In this blog post, we will look at how the discovery of the self and the concept of moral sense emerged in the context of Western modern philosophy, and what it means for understanding human beings.
Two important variables that characterized Western modern philosophy are, first and foremost, the development of the natural sciences and the discovery of the self. The development of the natural sciences has played a significant role in helping humans understand nature objectively and in developing their ability to explore and predict the laws of nature. This was an important turning point for humanity as it shifted from a medieval, God-centered worldview to a human-centered way of thinking. Scientific methodology emphasized experience and experimentation, and it firmly established the belief that truth can be reached through rational thinking. However, what science shows us is limited to the world of scientific knowledge, that is, the world of phenomena. Scientific inquiry is a useful tool for explaining and predicting nature, but it cannot explain everything. The objective knowledge provided by science inevitably focuses on the external aspects of the world and maintains a certain distance from the inner world of humans, that is, subjective experience or the depth of the self.
At this point, we come to another variable: the discovery of the self. The discovery of the self is a concept that modern philosophy has made another important pillar along with natural science. The philosophy of subjectivity, which began with Descartes’ proposition “I think, therefore I am,” brought about the separation of the thinking subject (self) and the object of thought (world). This led to the development of modern philosophy as an epistemology that grapples with the question of “How can the subject know the object as it is?” This philosophical shift placed the human self at the center of philosophy and brought about revolutionary changes in the way humans perceive themselves and understand the world.
However, this philosophy inevitably contained skepticism and agnosticism from its inception. This is because epistemology foreshadowed the fate of humans who were banished from the “paradise” (a state in which all are one) when the subject and object were not yet separated. In other words, the life structure in which the existence of “I” could not be recognized separately from the relationship with the surrounding objects or people has changed to a structure in which “I,” with an independent consciousness, looks at the object world outside of me with my own eyes. In a way, as our consciousness becomes clearer, it becomes more and more difficult for us to understand other beings. This is also an inevitable consequence of the modern worldview. These epistemological problems are topics that philosophers have been constantly pondering, and they have given rise to various interpretations and debates in the development of modern philosophy. For example, the confrontation between empiricism and rationalism, Kant’s critical philosophy, and deconstructionism in late modern philosophy, epistemology has been at the center of philosophical inquiry.
In David Hume, the consummate modern empiricist, we see the skeptical conclusion that “we can never know the object as it is because we are not the subject.” This implies a distrust of the ability of human reason and a skepticism about the possibility of human reason. This skepticism becomes another hallmark of modern philosophy, raising constant questions about human cognitive ability. This philosophical consciousness would later be reinterpreted more radically by philosophers like Nietzsche, contributing to the deconstruction of the modern concept of the subject and the search for new philosophical attempts.
The emergence of the concept of “moral sense” is closely related to the development of modern epistemology as described above. Before the modern era, especially in the Platonic worldview, moral goodness was understood from the perspective of the universe itself, that is, from the perspective of the reality that manifests itself. The universe was considered to be a space full of harmony and order, and it was believed that humans should find their place in it and lead a moral life according to the laws of the universe. However, mechanistic views of the universe and the concept of a liberated subject who realized their own uniqueness through enlightenment clearly distinguished between the subject and the object.
This raises the question of what causes the subject to recognize and aim at a line as an object. This is where the concept of a sense of morality comes in, which assumes that moral objects are recognized in the same way that physical objects are recognized by other sensory organs. Every human being has an “innate idea of what is good and beautiful” or “a natural sense of value that takes into account social relevance.” Even in the case of moral issues, there is a sense of morality or natural feeling that discerns moral values. This refers to a special ability that everyone has inbornly, and this ability is inevitably activated when we perceive moral objects (human actions and emotions). There is no person in this world who does not have this sense of morality or natural feeling as a normal person. This sense of morality forms an essential aspect of human society and helps us make moral judgments in our relationships with others. It also acts as an important factor that enables social harmony and coexistence, providing the foundation for human society to be maintained and developed.
