90 books in 90 days -- thick and thin

Many ethicists are addressing the problem that the Enlightenment brand of universals has created.  The notion that there is a universal, objective truth or morality, or way of reasoning, that all people in all places at all times can access.  Many good ethicists today recognize that this is not true.  The architects of that way of reasoning generally start with a thin description of "things we can all agree on".  This is the universal, and political philosopher Michael Walzer calls this way of thinking "proceduralism" in his Thick and Thin:  Moral Argument at Home and Abroad (p 11) -- and in philosophical terms this line of thinking it is called foundationalism.  It is the notion that a thin morality of discourse or decision governs every particular creation of a substantive, thick morality (p 11).  Walzer argues that this does not accord with our actual lived experience.  We in fact come to know morality thickly, interpreted within our particular traditions and lived experiences before we are capable of empathizing with someone from a different group.  Thus, maximalism precedes minimalism, not the other way around.  That describes the human experience much better than the enlightenment description of universals (p 9).

Walzer continues to describe minimalism as thinly reiterated features of maximally formed morality (p 10).  It is not a stand-alone moral system, but describes an empathic moment in which we recognize vestiges of thickly formed notions (of truth and justice) from our own moral structures, within another people group.  It is a cross cultural language of empathy that is expressed in times of crisis, when different groups share a common foe.  It is neither abstract, nor separate from its maximalist formation.  But it allows us to recognize injustice in another context and march, for a time, in solidarity with people of a different context.  The maximalism that forms our worldview can be minimally reiterated in other cultures empathically, for a moment (p 9).   Thus, it is transcultural; it allows us to participate vicariously in other people marches.  If it were not capable of providing its participants with this vicarious ability, it is defective.  It must have universal intent.  Lastly, one's morality must be helpful for social criticism.  This final point is a theme that Walzer continues from his book Interpretation and Social Criticism, and is a major theme throughout Interpretation.  How do we critique one another's maximally formed morality?  Walzer responds to critics of Spheres of Justice by arguing that maximally formed morality is corrected from within its own tradition by maximalist critique.  He does this by appeal to his notion of differentiation and distributive justice; justice requires the defense of difference -- different goods distributed for different reasons among different groups of people ... and this interpretation of justice is worked out within the thickness of particular cultures and societies (p 33).  Thus, differentiation is an essential ingredient in the effort to resist injustice.  Thick and Thin tells this story of differentiation from the introduction of an actual language birthed and practiced within social diversity (chapter 1), to the explanation of distributive justice as a maximalist morality (chapter 2), to the description of maximalist internal critique (chapter 3), followed by the international reach of minimalism (chapter 4), only to end with a healthy view of the self-as-differentiated and supportive of healthy, just societies (chapter 5).  This way of reasoning argument that Walzer gives us provides society with a better universal for the sake of justice.