Perhaps the most dominant moral mistake of the modern age is the assertion that we are – or fundamentally ought to be – in control of our lives. This does not take the form of acknowledging the importance of agency for moral action. It certainly is true that we are responsible for the way we form our lives and thus for the moral choices that flow from that formation. Rather, the modern conceit is that any obligations to which our lives ought to conform is an affront to the radically autonomous self. The only moral principle guiding our lives is that nothing infringes upon our exercise of autonomous individual assertions of personal choices. The idea that we ought to conform our lives to something outside ourselves, so the notion goes, is an inhibition of freedom, and therefore immoral.
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Learning how to be forgiven
perhaps the most dominant moral mistake of the modern age is the assertion that we are – or fundamentally ought to be – in control of our li...
Ken Craycraft

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