Living Together

The book “Living Together: Inventing Moral Science” by philosopher David Schmidtz seeks to answer a question that appears simple but is deeply significant: how can human beings—despite differences in their values, interests, and visions of life—live together without those differences turning into constant conflict? The book starts from the reality of contemporary societies, which are characterized by cultural and moral pluralism. There is no comprehensive agreement on what is good or just, yet shared life continues. Schmidtz criticizes dominant trends in moral philosophy that tend to construct ideal theories based on rational actors who always follow rules. He argues that this abstract approach distances ethics from real human experience. Instead, he proposes understanding ethics as a practical discipline that emerges from people’s attempts to solve everyday problems, organize their relationships, and build institutions capable of reducing friction and conflict. In this context, he redefines justice as a coordinating framework that organizes interactions among individuals, rather than a project aimed at imposing an ideal way of life or achieving absolute equality. He likens justice to traffic signals: they do not determine drivers’ destinations, but they ensure smooth flow and prevent chaos. Likewise, ethics does not aim to eliminate differences, but to manage them peacefully. The book concludes that moral progress is achieved by reducing injustice, limiting power, and giving individuals space to choose and to dissent. Societies flourish when they establish stable, general rules that enable coexistence, rather than when they pursue an ideal world that is impossible to achieve.