Ethics, politics, and how we think.

[Fortinbras Armstrong]

5. Are you familiar with Axiomatic Systems?

If you ever had an upper level geometry course, you would almost certainly have been introduced to the concept. An axiom is a statement which is taken as true, although no proof is given to support it. Euclid says, for example, "any two points can be joined by a straight line" is so self-evident that it is true without even the possibility of controversy.

Anyway, in any philosophical system, you start with a belief, "The greatest good for the greatest number" or the Stoic view that the greatest good is contentment and serenity or the ancient Chinese view which bases the moral worth of an act on how it contributes to the social harmony of the state and so on; you then see how you can develop a system from it. Moynihan is saying that liberals and conservatives start from different axioms.