'The Rational and the Moral Order' is a significant book providing a
comprehensive theory of morality. The opening chapter is simply
marvellous. Baier provides a cogent response to Hume's conundrums on
practical reasoning: logical entailment, he argues, is not the correct
model of the relation between reasons and that for which they are
reasons. Indeed, the giving of reasons is, in part, a social enterprise,
and there is no necessary connection between rationality and
self-interest.
Just as the giving of reasons is a social enterprise taught to
succeeding generations, so too is the moral enterprise, for a moral
order is a social order of some sort. It is a social order that
encourages a critical stance toward, and permits the correction of, its
mores. Moral precepts can be sound or unsound, and yet can be relative
to a moral order.
In the concluding chapter Baier shows how his theoretical framework can
be used to confront some of the moral problems people face, problems
which have also exercised contemporary philosophers. Though there are
many philosophers who believe that killing is worse than letting anyone
die, there are few that defend the view other than by raw intuition.
Baier deploys the resources of his theory of morality in support of this
widely shared but poorly defended viewpoints.
"Along the way, Baier deals with virtually all the problems that have
taxed moral philosophers for a very long time -- rationality,
responsibility, morality's relation to law, the good life, prisoner's
dilemma, moral motivation, and others. The Rational and the Moral Order
is careful, insightful, and convincing." --Theodore M. Benditt,
University of Alabama
