Moral Singularity : Life Inside Closed Moral Worlds

Full title

Moral Singularity: Life Inside Closed Moral Worlds and Why Moral Conversation Breaks Down

Author: Steve Perkins

Moral Singularity is a structural diagnostic book. It is not a political argument, a cultural critique, or a proposal for reform.

The book examines how moral systems can become closed to correction once particular conditions are in place — often without anyone intending closure, and without requiring bad faith, coercion, or ideological commitment. It describes how sincerity, care, urgency, and moral seriousness can reorganise judgment, knowledge, and disagreement until ordinary moral conversation no longer functions as expected.

The focus is not on blame, but on intelligibility.

What this book is

Moral Singularity develops a framework for understanding how moral systems behave under sustained conditions of urgency, coordination pressure, and internal validation.

Its central claim is that closure can arise from pro-social forces — care, responsibility, responsiveness, and the desire to reduce harm — when time compresses and alignment becomes a functional substitute for inquiry. Under these conditions, coherence can begin to outrun correction, and disagreement is increasingly experienced as threat rather than information.

The book is descriptive rather than prescriptive. It aims to make these dynamics readable from within, while the system still appears to be functioning normally.

What this book is not

This is not a denial of harm or injustice, and it does not treat the dynamics described as ideology, manipulation, or bad faith. It does not argue for particular political positions, moral outcomes, or institutional reforms.

The book also does not offer solutions or remedies. It describes limits — including the point at which “more dialogue,” “more evidence,” or “better intentions” cease to have their intended effects.

Key concepts developed in this work

The book introduces and systematises a linked explanatory architecture, including the following named constructs:

Moral Singularity — a stable closure state in which a moral system becomes self-validating and external correction loses standing.
Epistemic Inversion — alignment begins to function as evidence of understanding; coherence substitutes for correction.
Conviction Cascades — certainty amplifies through repetition and legibility under time pressure, rather than through inquiry.
Therapeutic Enclosure — care and protection language progressively narrows what can be safely questioned or explored.
Authority Without Argument — stabilisation without persuasion, where “settledness” itself confers standing.
Inner Ontological Flattening — inner experience is scanned as moral evidence, reducing tolerance for ambiguity or multiplicity.
Reflective Firewall — the boundary conditions required for reflective capacity to remain possible at all.

These concepts function together as a single explanatory model rather than as isolated ideas.

Scope and origins

The framework developed in Moral Singularity emerged from clinical, supervisory, and institutional contexts rather than from academic theory-building or political commentary.

The dynamics described are treated as domain-general. They are observable in care systems, professional cultures, political and activist movements, religious organisations, and high-pressure institutions wherever moral urgency and coordination demands are sustained over time.

Publication status

The manuscript is complete. Publication is planned for a later date.

This page functions as a reference description rather than a launch or pre-order page. Updates will be posted here when available.

About the author

Steve Perkins is a UK-based therapist and supervisor. His work focuses on autonomy, reflective capacity, and the conditions under which care, urgency, and institutional pressure can unintentionally narrow psychological and moral space.

Whitestone Therapy

Psychotherapy, Coaching & Counselling in Shoreham-by-sea, London & Online