On Moral Advice: The Particular Need Not be Universal

The Saint Constantine School is starting a shooting team, but I will not be a coach. Why?

I am too absent minded to be a good trainer when it comes to firearms. My shooting ability is limited any way and it would not be wise for me to pretend more expertise than I have. My colleague Bob Stacey (Provost of whom none is greater) and a college student we shall call MacGyver are in charge.  MacGyver is very good at shooting and she has already given me several valuable tips.

I also don’t own a motorcycle, for similar reasons to those that keep me from coaching shooting. Nobody who starts thinking about Moby Dick and Melville’s frequent references to Plato while driving should be on two wheels instead of four.

Trust me.

Stacey and MacGyver accepted my decision quickly and Hope has never thought I should sit on, let alone ride, a motorcycle. This suggests my decision was wise.

We could generalize from this and decide: “Academic types should not ride motorcycles or coach shooting.” However tempting such a generalization might be, both Dr. Stacey and MacGyver show this to be false. I could multiply the list endlessly. A most excellent way to turn good advice into annoying legalism is to universalize my experience and apply it to everyone else.

I am absent minded . . . or hapless . . . or something . . . so all my friends must be as well. This is a big mistake. When it comes to good advice, we should avoid confusing the particular with universal ethics.

As is the fool who thinks that because he can do a thing, everyone else can safely do so. I have exactly zero desire to gamble and could sit in a casino for hours discussing great texts without any compulsion to lose the rent. I know this for a fact.

Sadly, this fun experience, and it was fun, cannot be universalized. (Why was it fun? First, we had very comfortable chairs. Second, the view out the windows was awesome. Third, the food and drink was very cheap. Fourth, our nearly free rooms were just a walk away.) In fact, I am confident that some people should never go into a casino. 

All this is a simple way of saying that you can judge sin, because when you judge sin, you are using God’s judgment. Don’t rob widows, ever. Don’t steal. Don’t covet rich people’s stuff, even if you are poor. All this is good and helpful. However, judging someone you don’t know well, because what he or she does would be imprudent and unwise for you is wrong.

This is the judgement that you cannot make unless you know the man or woman well. Nobody can look at just anyone reading Plato in a casino and know if they are in danger. Nobody should exclude a scholar from leading a gun club, because you might be judging MacGyver and not Reynolds.

Perhaps you also avoid running over to someone and saying: “That will be fine!” just because it is for you (or even most people). You don’t know another person’s struggles.

Is it wise to ride a motorcycle? It might not be for me, but it could be for you. Judge not. Is it wrong to lie? Yes. It is wrong to lie.

See? This is not so hard.

A particular bit of moral advice cannot always be universalized.