DEUT58 The legal dialectic of the Talmud is composed of two principles--the authority of a biblical verse and the validity of humanist, moral-rational thought. The usual assumption is that a scriptural verse is "needed" only in areas where human ethical reasoning is powerless to decide. "What need is there of a verse?--I infer it by reasoning." (Ketubot 22b) At times, too, the Talmud speaks of self-evident laws of conduct--had those laws not been written, it would still have been right for them to be written. Well known is the incident when Rabbi Joshua Ben Hananya vindicated the right of the assembly against a presumed heavenly voice-- "The Torah is not in heaven." Deuteronomy 30:12; Baba Metzia 59b. That is, the collective judgment of the Rabbis is decisive. The voice of conscience speaks with the authority of a well–nigh universal consensus. Derech Eretz, the way of the world, includes the manners as well as the morals of a culture and society. As such, it underlies the Torah--"if there is no reverence for derech eretz, there is no Torah." Abot 2:3 Long before the laws of the Torah were given at Sinai, the Lord had provided guidance for humanity--"Twenty-six generations, derech eretz proceeded the Torah." Vayikra Rabba 9. While the Torah specified the conditions for the Covenant between God and Israel, it assumes the more basic Covenant which God concluded with Adam and especially with the children of Noah. Highly instructive is the frequent rhetorical exclamation, "is there aught which is prohibited for the children of Noah, while it is permitted to the children of Israel?" The appeal to a universal conscience is stated in the Torah itself: [this verse and next]. The medieval Jewish philosophers, particularly Maimonides, emphasized the independent validity of the moral-rational conscience. While their awareness was stimulated by the entire thrust of classical thought, they did not have to borrow this axiom from the Greek philosophers, since they could find it amply illustrated in their own tradition.