What We Can't Not Know: A Guide

This book is a rational defense of the common moral sense of plain people (which, paradoxically, is out of fashion). Although it wasn’t written as a textbook, it can serve as one. A new preface on the four ages of natural law puts the topic in historical context. Although the book is for scholars too, if you have no background in natural law, this is probably the best place to begin.

Preface to the Second Edition: A New Phase of an Old Tradition

Preface to the First Edition: Whom This Book Is For

Introduction: The Moral Common Ground

THE LOST WORLD

1. Things We Can’t Not Know

2. What It Is That We Can’t Not Know

3. Could We Get By Knowing Less?

EXPLAINING THE LOST WORLD

4. The First and Second Witnesses

5. The Third and Fourth Witnesses

6. Some Objections

HOW THE LOST WORLD WAS LOST

7. Denial

8. Eclipse

RECOVERING THE LOST WORLD

9. The Public Relations of Moral Wrong

10. The Public Relations of Moral Right

11. Possible Futures

Appendices

1. The Decalogue as a Summary of the Natural Law

2. The Noahide Commandments as a Summary of the Natural Law

3. Isaiah, David, and Paul on the Natural Law

4. An Example of Enmity to Nature: The Redefinition of Pregnancy as a Disease