ABSTRACT

In the nature of the case we shall be treading on slippery ground in these discussions because the arguments involved are of the highest generality. It may indeed be asked whether any argument is possible (let alone fruitful) concerning the most ultimate bases of evaluation. If all arguments were deductive in form, there would indeed be no way of doing it, for in any deductive system there must be some axioms which cannot be proved within the system. But moral and political arguments are not a one-way affair; they may proceed upwards or downwards in generality. Conclusions about particular cases may be used to support higher-level principles as well as (though not, of course, at the same time as) being derived from higher level principles. Moreover, because we are more familiar with thinking about particular cases, we are often more sure about our attitude to them than we are towards general principles. It is, therefore, a legitimate and useful part of argument to attempt to show someone that a principle which he claims to espouse would have implications for certain concrete situations which he is unwilling to accept.1