5 Morality and Reasonable Partiality ∗

What is the relation between morality and partiality? Can the kind of partiality that matters to us be accommodated within moral thought, or are morality and partiality rival sources of normative considerations? These are questions that moral philosophy has struggled with in recent decades.1 They may not have much intuitive resonance, because the term ‘partiality’ is not used much in everyday discourse. The June 2005 draft revision of the online OED offers two primary definitions of the word. The first definition is ‘[u]nfair or undue favouring of one party or side in a debate, dispute, etc.; bias, prejudice; an instance of this.’ The second definition is ‘[p]reference for or favourable disposition towards a particular person or thing; fondness; predilection; particular affection; an instance of this.’2 To someone unfamiliar