BEYOND RELATIVISM AND FOUNDATIONALISM - A PROLEGOMENON TO FUTURE-RESEARCH IN ETHICS

This article examines the similarities between notions about the natur e of reality held by some Christian mystics (Thomas Merton and the aut hor of The Cloud of Unknowing) and those proposed by physicists David Bohm and Henry Margenau. My aim is to consider how the implications of certain metaphysical interpretations of modern physics may: (1) hold similarities with Christian mystical notions about reality, and (2) be important for guiding future research in ethics. I further look into the traditional approaches to ethical theory that come out of the foun dationalist, relativist, and skeptical realist camps and argue that wh ile skeptical realists such as Timothy Jackson are moving in the right direction, further consideration of what is meant by reality is neces sary if we are to traverse the gap between foundationalists and relati vists. It is here that Christian ethicists in particular have the oppo rtunity to pick up the metaphysical batons carried by physicists like Margenau and Bohm and mystics like Merton and the author of The Cloud and begin investigating the possibility that ethical theory can be app roached from a nondualistic perspective.