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  • Open Daily: 10am - 10pm
    Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm

    3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
    612-822-4611

Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm
3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
612-822-4611
The Moral Ground of Reality: Objective Goodness, Moral Obligation, and the Case for God

The Moral Ground of Reality: Objective Goodness, Moral Obligation, and the Case for God

Aquino, Alberto

Paperback

Religion General

ISBN13: 9798170426362
Publisher: Independently Published
Published: Aug 28 2026
Pages: 504
Weight: 1.33
Height: 1.25 Width: 6.00 Depth: 9.00
Language: English
THE MORAL GROUND OF REALITY: Objective Goodness, Moral Obligation, and the Case for God

What makes something truly good? Why are we morally obligated to do what is right? And if objective moral truth exists, what ultimately explains it? These questions lie at the heart of The Moral Ground of Reality, a philosophical investigation into one of the most consequential questions human beings can ask: Is morality merely something we have created, or does moral reality point beyond us to something greater? In a world where moral disagreements are increasingly intense, it is tempting to regard morality as nothing more than personal preference, cultural convention, evolutionary conditioning, or social construction.

Yet our ordinary moral experience seems to tell a different story. We do not merely say that cruelty is something we personally dislike; we often judge that cruelty is genuinely wrong. We do not merely prefer justice; we believe that injustice deserves condemnation even when it is socially accepted. We do not merely admire courage, honesty, compassion, and self-sacrifice; we regard them as virtues that human beings ought to cultivate.But where does this ought come from? The Moral Ground of Reality takes this question seriously. It examines whether science can ground moral truth, what evolutionary explanations can and cannot establish, whether neuroscience can explain moral normativity, and whether purely physical descriptions of reality are sufficient to account for objective moral obligations. It carefully distinguishes descriptive facts from normative truths and asks whether explaining how human beings acquired moral beliefs is the same as explaining why those beliefs can be objectively true.The book then turns to the deeper foundations of morality. What is human flourishing? Can happiness, pleasure, or the good life provide an adequate foundation for morality? Is there such a thing as objective human nature? Can moral values be grounded in subjective preference or social agreement? What happens if morality is ultimately an illusion?These questions lead naturally to the challenge of moral nihilism. If there are no objective moral values, then concepts such as good and evil, right and wrong, justice and injustice, and moral obligation would ultimately lack objective reference.

The book examines whether moral nihilism can adequately account for the powerful and persistent character of human moral experience and whether moral eliminativism can successfully explain away our ordinary moral convictions.From there, the investigation develops the moral argument for God in increasingly sophisticated forms. The book considers objective moral values, objective moral obligations, moral grounding, the limitations of subjective and conventional accounts, the inadequacy of purely physical explanations, and the need for an ultimate ground of moral reality.Rather than stopping with the claim that morality exists, the argument proceeds further. If objective moral values require an ultimate foundation, what kind of reality could provide that foundation? Would such a ground need to be contingent or necessary? Could it be impersonal? Could it be merely an abstract moral fact? Or does the nature of moral obligation point toward something more fundamental?The investigation therefore moves from moral reality to moral grounding, from grounding to transcendence, from transcendence to necessity, and from necessity to intelligence, rationality, personhood, moral authority, and perfect goodness.The culmination is the philosophical conception of the God of classical theism: not merely a powerful being within the universe, but a necessary and transcendent reality, the ultimate source of being, rationality, goodness, and moral authority.

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