What is the moral course

[Luke Benjamin Weiger]

It's quite true that proximity isn't an appropriate moral consideration.
But what of it?

-- Luke

On Mon, 17 Sep 2001, Carrol Cox wrote:
> There was an article in NLR just a few years ago that I didn't read very
> carefully or completely, but it was tracing a tradition in ethical
> theory that dealt with the importance for moral perception of the
> distance of the people involved. Charles Dickens of course turned that
> into a fundamental principle. In _Bleak House_ Jarndyce is infinitely
> compassionate with everyone with whom he comes in direct contact,
> infinitely indifferent to everyone who is around the corner. And the
> only people who care for _anyone_ outside their immediate acquaintance
> are presented as idiots or worse -- Mrs. Pardiggle, Mrs. Jellyby, etc
> etc etc.
>
> Carrol
>