The moral philosophers whom we remember from the past — Socrates, Buddha, Jesus — lived as they preached, and much of the moral authority of their teachings comes from their willingness to sacrifice their own comfort for their beliefs (washing beggars’ feet, drinking hemlock).

Eric Schwitzgebel surveyed a sample of ethicists and determined that contemporary moral philosophers are no more likely to live a “good life” by their own lights than anyone else — though they do define a good life with more rigor than the rest of us.