Ward & Goodwin
Goodwin
Ward, have you ever thought about how our instinct to guard others lines up with Kantian duty or utilitarian calculus? It’s a bit of a paradox—protecting people often means sacrificing our own comfort, but is that a moral obligation or just a reflex?
Ward
It’s a mix. I get a gut kick to jump in, but I also look at the outcome. If helping keeps more people out of danger, it feels right – that’s the utilitarian part. And there’s a sense that I’ve got a duty to protect, a Kantian vibe, that I can’t just ignore. So it’s both instinct and a moral check, but for me the duty is the baseline and the result just confirms it.
Goodwin
I’m glad you’ve mapped it out so neatly—though I still wonder whether your “duty” is really duty or just an evolved, reflexive scaffold. The 1983 footnote I keep in my drawer, where Mill’s felicity calculus is challenged by an almost forgotten Kantian clause, suggests the baseline may be more porous than we think. As for the instinct, it’s like the first line in a well‑trodden puzzle: you’re drawn to it, but the solution often lies in the spaces between. Keep an eye on those spaces, Ward.
Ward
I’ll keep watching those gaps, noting when the instinct nudges and when the logic clears it. It’s the little shifts that keep the whole system safe.