Moral problems
From Dr Sophie Botros Sir: Professor Simon Blackburn (Letters, 30 April) runs together two separate questions: does morality need an objective underpinning and, if so, does it have to be theological? Many, including Paul Johnson, clearly believe that without the former, morality cannot be a bulwark against relativism and other ills they detect in contemporary society. Some of the philosophers Blackburn cites as giving ‘compelling philosophical accounts of morality without illusory theological underpinnings’, such as Hume, supply no objective foundation for it at all. The difficulties encountered by those who do attempt to provide this basis, but without going outside human needs and desires, and consistent with Darwinism, may explain the despair that now leads Paul Johnson and others to seek it again in theological contexts.
Sophie Botros
London W2
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