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26 J. Value Inquiry 1 (1992)

handle is hein.journals/jrnlvi26 and id is 1 raw text is: The Journal of Value Inquiry 26: 1-6, 1992. Editorial Value Inquiry: Insensitivity, egoism, and the ethical community MYRA MOSS, Associate Editor The essays that compose our January 1992 value inquiry are all concerned with some aspect of the theme, Insensitivity, Egoism, and the Ethical Community. Among the thought-provoking questions that this issue suggests are: What is the relationship between sensitivity and a person's selection of one or more possible virtues? Is sensitivity to the needs and feelings of others, for instance, required for such a choice? Is it, moreover, sufficient for it? If so, how much sensitivity and toward whom? Toward one's friends only? Toward members of some organizations and certain countries, or toward all human beings? Would an awareness of and empathy with the needs of some non-human sentient species also be required for a selection of moral values? And what about perception of the earth's environment, including the space around it? Should sensitivity toward non-sentient entities be present as well in the moral choice? Yet, when we expand our sensitive awareness to include the existence of both human and non-human objects, sensitivity alone seems not to suffice for our selection among possible virtues. In his essay, Insensitivity and moral responsibility, Larry May ex- amines insensitivity and sensitivity, terms he believes are as yet unex- plored in philosophical writings. May's analysis confines itself to the uses of these terms as they occur in ordinary language and in their morally sig- nificant senses. For him, sensitivity involves an awareness of the needs or feelings of others, along with a caring about the consequences of behavior. Its value, moreover, lies in providing critical perceptiveness in moral judg- ment. Indeed, sensitivity amounts to a meta-virtue inasmuch as it provides the ground or necessary condition for the proper exercising of at least some of the other virtues, and thus may act as a corrective for them. If sensitivity is required for good moral behavior, what then of insensitivity and culpable ignorance? May illustrates easier and hard cases of moral responsibility for insensitivity. These cases range from physiological disabilities to the influence of stereotypes. Habits may serve to reinforce stereotypic thinking. Nevertheless, a person may keep open the possibility for change and thus remain responsible for those acts that result from not so doing.

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