I Do Think It Is

Parental Love Is Not Contingent On The Talents And Attributes The Child Happens To Have. We Choose Our Friends And Spouses At Least Partly On The Basis Of Qualities We Find Attractive. But We Do Not Choose Our Children. Their Qualities Are Unpredictable, And Even The Most Conscientious Parents Cannot Be Held Wholly Responsible For The Kind Of Child They Have. That Is Why Parenthood, More Than Other Human Relationships, Teaches What The Theologian William F. May Calls An “openness To The Unbidden.

One Of The Appeals Of Markets, As A Public Philosophy, Is They Seem To Spare Us The Need To Engage In Public Arguments About The Meaning Of Goods. So Markets Seem To Enable Us To Be Non-judgmental About Values. But I Think That's A Mistake.

The Simplest Way Of Understanding Justice Is Giving People What They Deserve. This Idea Goes Back To Aristotle. The Real Difficulty Begins With Figuring Out Who Deserves What And Why.

Markets Are Useful Instruments For Organizing Productive Activity. But Unless We Want To Let The Market Rewrite The Norms That Govern Social Institutions, We Need A Public Debate About The Moral Limits Of Markets.

What Intrigued Me Most Was Not The Technology As Such But The Questions About The Human Goods, The Fundamental Human Values And Virtues That Are Raised By Debates Over Biotechnology.