“I see loyalty - roughly perseverance in relational commitments despite the cost of such perseverance - as an important human value/virtue. Think of it as a kind of relational glue.” ThinkingKindImportantValuesVirtueCommitmentPerseveranceLoyaltyHuman Values Author:John Kleinig
“It is odd that a value/virtue that plays such a central role in dramatic literature has played such a small role in philosophical writing. There are probably a number of reasons, but I think that a predilection for a certain kind of individualism is a major one. Others might include the fashionability of consequentialism, the idea that loyalty has more to do with sentiment than reason, as well as its proneness to corruption. The revival of interest in virtue/character as distinct from rules/principles has also created space for a renewed, if hesitant, interest in loyalty.” ThinkingWritingKindReasonCharacterValuesLiteratureInterestVirtuePhilosophicalCorruptionLoyaltyOddDramaticSentimentsIndividualismRevival Author:John Kleinig
“I remember Stanley Benn remarking that one needed to be a certain age to engage with problems in political philosophy - I think he had in mind a certain breadth of understanding and experience - and so my political interests developed more slowly than the others.” ThinkingMindPhilosophyProblemAgeRememberPoliticalUnderstandingInterestPolitical Philosophy Author:John Kleinig
“As for the ethics, law, and politics relationship, there has always been a tension for me as I try to keep them distinct while recognizing their interactions. A valuable contribution to my thinking there and elsewhere was Ellen Meiksins Wood's Mind and Politics, which reinforced for me the ways in which seemingly disparate philosophical endeavors were/are interconnected, and although I have tended to give a certain priority to ethical considerations as part of practical reasoning, I am reminded often enough that this position makes some contentious presumptions .” ThinkingGivingTryingMindEnoughEthicsPhilosophicalValuablePrioritiesTensionConsiderationEthicalElsewherePresumption Author:John Kleinig
“What we have to ask is this: what can we morally expect of and allow to people whom we deploy to fulfill this or that social role :police officer, school teacher, physician? This may sometimes lead to difficult social decisions - e.g. should police be permitted to illegally import drugs as part of a sting operation? In the end, I think "common - that is, critical - morality" should determine the limits of the police role.” PeopleThinkingSometimesSchoolDifficultDecisionCommonTeacherMoralityDrugPoliceDeterminePolice Officer Author:John Kleinig