There’s an old joke about a wealthy man talking to a famous actress. After he asks her if she would sleep with a stranger for a million dollars, she delivers an enthusiastic, “Yes!” He then inquires if she would do the same for five dollars. Offended, she fumes: “Five dollars? What kind of woman do you think I am?”

“We’ve already established that,” the man rejoins. “Now we’re just haggling over the price.”

Although this joke probably doesn’t fly in today’s PC climate, we all get the point. The woman has already admitted that her principles are negotiable for the right sum. Determining the lower bounds of that sum, then, should not be inherently offensive.

This may seem like just a crude joke, but it’s actually an insightful glimpse into the fundamental philosophical debate of our time—perhaps the fundamental philosophical debate of all time. And it helps us respond to the lockdowners, the anti-free speechers and other enemies of civilization with an answer that actually gets to the heart of the issue.

What on earth? An editorial that starts with an off-colour joke? What’s the meaning of this? Find out all about it (and learn more about moral philosophy than you thought you were going to today) in this week’s edition of The Corbett Report Subscriber.

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