Part I (Skepticism) contains analyses of the basic varieties of ethical skepticism and culminates in the idea that the refutation of ethical skepticism--or, what is the same thing, the discovery of the rational basis of morality--consists of a proof of the factual thesis that there exists in human beings a common underivative moral self that consists of an innate normative-practical source (or principle-spring) of human moral judgment and behavior. Part 2 (The Basis of Morality) develops the methodology for establishing this (...) factual thesis and develops as well an argument employing this methodology that actually establishes it. This argument is to the effect that nature through the process of evolution-by-natural-selection built into us humans the following principle as the rational basis of morality: We ought to act only in those ways whose universal performance is both possible and consistent with the rational self-interest of every member of our species. (shrink)

While the independently conceived and executed essays making up Threads and Knots can be viewed as knotting and completing certain loose threads of argument left dangling in Skepticism and the Basis of Morality (Lang 1995), they also have a second unifying specific purpose all their own: to provide an account of the cognitive content and manner of operation of the innate (and, therefore, for us valid, or by us a priori assertably true) supreme structural principle of human moral reason detailed (...) enough for its linguistically self-conscious application to human conduct and affairs in a manner that will enable us eventually to realize the full human potential built into us by nature through the process of our evolution-by-natural-selection. (shrink)