How to Be Good at Telling Others to Be Good: A Case for Epilogue Storytelling

The first part of this article looks at the methods we use in ideal theory to achieve a principles-first approach – idealisations, thought experiments and reflective equilibrium - and the criticisms this brings from nonideal theorists. Specifically, the criticisms I focus on are the issues with translating ideals into reality, thus questioning the use of ideal theory, and the more extreme claim that ideal theory methods create principles built upon falsehoods. I then bring another perspective to bear upon the issues of ideal theorising: Patricia Hill Collins Black Feminist Epistemology and how it problematizes a position of the abstracted, ‘detached observer’ (Collins, 2000, p. 19). The conclusion to these criticisms is to propose an addition to the way we do ideal theory – epilogue storytelling. I explain what this is and how it can connect to existing schools of thought regarding normative guidance, focussing briefly on moral sentimentalism.