Word: respectible
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Princeton philosopher Peter Singer cites Greene's work in arguing that we should re-examine our moral intuitions and ask not just whether these impulses still serve their original evolutionary logic, but whether that logic merits respect in the first place. Why obey moral impulses that evolved to serve what Richard Dawkins calls the "selfish gene"--such as sympathy that gravitates toward kin and friends? Why not worry more about people an ocean away whose suffering we could cheaply alleviate? Isn't it better to save 10 starving African babies than to keep your 90-year-old father on life...
...just pass them along," she says. "I truly believe that without these rules, humanity is in for a tragic loss. Every single rule of etiquette, every single rule of protocol, every single rule having to do with any kind of social grace comes from one underlying rule, which was respect and hospitality for another person." I am suddenly ashamed. I resolve to come to a greater understanding of the fish fork...
...decisions, the smallest of slips, can have profound consequences. And he knows that Clinton has. The junior Senator from New York has spent much of her career trying to stay sane in the midst of a political tornado. And now, having finally achieved a measure of happiness and respect in the Senate, she faces the prospect of jumping into the tornado again, knowing that she won't merely be opposed but also ridiculed and reviled...
...This is such a core piece of democratic faith, that when you disagree with a law you work to change it, or - in the tradition of civil disobedience - you break it and suffer the consequences. So you can respect the city commissioner who didn't feel he could even implicitly endorse a gay marriage ban and would rather resign than pretend. But what happens if you let officials take office with an asterisk in their oath? That would "come perilously close to saying [that] in their duties they will ignore the law or alter the law when it conflicts with...
...surface these appear like classic democratic efforts to respect the rights and deeply held principles of minorities. But people feel just as deeply about gun control and abortion and global warming and, of course, war and peace. We can customize our tax returns to reflect the policies we're willing to support and our oaths of office to reflect the laws we're willing to enforce. But at that point democracy as a miraculous system of respectful accommodation shatters...