The Music of the Spheres

Abstract Philosophers are intoxicated with foundations, with the rational grounding of our beliefs and practices. This chapter advances a very different way of thinking about grounding. Our ways are grounded not in reasons but in our human modes of responsiveness. We respond, for example, to the suffering of others. Making sense of this is not a matter of finding reasons. We are moved by an imperative that is categorical, but not derived from a rational principle. We experience the categorically imperative flowing in our lives. Central to this chapter is religious responsiveness, an alternative to rationalist approaches to religion. Faith, including religious faith, is not in the end a matter of reasons but rather an ear for the music of the spheres. The chapter enlists Martin Buber as a fellow traveler and explores his approach to intimacy with God and its coherence (or lack of it) with traditional Abrahamic religions.