us. It is a necessity...Without opinions of this sort [judgments], we would have no framework of comparison for our own policy, no chance of profiting by other people’s insights or mistakes” (Arthur, Pg.86-87)What Midgley is saying is that moral reasoning is not something that we can do without. Whether we think it is useful or not, we still use it in order to know what to avoid and what to go for. Our ability to judge other cultures has helped ours evolve and it is what will keep us evolving. Moral reasoning is what keeps our criminal justice system going, without it we would then live in a state of anarchy and disorder.Alasdair MacIntyre, wrote in his lecture “Is Patriotism a Virtue?” about where does our morality come from. He argues that morality comes from the community we live in. Without our sense of morality we would be unable to live within a community. It is our morality that keeps the community together, if we were to have conflicting views in the most basic levels then our community would fall apart. He writes “I need those around me to reinforce my moral strengths and assist me in remedying my moral weaknesses” (Arthur Pg.56). This quote ties in very well with Midgley ‘s argument that without morality there would be chaos because if morality comes from our community, and if it is our common morality that holds a community together, then without morality our inability to judge what is good or evil will also keep us from forming groups. What both Midgley and MacIntyre did not argue about was the possibility that their own morality might be bad. I will refer the term bad morality to any set of morals that would restrict a person’s right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.Jonathan Bennett considers bad morality when he explains the conscience of Huckleberry Finn. When Huck Finn runs away from home he befriends an escaped slave called Jim, and then against ...
