Moral Strangers, Moral Acquaintance, and Moral Friends: Connectedness and Its Conditions

Elaborates an ethic in which beneficence on a personal and communal level has moral force; proposes the idea of an interplay between compassion and reason to help address moral problems; and sketches the conditions necessary for a democratic approach to such problems.

The author deals with the problem of shaping a more than minimalistic ethic in a pluralistic world. He discusses the notions of various types of moral valuing and the idea of a homeostatic balance between the demands of individuals and the requirements of community. He also proposes an idea of an interplay between compassion and reason which can help address moral problems; and, lastly, he sketches the necessary conditions for a democratic approach to such problems.