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Tyler VanderWeele

Harvard University School of Public Health

How Do We Build Consensus Around Basic Human Goods?

Preview ResponseCreated Order1 min read

I respond to the Preview with three questions.

  1. To what extent, and in what ways, can one argue for the basic human goods and the propositions of natural law that follow from a Christian understanding of the created order to effectively persuade those who are not themselves Christian?

  2. To what extent can consensus be achieved not only with regard to those willing to engage in philosophical argument, but also with the general public?

  3. With regard to arguments for establishing basic human goods, to what extent do the properties of (i) being an end and not only a means, and (ii) of empirically being (nearly) universally desired, play a role, and what other properties or principles are useful in trying to achieve broad consensus around basic goods?

VanderWeele, T.J. (2017). On the promotion of human flourishing. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 31:8148-8156.

Created Order

Dialogue structure

  1. Theology Brief Preview1
  2. Preview Response20Current
  3. Theology Brief1
  4. Disciplinary Brief11
  5. Disciplinary Note7
  6. Theology Brief Postscript1