Does Patterson believe in the pricelessness of human beings because, of all earthly things, human beings are capable of love? To maintain this belief in the face of the inevitable pricing of human worth requires faith. Does Patterson believe that our decisions are impossible to explain causally because they are the products of free will? To maintain this belief in the face of the usual modern explanation requires faith. Does he believe that our legal decisions are inevitably moral because-not in spite of-the factladen, culture-laden nature of legal judgment that cannot be captured by an external moral calculus (because the decider is also the critic, the observer is the participant) and thus requires an account be given in its own terms, which alone can satisfy the conscience?

XREF: Connects to debates about free will vs. causal determinism in modern philosophy and moral psychology.

Philip Chase Bobbitt, Philip Chase Bobbitt - Refl…, loc. 896