Q&A: The Moral Command
The Moral Command
Question
I heard the discussion on Almah about moral entities and the need for a commander. During the debate I understood that your position is that there are moral entities, although they are not binding without the existence of a commander. As for the existence of moral entities, your position is that their existence is known to the intellect just like any other empirical knowledge about reality.
After there is recognition of the moral entities and recognition of a commanding source, where does the command itself exist? The intellect recognizes the moral act, but since that in itself is not binding without information about the command, we are left with a moral entity without knowledge of a command. Do we need revelation to exist for this?
Answer
I think not necessarily. True, there is a command in the Torah (“and you shall do what is right and good,” and the like), but one can think of it this way: by reasoning alone, it can be said that the Holy One, blessed be He, expects moral behavior from us, from the very fact that He implanted this feeling and sense of obligation within us. Of course, one can argue about this, but it is not far-fetched (unlike ethical facts without God).