ABSTRACT
Broadly construed, practical ethics aims to investigate concrete, contested, moral issues such as abortion or medical confidentiality. This chapter argues that being a wise recipient of testimony to the astonishing requires capacities that cannot be fully captured in rules, though some rules can be offered to guide the conscientious inquirer. In his judgment, Judge Donald Ferlise acknowledges the two Lockean grounds of credibility—he recognizes the importance of reaching a final verdict based on a trustworthiness measure and a plausibility measure. Ferlise might attempt a similar explanation and claim that his patterns in trust diverge from those of his peers because he is genuinely objective, while they are influenced by "political correctness". The reasons that motivate practical ethics also motivate practical epistemology. Each area of inquiry promises to help us understand a matter of practical importance, and each promises to enrich our understanding of its corresponding theoretical domain.
