Taking Morality Seriously
A Victorian Children’s Story
By
David Enoch
(Simplified for real children by David Heyd)
Once upon a time there was a child whose dad had an obsession: he thought people are
threatening morality by not taking it seriously enough. So he left everything and went to
defend morality almost single handedly. He was so serious in his defense that he did not
have time to read his child bedtime stories, spending much of his time in all kinds of
demonstrations against all kinds of evil. When he realized that there is no way that he can
defend morality in real life, he was shrewd enough to opt for defending it in a book. That
made the child feel even worse, since now his dad was busy all day at the computer and
in faraway conferences.
When the book came out, dad was cruel enough to read it to his child before sleep. The
little child was sure that if his father had such tough time defending morality, its enemies
must have been extremely powerful.
So the child asked, “Dad, what is morality?”. The father answered, “that you be a good
boy”. “But I am a good boy” answered the angelic son, “why should everybody attack
morality and force you to defend it so vigorously?”. “There are strange and evil people
who are called expressivists, although they can hardly express themselves, and
constructivists who should rather be called destructivists”, said dad. “You should take
care when you meet them since they will call you “queer” and you know how bad this
word is.
“But dad, I have had nightmares dreaming about all kinds of bad people – a coarse guard,
a Simon who is black and burns, and someone who looks like Mackie the Knife – all
taking morality very lightly; what shall I do?”. Loving dad said to his child, “this is only
in your head; these bad guys are not real; they are only shadows?”. He kissed his son
robustly and promised him that after hearing dad’s story, he will fall asleep and this time
will see in his dreams moral facts rather than constructions and expressive attitudes. But
before falling asleep, the child whispered, “Dad, can I see moral facts also when I wake
up in the morning?”. “No”, said dad sternly, “you see them only in two places: in dreams
and in my book”.