The laws of conscience, which we pretend to be derived from nature, proceed from custom.

A good deal of what feels like an instinct about right and wrong is the shape your upbringing left. It arrives with all the force of nature and none of the argument, which is why it is so hard to examine. Some of it would survive scrutiny; some is simply what the people around you happened to do.

Notice a strong reaction of disapproval you had this week. Ask whether you could give a reason for it that does not rest on how things were done where you grew up. Some will hold, and the ones that do not are worth loosening before they cost someone else something.