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Moral Compromise

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 June 2012

David Archard*
Affiliation:
Queen's University, Belfast

Abstract

A moral compromise is a compromise on moral matters; it is agreement in the face of moral disagreement but where there is agreement on the importance of consensus – namely that it secures a morally desirable outcome. It is distinguishable from other forms of agreement, and an important distinction between moral compromise with public agreement and moral compromise with public disagreement is also made. Circumstances in which the former might be permissible are outlined, and the sense in which it is allowed all things considered to agree is made clear. The relevant discussions of Dan Brock and Mary Warnock on the role of the philosopher to public policy are critically reviewed. Finally, a brief list is offered of the considerations relevant to an estimation of whether and, if so, when such compromise is allowed.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © The Royal Institute of Philosophy 2012

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References

1 Benjamin, Martin, Splitting the Difference: Compromise and Integrity in Ethics and Politics (Lawrence, Kansas: University of Kansas Press, 1990)Google Scholar, Chapter 1 ‘The Meaning of Compromise’; Golding, Martin P., ‘The Nature of Compromise: A Preliminary Inquiry,’ in Pennock, J. Roland and Chapman, John W (eds.) Compromise in Ethics, Law, and Politics NOMOS XXI (New York: New York University Press, 1979): 325Google Scholar.

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15 The evidence that individuals are strongly minded to conform their publicly stated views with those of their peers was provided by the celebrated Asch conformity experiments of the 1950s. See Asch, S.E., ‘Effects of group pressure on the modification and distortion of judgments’, in Guetzkow, H. (ed.), Groups, leadership and men Pittsburgh (PA: Carnegie Press, 1951): 177190Google Scholar; Opinions and social pressure’, Scientific American, 193, (1955): 3135CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Studies of independence and conformity: A minority of one against a unanimous majorityPsychological Monographs 70, (1956) (Whole no. 416)Google Scholar.

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26 Op. cit., note 20, 510 and 519.

27 Ibid., 505.

28 Op. cit., note 24, 111–2.

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30 Op. cit., note 4, 147–8.

31 Op. cit., note 13, 38–65.