The suitability of an object to serve as a hammer is an observable property, but it can be observed only within the framework defined by the performance it is supposed to serve.
– Michael Polanyi, Personal Knowledge, p. 175
You have to figure out what something is for before you can figure out if it is good or bad, right or wrong. That’s part of our problem in ethics: if we claim that we do not know what man is for, then we do not have to judge him morally; or if we make false purposes for him, then we can judge him according to those false purposes. This is why question 1 of the Westminster Catechism is as important today as it has ever been. The big question for every action of a human is, Is this action suitable for the purpose for which this human was made?
