Abstract
What is the scope of morality? To whom are we obligated? Whom are we morally required to help? Whom may we not harm? Whom commands our respect and from whom are we forbidden to withhold our assistance? Do moral concerns and requirements diminish over distance, so that our duties are stronger to those who are near to us, and weaken to vanishing point as possible beneficiaries of our actions and inactions are found further and further away? And what does distance mean in these cir cumstances? When is a person near to me? When is a person far away? Is it a matter of who they are, and of their relation to me (affection, blood, fellow-citizenship)? Or is it sheer geography? If it is geography, does a person count as near or far in virtue of where they live or in virtue of where (right now) they happen to be? For classic treatment of moral distance, we may turn to a very familiar story.1 It relates a conversation between Jesus of Nazareth and a lawyer:
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