The capacity to abstract, to code morality in image and word, has facilitated the communication, comprehension and development of behavior and behavioral interaction. However, the capacity to abstract has also undermined the stability of moral tradition. Once a procedure has been encapsulated in image-and, particularly, in word-it becomes easier to modify, "experimentally"; but also easier to casually criticize and discard. This capacity for easy modification is very dangerous, in that the explicit and statable moral rules that characterize a given culture tend to exist for reasons that are
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