250 Epiloguepunishment— did that parent fail to consider that many children
had been brutally murdered in the past? Would they have been
part of the consensus which prevented capital punishment for
those who murdered other parents’ children? Can we, dare we,
make our judgments solely on our personal experience? How do
we prepare ourselves to act when the unthinkable happens?
For our purposes such stories demonstrate that often we
assume that we have a moral position on an issue, when in fact
we do not. Or we think we have a position, but when tested find
that, in fact, we don’t. We can not always determine in advance
how we will react to situations, but if we are truly committed to
our premises, our response will not surprise us. Indeed, one of the
purposes of philosophy is to teach us that there are many and
serious implications in situations which are not always immedi
ately obvious. Unless we try to recognize these implications, we
will often find ourselves in confused and contradictory posi
tions. The same holds true for political and economic premises.
What are our economic premises? First, we should reflect on
our view of the nature of man; is man by nature competitive or
cooperative? Or is man neither, but conditioned to be one or the
other? Is laissez-faire the best way for man to provide for his
material needs, or is socialism or communism? Who should
determine what goods will be produced, how many goods will be
produced, and how those goods will be distributed? All of these
questions, and more, must be answered in conjunction with
one’s moral and political positions in order to address fully the
problems of society.
Recognizing that whatever positions an individual holds at
this moment may change, nay, will change— let us use what we
know now and apply that knowledge to some concrete situa
tions. Every day we must deal with the real world, and in that
world there are some serious social problems. These problems
are not easily solved, because there are conflicting ideas, con
flicts between moral goods, political goods, and economic
goods, as well as conflicts of contradiction. We shall try to
analyze several different social problems, apply individual moral,
political, and economic ideas, and attempt to moderate the
problem through the application of those premises. What we will
find is that this is a very difficult project. Not only will we find
contradictions in our own beliefs, but we will find that we have