Defining Moments

40 D

EFINING

M

OMENTS

to the confusion, something now seems deeply wrong. The grand

principles seem to be asking you to subordinate your decision—

indeed, some of your deepest loyalties—to an abstract analysis of

impersonal duties. You are asked, it seems, to ignore the sort of

profound emotional commitment—in this case, a parent’s to a

child—that gives life meaning.

15

Given this drawback of the grand principles, on top of all the

others, it is no surprise that people look elsewhere for ethical guid-

ance. Writing in the eighteenth century, the Scottish philosopher

David Hume suggested that the sane reaction to a philosophical

morass was to climb out, clean oneself off, go home, have a good

dinner, and forget all about philosophy.

16

As rationality endlessly ...