ABSTRACT
There is the proposition that reason is only instrumental and cannot serve in the choice of human values, ends, and purposes. That might be defended if life were not better than death, and if health were not preferable to ill health. But given those two propositions, there is an objective basis for a morality serving human needs. Dietitians still do not know all we need to know about what diets are relatively healthful and which are less so. But they do know something about it, and it is not just a matter of subjective preferences. We know that there are conditions that determine the healthfulness of diets, and that we are better off the better we harmonize with these conditions. The same may be said about other aspects of human life. We need to harmonize our conflicting impulses and emotions for our own wholesomeness and health. We need to develop and harmonize our creative potentials with those of other people, or conflicts and suffering may result. Groups of people need to do likewise. And for our economies to be sustainable, we need to harmonize their activities with those of the natural world. It will be self-defeating to harm our life-support system, and it is high time to count depletion of our natural capital as such instead of counting it as income.
