1182.Striking Convergence

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There is a striking convergence between Niebuhr's view and Hartshorne's at the point of their common recognition of both "natural impulses" that, "without the discipline of reason, may lead to anarchy in the self and society" and "natural social impulses which relate the self to other life in terms of an unconscious and natural harmony" (An Interpretation of Christian Ethics: 93).They also basically agree in recognizing both that there are such things as "rational sources of virtue," insofar as "disciplined minds are able to enter into the problems of their fellow men and to enlarge the field of interests in which human actions take place," and that "[the] virtue of nature may be destroyed by rationality" insofar as the latter strengthens "egoistic impulse against the force of instinctive sociality" or creates anarchy rather than harmony at yet higher levels of action.

25 June 1999