Kallenberg Writes, "Our Ability to Recognize a Family Resemblance Is

question 52

Essay

Kallenberg writes, "our ability to recognize a family resemblance is more of a tacit skill than an exercise of theoretical reasoning." What does he mean by "family resemblance" and "tacit skill?" Has your moral development come about through habitual training and the recognition of family resemblances? Or has it been more of a deliberate exercise in theoretical reasoning?
e.g. skills learned through examples of others, rather than reasoning for ourselves, we're likely to emulate their misjudgments or corrupt choices.
People don't always do what they profess to be right and they don't always get it right when they do intend to do right. Furthermore, Kallenberg says, "truth can be spoken only by someone who is already at home in it." It's my opinion that no one person can possess all of the truth, that there is often more than one truth, and that truth is a cultural construction in many cases. If I tell my children that I know all truths and therefore my instruction and example are the only ones of value, and I proceed to train them to recognize only values that bear a family resemblance to my own, I've limited their ability to recognize the value in other cultures or other systems of value. Consequently I'll have trained my children to exclude from public discourse those whose cultures and values don't conform to ours. I think that Kallenberg's theory only holds up in a hypothetical perfect world where all masters are truly wise.
I have developed the majority of my own moral policies and practices, as opposed to values and habits, independently of my upbringing. I was an obedient child; however, I've always had a strong, inherent feeling that the values and practices I was raised with were skewed. As an adult I have gone in search of other truths and a multiplicity of value systems and have chosen an alternate worldview that I see as moral and ethical, both inherently and in comparison to those I was raised with. So yes, my latent moral development has most certainly been a deliberate exercise in moral theoretical reasoning (a.k.a. critical thinking).

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Definitions:

Wagered

The act of betting or staking something of value on the outcome of an event or a situation, often involving a degree of risk.

Stop Payment

An order given to a bank by an account holder not to pay a check or payment that has been issued but not yet processed.

Enforce

To compel observance or compliance, especially of laws, rules, or agreements.

Fewer Than

A comparative phrase used to indicate a smaller quantity or number of something when compared to another.