An Assessment of the Application of Instrumental Reason to Scriptural Ethics by Relying on Moral Texts

Although moral propositions are sometimes inferred from a scriptural source by moral scholars and jurists, reason also would be able to get involved in this procedure. The present research seeks to show how reason can be used properly to examine scriptural texts for acquiring moral knowledge. In ethics works, not much attention has been paid to this matter and the general roles of reason have been explained. This study aims to explain reason’s various roles as an instrument for understanding scriptural texts. For this purpose, adopting a descriptive analytical method, we refer to some moral texts to find different cases in which reason is employed for making sense of scriptural texts. With some in-source methods, reason may infer and explain moral propositions. To understand moral scriptural texts, reason can perform an inferential function (an appeal to outward meanings; discovery of entailment), an explanatory and defensive function (esoteric interpretation; answer to the doubt), and an accrediting function..