"Moral choices do not depend on personal preference and private decision but on right reason and, I would add, divine order"
About this Quote
In an age that flatters choice as a virtue in itself, Basil Hume draws a hard line: morality is not a lifestyle setting you toggle to match your tastes. The sentence is engineered as a rebuttal to the modern cult of “authenticity,” where sincerity gets treated like an ethical alibi. By contrasting “personal preference and private decision” with “right reason,” Hume targets a common rhetorical move: if a choice feels true to me, it must be good. He’s saying feeling is not a standard; it’s a data point at best.
The phrasing matters. “Right reason” is a bridge term: it appeals to nonbelievers who might accept natural law or philosophical realism, while still anchoring the claim in something sturdier than opinion. Then comes the pivot - “and, I would add, divine order” - a strategic softening (“I would add”) that functions like a velvet glove. It sounds modest, but it expands the argument from ethics as rational inquiry to ethics as obedience to a cosmic architecture. Hume isn’t merely claiming that God has preferences; he’s asserting that the moral universe has a built-in grain, and human freedom is meant to run with it, not against it.
Contextually, this reads like late-20th-century Catholic resistance to relativism: divorce, contraception, abortion, consumerism - not just policy disputes, but symptoms of a deeper shift toward privatized morality. The subtext is pastoral and political at once: if morality is private, the Church becomes optional. If morality is ordered, conscience becomes accountable.
The phrasing matters. “Right reason” is a bridge term: it appeals to nonbelievers who might accept natural law or philosophical realism, while still anchoring the claim in something sturdier than opinion. Then comes the pivot - “and, I would add, divine order” - a strategic softening (“I would add”) that functions like a velvet glove. It sounds modest, but it expands the argument from ethics as rational inquiry to ethics as obedience to a cosmic architecture. Hume isn’t merely claiming that God has preferences; he’s asserting that the moral universe has a built-in grain, and human freedom is meant to run with it, not against it.
Contextually, this reads like late-20th-century Catholic resistance to relativism: divorce, contraception, abortion, consumerism - not just policy disputes, but symptoms of a deeper shift toward privatized morality. The subtext is pastoral and political at once: if morality is private, the Church becomes optional. If morality is ordered, conscience becomes accountable.
Quote Details
| Topic | Ethics & Morality |
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