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Perhaps the most important thing to realize about the normative variables is that they cannot be generated in the abstract but emerge fairly readily in concrete situations--in combination with culture and tradition. The best evidence for the validity of approaching them piecemeal in this way is the universal availability of the apparatus in everyday affairs. There is a strong tendency to assume that normative variables applicable to every and all situations must be created at the outset. Focusing on individual cases serves to counteract that inclination at least partly. The goal in every application is a working solution to the particular case; the point of departure for the development of the apparatus is always the particular case, analytically at least.

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To illustrate the ease with which the analytic apparatus can be applied, consider the situation discussed earlier of the worker trying to decide whether or not to accept a new position. Some of the changes in input variables (income, physical location, and so on) are obvious, and assuming an "average" family, with appropriate buffer variables, some of the normative problems involved are readily explored by those involved. The children, for example, would be separated from their present friends, recreational outlets, and from the grandparents. Discussion can handle such problems very easily. The physical separation is an input variable; what effect would a change in that variable have?

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If the children were in close and frequent contact with the grandparents in the present location (buffer variable), separation might be taken more seriously by the parents. The effect of separation (input variable) would be felt in a different set of normative variables and by a different set of persons (not just the children themselves). The desirable effects of continued interaction on both children and grandparents, measured in terms of current pleasure as well as such things as formation of long-term behavior patterns or characteristics, might weigh heavily in the parents' ethical system, heavily enough to lead them to forego the benefits of the change to allow the children to maintain close contact with the grandparents.

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From a slightly different perspective, the meaning of preference as it appears within the analytic framework differs significantly from the meaning of such other relative evaluative terms as utility in economics or value in decision making. "Preferred" refers to an assessment of the normative qualities of the lives of the population affected by action that is independent of the person making the choice. "Utility," in contrast, implies a referent, a person or collectivity that serves as a base point for measurement or assessment. Elimination of that reference point should reduce the likelihood that unacceptable biases will be introduced into the justification offered for action.

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As long as discussion focuses on the quality of the life, taken as a whole, rather than on factors that contribute to the quality, it is not difficult to argue that particular outcomes are beneficial even if it proves very difficult to specify exactly what benefit is involved. The justification for arguing that a life that contains a particular element is preferable to a life that does not can rely on testimony from those who have tried both situations and reacted to them, the judgments of qualified experts who have tried to examine such effects systematically, and so on. The conceptual apparatus used for dealing with the normative dimensions of life does not have to be very precise to be useful and open to improvement, and that is the central concern, given the present state of the available knowledge.

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Finally, the ethical dimensions of action captured in the priorities are quite different from the psychological dimensions of action sometimes used as "reasons" that explain and/or justify particular actions. A priority identifies the outcome that should be selected or preferred within a given set and not the outcome that is most likely to be chosen under specified circumstances. The "reasons why" an action is taken are not equivalent to the kind of ethical justification required for reasoned action. A somewhat nasty illustration can sharpen the distinction and suggest its importance. If a choice must be made between the lives of two children by reason of circumstances and no information is available about either child, there is no basis for choosing one rather than the other.

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If it is known that one child is normal and healthy, while the other is very badly disabled and unlikely to survive to maturity, the decision is readily made and justified, although it would be very difficult to implement. If, however, the mother of the disabled child were to make the choice, she could reasonably be expected to make, and give reasons for, a quite different preference. In both cases, "reasons" would be offered to support the decision. But the content of the two sets of reasons, and their ethical import, would be different. The critical apparatus used for assessing actions must be able to differentiate between these two kinds of reasons and adjudicate them.

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Like any other intellectual instrument, priorities are developed inductively from the particular case, and tested or justified by reference to particular cases. The most important procedural requirement is that development begins with a real, particular case, for the same reasons that a classification of birds begins with observations of real, particular birds. Cases may be aggregated, but it is the particular case that matters. The reason for emphasizing the point so strongly is that a particular case must be solved before a priority can be created. Priorities generalize the solutions to particular cases; the solution must be available before it can be generalized.

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To summarize, a priority provides a normative base for action, fulfills the normative requirement for action, in a particular situation or class of situations. The justification for the priority is found in its capacity to indicate the preferred outcome. The justification for the preference, which is the more narrowly ethical aspect of the process of developing priorities, is found in a comparison of the available outcomes by reference to past experience with the conditions of life that appear there. The preference must be justified before the priority can be created; the priority must be available before action can proceed, even in the case from which the priority was generated.

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Second, the inductive/comparative approach to ethics forces attention to the full costs and benefits of action, thus avoiding the common error of focusing on selected benefits and ignoring costs. What is chosen or preferred must be the complete set of consequences contained in the film clip that projects the expected results of action. That outcome cannot be chosen without prior comparison of the content of each of the available alternatives, avoiding the practice exemplified by the Roman emperor judging the two finalists in a singing contest: Having heard the first singer, he promptly awarded the prize to the second.