# Ethics without Principles Bentham: > What one expects to find in a principle is something that points out some external consideration that will support and guide the internal sentiments of approval and disapproval; this expectation is not well fulfilled by a proposition that does neither more nor less than hold up each of those sentiments as a ground and standard for itself. Nagel: > The pursuit of objectivity with respect to value runs the risk of leaving value behind altogether. We may reach a standpoint so removed from the perspective of human life that all we can do is to observe: nothing seems to have value of the kind it appears to have from inside, and all we can see is human desires, human striving—human valuing, as an activity or condition. In chapter 8 I alluded to the fact that if we continue along the path that leads from personal inclination to objective values and ethics, we may fall into nihilism. The problem is to know where and how to stop, and it shows itself in some of the more personally disturbing questions of philosophy. Bentham asks why why why. At a certain point, you > The objective self is dragged along by the unavoidable engagement of the whole person in the living of a life whose form it recognizes as arbitrary. It generates a demand for justification which it at the same time guarantees to be unsatisfiable, because the only available justification depends on the view from inside. > > […] > > Finding my life objectively insignificant, I am nevertheless unable to extricate myself from an unqualified commitment to it—to my aspirations and ambitions, my wishes for fulfillment, recognition, understanding, and so forth. The sense of the absurd is the result of this juxtaposition. > Morality is a form of objective reengagement. It permits the objective assertion of subjective values to the extent that this is compatible with the corresponding claims of others. It can take various forms, some of which I have discussed. **All of them involve, to one degree or another, occupying a position far enough outside your own life to reduce the importance of the difference between yourself and other people, yet not so far outside that all human values vanish in a nihilistic blackout**. Concilliation, violence, convergence #inbox