Would you agree that Raskolnikov represents the view that morality is "supra-rational" and the attempt to ground morality in rationality (a la Kant) is refuted by experience? Raskolnikov was obliged by reason to commit the murder, yet experienced a progressive and unrelenting guilt for his action. Even if he was never sentenced for the crime he still experienced the punishment.
Very well put. I think you are on to something here. It isn’t getting caught and punished that makes murder wrong. It is just objectively wrong. This makes me think of C.S. Lewis’ The Abolition of Man wherein Lewis observes that all major religions and historical cultures share a common set of values that he calls the Tao. "What is common to them all . . . is the doctrine of objective value, the belief that certain attitudes are really true, and others really false, to the kind of thing the universe is and the kind of things we are." As you say, it is beyond rationality. Self-inflicted guilt is experienced by a moral human being because he/she is guilty, guilty of violating the Tao.
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Would you agree that Raskolnikov represents the view that morality is "supra-rational" and the attempt to ground morality in rationality (a la Kant) is refuted by experience? Raskolnikov was obliged by reason to commit the murder, yet experienced a progressive and unrelenting guilt for his action. Even if he was never sentenced for the crime he still experienced the punishment.
Very well put. I think you are on to something here. It isn’t getting caught and punished that makes murder wrong. It is just objectively wrong. This makes me think of C.S. Lewis’ The Abolition of Man wherein Lewis observes that all major religions and historical cultures share a common set of values that he calls the Tao. "What is common to them all . . . is the doctrine of objective value, the belief that certain attitudes are really true, and others really false, to the kind of thing the universe is and the kind of things we are."
As you say, it is beyond rationality. Self-inflicted guilt is experienced by a moral human being because he/she is guilty, guilty of violating the Tao.
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Raskolnikov is the most evil character in literary history because he killed two people, and by the end of the book, we sympathize with him.