Mutually Tempering Values

ABSTRACT Mercy and justice are mutually tempering values. This paper explores the world of such intimately entangled values. Our moral life is enriched by a diversity of distinct values that cannot be reduced to dimensions of a single, master value; but value pluralism does not condemn us to moral chaos and moral tragedy. Values often combine in important ways without being merged into a single value. Some pairs or sets of values interact and come into conflict not merely incidentally but systematically, determined by features internal to them. They season, or temper, one another. When they combine in this way, we can find ways to manage responsibly and deliberatively the tensions among them. We cannot rule out the possibility of tragic dilemmas, but at the same time we need not find seeds of tragedy in every conflict of values. This is true, especially, of mercy and justice.