 Ross attempts to develop an ethical framework that is faithful to and reflects the central ‘moral convictions of thoughtful and well-educated people’ (RG 41; FE 1–5). These convictions constitute, for Ross, “the data of ethics just as sense-perceptions are the data of a natural science” (RG 41). At least some of these moral convictions, Ross thinks, constitute knowledge the philosopher neither proves nor disproves (RG 20–21n1, 40). An ethical theory should not, Ross contends, repudiate these convictions – these facts – in an effort to simplify or systematize our moral thinking (RG 19, 40; FE 5, 83).