1. The concept of group subjectivity (a.k.a. corporate personality) is not a relic of the past, but rather is the key to integrating (but not subsuming) the individual's moral personality into the groups of which he/she is a member.
Phillip L. Engle's book WORLDVIEWS relies heavily on the great work done by Alasdair MacIntyre in his book AFTER VIRTUE (see right), but offers the solution of group subjectivity (a.k.a. corporate personality), coupled with theism, as the answer to the essential ethical questions posed by MacIntyre. These ethical questions are: How can inter-subjective agreement concerning questions of ethics and morality be achieved in the post-modern world? What is the correct (or best) basis for truth in the field of ethics? (Or must we simply accept the disintergration of ethical questions into pure moral relativism?)
In addition, WORLDVIEWS clearly lays out two separate, but necessary and complementary, approaches to truth: the "bracket out the subject" method of science and the "bracket out the object" method of religion, ethics, and aesthetics.
To view or download an online edition of WORLDVIEWS, click here. To order a printed paperback edition of WORLDVIEWS , click on the WORLDVIEWS picture below.
Alasdair MacIntyre's book AFTER VIRTUE: A Study in Moral Theory, 2nd Edition is one of the greatest books on moral theory ever written.
AFTER VIRTUE begins by conclusively demonstrating the utter failure of the Endarkenment attempt to ground morality in the mind and will of the putatively radically autonomous human individual acting in his own "enlightened self-interest" (as opposed to grounding morality both in group subjectivity and in the mind and will of a God to whom the human individual is expected to submit).
This Endarkenment rejection of group personality was anticipated by a similar rejection of group personality by the Deformation. For the true basis of the Deformation was not sola fide and sola scriptura, but rather a decisive rejection of the group subjectivity of the Church as the Body of Christ (no communion of saints, no Church as organic hierarchy, but rather just autonomous individuals (democratically organized), the Bible, and a transcendent God.
AFTER VIRTUE then goes on to give a concise, but deep, history of "the virtues", including "the virtues" in early heroic societies, in Greek societies, in medieval Christian societies, and in modern societies. Finally, the book poses a stark choice: either a cynical, Nietzschean morality that recognizes only the "will to power" of the radically autonomous "superman", or a purposeful Aristotelian morality whose basis MacIntyre sees as badly in need of restoration. (See the AFTER VIRTUE book cover to the left.)
Plenty of violence. Plenty of sex. No babies.
In 1965 producer/director Arthur Penn released his film Mickey One. Because it is, quite simply, the best film ever made concerning the reality behind the secular society we are evolving into, it is almost unavailable and forgotten. (See the Mickey One movie poster to the right.)
H. Wheeler Robinson's groundbreaking study Corporate Personality in Ancient Israel makes explicit the key ideas of corporate personality which are implicit within the Old Testament. Although the focus and examples are taken from the Hebrew Bible, the corporate-personality ideas which Robinson explicates apply also to non-Hebrew ancient societies, to medieval societies, and even to modern theories of legal corporate personality. Although frequently studied as a supposed relic of the past, corporate personality is, in fact, the vital link that is missing from modern moral reasoning.
An important supplement to Robinson's study is Aubry R. Johnson's The One and the Many in the Israelite Conception of God, which shows how the ancient Israelites applied corporate-personality ideas to God.
------------------------------
Then Zedekiah the king asked Jeremiah secretly in his house and said: "Is there any word form the Lord?"
