of that reception on political ideas.</p><p></p><p>Prior to Aritotelean influences, the dominant conception of rulership was what Ullman calls "theocratic" - all power is a gift from god, to be used to further god's purposes. One upshot of this is that there is no meaningful contrast to be drawn between citizen and Christian, or between state and church, because all social arrangments aim at the same end - achieving the divine purpose for humanity. At a practical level, it is hard for secular rulers to articulate their authority as lying outside the authority of the Papacy, as once they frame their claim to authority by reference to divine purpose and a divine gift of power to them, then it is hard for them to deny that the Pope has a lead role in voicing and giving effect to the divine will, and hence has the authority to guide and correct temporal rulers.</p><p></p><p>One of the important ideas that emerges under the influence of Aristotle is that human government and society is a product of human nature, and that human nature - and nature more generally - is itself a divine creation whose laws of operation are therefore consistent with the divine will. On this account, temporal rulers have a foundation for their authority - human nature - and a grounding in the divine purpose - humans and their nature are themselves divine creations - which is prior to the institutions of the church, and which thereby undercuts Papal claims to authority over temporal rulers. The Pope has no special claim to know or to direct government in accordance with human nature.</p><p></p><p>True Neutrality, as I am articulating it, seems to me to set itself up in opposition to divine action, and in favour of nature as containing its own balance, in a way that fits better with the first sort of approach to understanding the relationship between divinity and nature: the divine is something that (from its point of view, and the point of view of its adherents) acts upon and improves nature. If nature is already conceived of as having its own perfection because the natural laws are divinely decreed laws, then True Neutrality seems to me to lose its metaphysical grip.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="pemerton, post: 6758502, member: 42582"] Another thought on this. I've recently re-read Walter Ullman's History of Political Though in the Middle Ages. One important topic in that book is his account of the reception of Aristotle in the high Middle Ages, and the effect of that reception on political ideas. Prior to Aritotelean influences, the dominant conception of rulership was what Ullman calls "theocratic" - all power is a gift from god, to be used to further god's purposes. One upshot of this is that there is no meaningful contrast to be drawn between citizen and Christian, or between state and church, because all social arrangments aim at the same end - achieving the divine purpose for humanity. At a practical level, it is hard for secular rulers to articulate their authority as lying outside the authority of the Papacy, as once they frame their claim to authority by reference to divine purpose and a divine gift of power to them, then it is hard for them to deny that the Pope has a lead role in voicing and giving effect to the divine will, and hence has the authority to guide and correct temporal rulers. One of the important ideas that emerges under the influence of Aristotle is that human government and society is a product of human nature, and that human nature - and nature more generally - is itself a divine creation whose laws of operation are therefore consistent with the divine will. On this account, temporal rulers have a foundation for their authority - human nature - and a grounding in the divine purpose - humans and their nature are themselves divine creations - which is prior to the institutions of the church, and which thereby undercuts Papal claims to authority over temporal rulers. The Pope has no special claim to know or to direct government in accordance with human nature. True Neutrality, as I am articulating it, seems to me to set itself up in opposition to divine action, and in favour of nature as containing its own balance, in a way that fits better with the first sort of approach to understanding the relationship between divinity and nature: the divine is something that (from its point of view, and the point of view of its adherents) acts upon and improves nature. If nature is already conceived of as having its own perfection because the natural laws are divinely decreed laws, then True Neutrality seems to me to lose its metaphysical grip. [/QUOTE]
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Alignment thread - True Neutrality
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