We are not here to provide principles or foundations or deep theoretical diagnoses, or a synoptic vision.
abjure the temptation to tie in one's moral responsibilities to other people with one's relation to whatever idiosyncratic things or persons one loves with all one's heart and soul and mind
redescribing the nearby intellectual terrain in such a way that the terms used by one's opponent would seem irrelevant, or question-begging, or jejune
For moral and philosophical absolutes sounded a bit like my beloved orchids - numinous, hard to find, known only to a chosen few.
The controversy between those who see both our species and our society as a lucky accident, and those who find an immanent teleology in both, is too radical to permit of being judged from some neutral standpoint.
