Summaries / Resúmenes - Studia Moralia

54 BRIAN V. JOHNSTONEare intelligible factors which are necessary conditions forchoice. The “goods” are ideas about real goods, rather than realgoods.My criticism here is similar to that raised by some “revisionists,”namely that the goods remain in the realm of “platonicideas.” 23 In my article I suggested that these ideas aboutgoods resemble later philosophy, rather than Plato. They aremore like “objects” posited as objective in regard to the subject,but remaining within the thought of the subject. I provided anindication of where this mode of thinking arose in philosophy.(p. 115) It is because the “goods” as “ideas” have this “separate”character that it is difficult to account for their relationship toconcrete actions, such as self-defense and contraception. 24 Theauthors specifically reject the “objectivist” thesis that values canbe derived from a metaphysical analysis of “nature.” For thesereasons, I located their theory in the subject-oriented stream ofthe tradition. My interpretation, of course, may be mistaken; Iwould welcome arguments showing that it is.5. Gift as a Unifying HorizonSelling takes note of my proposals concerning gift and thengoes on to develop his own theory. I welcome these clarifications.However, my approach differs significantly from that ofmy critic and to complete my reply it is appropriate to providea brief outline. The theory begins with an overall vision or horizonof “givenness,” which means that the way we think aboutall reality is in terms of its being given. 25 Concretely, this meansthat everything has being as a gift from God. The destiny of allbeings is to become receivers and givers to others to the fullestextent made possible by their natures. In the case of human23Todd A. Salzman, “The Basic Goods Theory and Revisionism: AMethodological Comparison of the Use of Reason and Experience asSources of Moral Knowledge,” Heythrop Journal 42 (2001) 426.24Salzman, “The Basic Goods Theory,” 428.25The idea I borrow, in a version for which I take responsibility, fromJean-Luc Marion, Being Given: Towards a Phenomenology of Givenness,trans. Jeffrey L. Kosky (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2002).