COMPENSATORY ETHICS: “IN THIS WICKED WORLD….”

COMPENSATORY ETHICS: “IN THIS WICKED WORLD….” A theory of compensatory ethics fits with the story I told here about the hotel detective who told Doc Kearns, the boxing manager, that he had just rolled a drunk and was wondering if he had done the right thing. kearns advised him to put some of the money bacK so the drunk would think he had spent the rest. Kearns told a reporter what I have always taken as the moral of the story: “In this wicked world, we do the best we can.” The story can be seen as an example of how ethical advice can be given to somebody whose stock of virtue is small.