Excellent read. I'm sorry if my next question pains you (because I believe it stems from my lack of comprehension rather than your ability to explain yourself). How does your philosophical position relate to stability and reciprocity? I understand the argument that normative moral systems have an implicit requirement for both stability and reciprocity (no matter how unequal) but I didn't quite understand how that related to your position. From my understanding because your philosophy is not a normative philosophy stability and reciprocity don't play a big role or possibly no role at all. Is that correct?
Actually, I make a fairly sudden shift from doing philosophy (trying to make the idea of morality coherent) to doing something more akin to sociology (trying to understand the consequences of adopting various normative systems). The only excuse I can give for this is that I meant what I said in the title: "Notes on..." Maybe in a year or two I can condense this into something less rambling. No, quite you're correct. My empirical position doesn't guarantee you anything. Still, I like reciprocity, and at heart believe it would be a decent normative standard.