The Restatement of the Obvious: Or, What's Right Got to Do With It?

Abstract

A variation of Moral Realism, as specified in Appendix One of this essay, is a non-proprietary, non-sectarian, and non-antiquarian set of foundational principles upon which a rule of law, grounded in morality and history and balanced by analytic and pragmatic concerns, can be established among free and equal citizens. A restatement at this level of generality is both possible and highly desirable. This essay proposes a first tentative draft of such a restatement.

Keywords: Moral realism, Restatement of the obvious, Modern moral realism, Normative jurisprudence