Murdoch, practical reasoning, and particularism

Particularism is a contemporary movement in moral Philosophy; that it is hard to know what to do with. On the one hand, it's hard to dismiss. Its ranks include respectable - even prominent - authors such as Jonathan Dancy, Margaret Little, John McDowell, David McNaughton and Richard Norman.1 It purports to occupy one of the two extreme positions on the spectrum of views about the generality of reasons for action, and is worth a close look just for that.