ABSTRACT
A number of theorists have recently urged that the moral principles so
prized by many are in fact irreducibly strewn with exceptions.1 Lying is always wrong-making – well, not when playing the game Diplomacy, in
which lying is the point of the game, or again when confronted with the
Nazi concentration camp guards, to whom the truth is not owed. Pleasure is
always good-making – well, not when it is the pain enjoyed by the sadist,
delighting in his victim’s agony.2 It is always wrong-making not to take
competent agents at their word; well, not in the S&M room, where ‘no’
precisely does mean ‘yes’.
