The “right thing” is complicated…but it’s also pretty straightforward. All the philosophical and religious traditions—from Confucius to Christianity, Plato to Hobbes and Kant—revolve around some version of the golden rule. In the first century BC, Hillel, the Jewish elder, was asked by a skeptic if he could summarize the Torah while standing on one foot. In fact, he could do it in ten words. “Love thy neighbor as thyself,” Hillel told the man. “All the rest is commentary.”
