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Particularism, at its most trenchant, is the claim that there
are no defensible moral principles, that moral thought does not
consist in the application of moral principles to cases, and
that the morally perfect person should not be conceived as the
person of principle. There are more cautious versions, however.
The strongest defensible version, perhaps, holds that though
there may be some moral principles, still the rationality of
moral thought and judgement in no way depends on a suitable
provision of such things; and the perfectly moral judge would
need far more than a grasp on an appropriate range of principles
and the ability to apply them. Moral principles are at best
crutches that a morally sensitive person would not require, and
indeed the use of such crutches might even lead us into moral
error. The particularist's opponent is the generalist. Ethical
generalism is the view that the rationality of moral thought and
judgement depends on a su