Our Political Relationship with Sacred Value

Abstract

Abstract This chapter begins with an example that illustrates a common presupposition: sacred values are incommensurable (in a bad way) with other political values—and so they simply cannot be sources of group solidarity, especially in group conflict on matters of sacred value. This is incommensurability problem and it presumes a monist theory of value. The first section explores this problem and shows that it leads to the problem of moral horror. In the second section I explore Robert M. Adams’s work on moral horror and contrast it with a social practical account. The third section elaborates my account of social practical reasoning, sacred value, and the ethical life of Spirit. The fourth section offers a political role of sacred values grounded in an account of social practical reasoning. The final section applies the lessons from my framework of social practical reasoning and teases out implications for questions of agency.