RE: Love the Lord your God with all your heart ?
June 16, 2016 at 2:34 pm
(This post was last modified: June 16, 2016 at 2:35 pm by Neo-Scholastic.)
(June 16, 2016 at 1:51 pm)Jörmungandr Wrote:(June 16, 2016 at 8:57 am)ChadWooters Wrote: Can someone love Truth? Can someone love Justice? Can someone love Beauty and Mercy? If so that it should not be inconceivable to love the source of those transpersonal values.
Do we mean that they literally love truth or justice, or is this not merely figurative language? That the person acts as if enamored with it?
Regardless of whether it's figurative or not, do you think loving such is a choice?
Literally or figuratively? I don’t know really. What I can say is this. Beautiful things exemplify beauty. Just and merciful people exemplify justice and mercy. To love truth is to participate in it. I’m sure you can sense the Neo-Platonic implications of what I am saying. The standard objections of skeptics apply.
As to whether one can chose to love, I say the distinction between instinct and reason and how they inform each other applies. While someone may be reflexively inclined toward harmful desires, the cultivation of virtue can deliberately direct those inclinations towards their proper objects. For example, someone inclined to wrath can turn their volatile nature into defending the vulnerable from oppression. As the habits of virtue take hold, I believe, the desires for evil and falsity drop away and people begin to long for what is beautiful, good, and true.
