ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the interplay between a recognition of our condition as historically situated and the possibilities for moral reflection. I start by considering a pessimistic view on such an interplay that circulates in the popular imagination. According to such pessimism, our being historically situated serves to imprison us in a way of thinking whose basic contours are invisible to us and where this invisibility can only be rendered visible, if at all, from a later historical vantage point. I argue that while pessimism about the prospects for reflection is understandable, it is not inevitable. Indeed, that we can so much as we recognize the possibility of being blind to moral failures and shortcomings provides a kind of motivation for developing our capacities for reflection rather than surrendering in despair.
