Philosophy
My areas of work in philosophy have been exploring the relationship between knowledge and values. One of the worst things that ever happened was the separation of values from facts. This is one of the main reasons I approach moral theory from a Natural Law standpoint. We begin with an understanding of how the world works and how we fit into that world, and from that understanding we derive our moral values.
As we look at our history, every time we have a new development in knowledge, we must also change our values, for we are now evaluating something new. Most of our conflicts today stem from applying old values to new situations.
The main argument of my book is to show, in different historical periods, how changing knowledge leads to changing values. I go on to argue that, in the light of new knowledge, it is immoral to maintain old views.
My new book on aesthetics, Art Matters, follows the same concept. Changing views of the world lead to changing views as to the nature of art. Art must be viewed in its proper historical context. And in evaluating art, as in evaluating behaviour, we must separate our personal reactions from our objective evaluations.
