T.R. Edward Reflective equilibrium and ruthless surgery Author: Doctor Terence Rajivan Edward Abstract. T.H. Irwin characterizes the reflective equilibrium procedure as one which should not involve ruthless surgery, in a metaphorical sense. One should not abandon many moral judgments about specific situations in order to achieve a set of general principles which entails one's specific moral judgments. I propose that many people will find avoiding this difficult, because they do not conceive or go in for subtle options, such as options between liberalism and nationalism. Draft version: Version 2 (12th September 2026; v1 December 16th 2022, "major" replaced with "ruthless") This is an initial sketch of the reflective equilibrium procedure. A person has moral judgments about specific situations, such as "Ann has to pay for dinner as well." They try to systematize their judgments, to form a set of general principles which entails these specific judgments. If their principles entail the judgments, all well and good. Reflective equilibrium has been achieved. If they entail hardly any, time to look for new general principles. If they entail most, then things become more complicated. One can keep looking for better principles, in terms of entailment levels, but also one can abandon specific judgments which are not entailed. The procedure does not accord absolute priority to specific judgments, so that in a conflict better general principles must always be sought. (Rawls 1999, provides a canonical description; the method is traced back to Nelson Goodman.) Now T.H. Irwin says that reflective equilibrium is not meant to be like ruthless surgery (2009: 902). You are not meant to abandon half your judgments about specific situations and replace them with ones entailed by your principles, say. I think you can run into difficulties avoiding what is metaphorically described as ruthless surgery. One is a failure of creativity. A person only sees two options: extremely liberal principles, say, which involve giving up half their specific moral judgments to achieve reflective equilibrium - the government's protecting a national tradition apart from liberal itself is unacceptable - and extremely nationalist principles, which involve giving up even more specific moral judgments, e.g. that various racist job and housing advertisements are wrong. The subtler options do not occur to them. Also there is "I don't do that. It is too much work for me," "It's too unhealthy," "It lacks a clear identity," etc., in response to subtler options. From my experience of life, I anticipate difficulties along the two lines identified, with many people, perhaps all! Note I think Irwin should say "major surgery" rather than "ruthless." (See Edward 2022 / 2026) References N.a. n.d. Reflective equilibrium. Wikipedia. Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reflective_equilibrium (Presents the association between this method and Nelson Goodman.) Edward, Terence Rajivan. 2026 (first version 2022). "Major surgery" or "ruthless surgery," metaphorically speaking? Available at: https://www.academia.edu/93118229/_Major_surgery_or_ruthless_surgery_metaphorically_speaking And: https://website2.net/irwin_major_surgery.txt Irwin, T.H. 2009. The Development of Ethics: A Historical and Critical Study. Volume III: From Kant to Rawls. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Pigliucci, Massimo. 2012. Reflective equilibrium. Philosophy Now. Available at: https://philosophynow.org/issues/88/Reflective_Equilibrium (Associates the reflective equilibrium method with Nelson Goodman, though he did not name it.) Rawls, John. 1999 (revised edition). A Theory of Justice. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press. Available at: https://dn760007.eu.archive.org/0/items/a-theory-of-justice-john-rawls-1971/A%20theory%20of%20justice%20John%20Rawls%201971.pdf See also Edward, Terence Rajivan. 2022. Liberalism, nationalism, and pandemics: a philosophy. Available at: https://philpapers.org/archive/EDWLNA-2.pdf Edward, Terence Rajivan. 2022. Between the original original position and nationalism. Available at: https://philpapers.org/archive/EDWBTO.pdf Edward, Terence Rajivan. 2022. Nationalism and the original position. Available at: https://philpapers.org/archive/EDWBTO.pdf