Putting Cruelty First.

Why this matters here

Judith N. Shklar’s essay “Putting Cruelty First” argues that liberalism should rank cruelty as the worst vice and prioritize preventing cruelty over thicker projects of moral perfection. After Certainty distinguishes that seriousness about harm from the emotional temptation to treat premature closure as seriousness when uncertainty becomes exhausting. Shklar establishes a moral priority; the book asks when narrated finality substitutes for understanding that remains incomplete.