Many theories in the history of ethics have held that there cannot be genuinely irresolvable moral dilemmas, that is, an agent cannot be bound by two moral requirements, neither of which overrides the other in a morally relevant way. The major goal of a moral theory is to demonstrate how to resolve apparent conflicts. Recently, a number of philosophers have challenged this standard view about moral conflicts and the role of ethical theory. Their claim is that the moral universe is more complicated than many theories acknowledge. The inevitability of conflicts is a moral datum that a theory must accommodate. "One of the gravest normative problems with which we must deal is the existence of deep and apparently irresolvable moral disagreements," says David Wong. "We must know how to act when no single side in a disagreement can show that it has the best arguments."' John Rawls says of his theory, "Justice as fairness tries to construct a conception of justice that takes deep and unresolvable differences on