Burden of Proof

         “The final burden of proof for your action falls on you.”

          In law, burden of proof is the, responsibility of the accuser to prove or disprove an accusation in court¹. In moral skepticism, skeptics argue that the burden of proof is on those who contend that certain actions are immoral. That is, those who claim that a certain action, such as sodomy, is morally wrong must present reasons for this contention, in the same way that scientists who claim that there is life on Mars must present the evidence of their claim ². Based on these premises, the statement, “The final burden of proof for your action falls on you,” means that you, the person, must produce the proof of your actions. In other words, it is up to the person to produce evidence for the quality or the morality or immorality of his actions.

If for instance, the person commits murder, then the act itself, murder, is the proof that the person has done something immoral. In a sense, this contradicts the contention of Friedrich Nietzsche that there is no right way, no correct way and no only one way³. If the person produces proof that his action is morally right, or the correct and right way, then certainly this morally right way exist. At the same time, if the person’s action is morally wrong, such as the case of murder, then that action, murder is the proof that immorality or wrong way exists.  At the same time, this means that morality or immorality is not just a metaphysical thing. They exist in the actual physical world through the action of the man itself. In the same example, murder is real and therefore, the sin or the crime itself is a physical thing and not a metaphysical one as moral skeptics contends.   

Moreover, as what Ralph McInery pointed out, St. Thomas distinguishes the note of goodness, ratio boni, by why man commits an action and how the action is done to get what he desires, again the why. As to the why man commits an action, it is basically due to his personal assumption that it is good for him⁴. When the person gets misguided, he may then commit sin or immorality but the essence of why he committed the action is still based on his idea that it is good for him. St. Thomas’ two senses of end, the basis of the action which is the belief that it is good for him (the person) and the way to attain this good proves then that morality and God exist. How? According to St. Thomas, the desire to attain what is good for him is the proof that the divine goodness is the state man wishes to attain. And this divine state is attainable only through knowing and loving God, or the state of beatitude. This state is the perfect good or the state when all desires are satisfied⁵. To clarify, every action of man is because he considers it to be good for him. His ways of attaining what is good for him may distinguish his actions as to whether it is moral or immoral. Therefore the proof of his action is the act itself. If the act is towards the beatitude state, then it is moral. If the action is against or away from this state, then it is immoral. Since according to St. Thomas, the very nature of man is to be in this state, the final burden of proof of man’s action, falls on him or on whether he is moving toward beatitude or away from it.

References

Glossary of Terms. New Jersey Judiciary Courts Online. Available at: http://www.judiciary.state.nj.us/njcourts-09.htm. Accessed 30 August 2008

Moral Skepticism. Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Available at: http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/skepticism-moral/. Accessed 30 August 2008

Friedrich Nietzsche quotes. Think Exist.com Available at: http://thinkexist.com/quotation/you_have_your_way-i_have_my_way-as_for_the_right/296207.html. Accessed 30 August 2008

McInerny, Ralph. Why the Burden of Proof is on the Atheist. Leadership U.com. Available at: http://www.leaderu.com/truth/1truth11.html. Accessed 30 August 2008

Grisez, Germain. The true ultimate end of human beings: the kingdom, not God alone. Theological Studies, 01-MAR-08. Goliath.com. Available at: http://goliath.ecnext.com/coms2/summary_0199-7640165_ITM. Accessed 30 August 2008