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I do not mean in saying this to pretend that there are no arguments out
there that aim at bringing together discussions of different kinds of reasons
for acting. Of course there are. There are many, many modern and contemporary
secular arguments that aim to unify calculative practical considerations
and ethical ones (considerations of pleasure have no single definite sort
of place for us). There is no agreement among contemporary philosophers
that any one, or one kind of them, works. I see no reason why we
would expect any of them to work. Shorn of something like an account of
the ends of man, why would we think we'd find unity in practical good? Even
given such an account, it is a bit of a stretch to get the good of
trimming my nails to be of a piece with the good of sending checks to Oxfam,
and to show these as somehow unified with the good of rolling in fresh grass
clippings on a fine summer day. Aquinas, at least, thought it took a lot
of arguments to try to counter the many obvious objections to a claim
that there was unity among the departments of practical good.
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