Jules states his principle (his considered moral judgment
[CMJ]):
“I don’t eat pork”
Vincent seeks a justifying principle:
“Are you Jewish”
We can assume that Vincent would accept the higher principle:
“If you are Jewish, you shouldn’t eat pork”
Jules responds:
“No, I ain't Jewish, I just don't dig on swine...Pigs a filthy animal,
I don't eat filthy animals.”
From this we can assumption he accepts the higher-order principle
(HP1): One ought not to eat filthy animals.
Vincent then tries to argue against HP1:
“But bacon tastes good, pork chops taste good.”
Again, we can make the response explicit by formulating a revised version
of HP1:
(HP1') One ought not to eat filthy animals, unless
they taste good.
But Jules rejects the revision, providing his own counter-example to
the revised principle:
“sewer rat may taste like pumpkin pie, but I'd never know, coz I wouldn't
eat the filthy mother-f*****”
Vincent then asks about dogs. Jules first interprets this as a
putative counter-example to HP1, and responds "I don't eat dog either."
It turns out, however, that Vincent is in fact uncovering an implicit
principle; let's call it HP2:
(HP2) Any animal that eats its own feces is a filthy
animal.
Vincent then uses dogs as an example of an animal that eats its own feces, but is not filthy.
Jules concurs, but notes that dogs have a good personality, thereby
impliciting revising HP2:
(HP2') Any animal that eats its own feces is a filthy
animal, unless it has a sufficiently strong personality
In the end, Jules considered moral judgment doesn't change, but we now have a better understanding of the principle he must defend, and what factual assumptions he is making. Further, we've seen that we sometimes do need to revise our principles.
In the final analysis, Jules justifies his considered moral judgment
as follows:
HP1. I ought not to eat filthy animals
HP2. Any animal that eats its own feces is filthy unless
it has a
sufficiently charming personality.
Factual assumption: All pigs eat their own feces, and most (except Arnold) do not have a sufficiently charming personality.
Therefore, Pigs are filthy animals
Therefore, I ought not to eat pork.