Unit 3 -Philosophical Ethics and Political Philosophy

What kinds of questions do we ask when we do ethics?

  • What is the right thing to do?

  • What is the wrong thing to do?

  • What is the good?

  • What does it mean to live the good life?

  • What is just, courageous, prudent (virtuous)?

  • What will generate the best effects?

  • What is my duty or obligation?

  • What are my, and other people’s rights?

Free will and Determinism

The Dilemma of Determinism

  • Can you be morally responsible for your actions if you don’t have free will?

  • If determinism is true, we are not responsible, since our choices are determined by factors over which we have no control

  • If indeterminism is true, we are not responsible, since our choices are chance occurrences

Types of Determinism

  • Logical determinism - we know that true or false claims about the future can be made (even if we don’t know yet what they are)

  • Theological determinism - if God holds prior beliefs, those cannot be wrong

  • Physical determinism - every event is the result of the past material history of the world

What does it mean to be free?

  • Freedom is the ability to act or choose otherwise

  • Newtonian physics and the rise of determinism

  • Quantum mechanics and indeterminism

Resolving the tension

  • Can you have free will and determinism be true?

  • If yes, then you are a compatbilist

  • If no, then you are an incompatibilist

Compatabilism

  • Also describes as soft determinism

  • The compatabilism think that there is a way in which a person could have done otherwise, even though they chose to do something else and that those actions and choices are determined

Incompatibilism

  • Hard determinism

  • Free will is an illusion and does not really exist

  • Scientific experiments and free will

  • Libertarianism - we have free will

  • A though experiment

  • The compatibilist definition of free will doesn’t make sense: there must be some sort of agent-causality

Moral Relativity and Objectivity

  • First and second order moral views

  • The independence thesis

Arguments for Moral Relativism

  • The metaphysical argument

    • It does not seem that any property, things such as “rightness” or “to-be-doneness” exists in the world

    • If such a property does not exist then morality cannot be objective, because it would have to be created rather than found

    • Are there moral experts to whom we should defer when making moral decisions?

    • If morality is objective, why would be not defer to experts who specialize in discovering objective morals?

  • The motivational argument

    • This critique thinks about why you act in certain ways, like dinking water. You do not do so because you have reasoned your way to the fact that you must drink (normally) but rather because you are thirsty

    • Where and how have you learned ethics?

    • Ethics is a form of practical reasoning

  • The argument for disagreement

    • It is obvious that people disagree about morals in the present and have throughout history, so how could it be objective?

    • Quotidian moral relativism

    • Robust moral relativism

    • Questions of authority

    • Questions of judging

Problems with Relativism

  • Individual relativism

    • Why are there conflicts if it’s all relative?

    • Personal infallibility makes no sense

    • It is logically incoherent to claim that “all truth is relative”

    • Moral equivalence is intuitively implausible

  • Social relativism

    • Many of the same issues as individual relativism

    • Conflicts, at times, with our notions of human rights

    • Societies are above moral criticism

    • You can never have any reformers

Theories of Ethics

Utilitarianism

  • John Stuart Mill (1806-1873)

  • The greatest happiness principle - act in such a way that maximizes pleasure and minimizes pain for the most people

    • How do we measure pleasure and pain?

  • This is not rational egoism

Deontology

  • Immanuel Kant (1724-1804)

  • Categorical imperative - act only in accordance with that maxim through which you can at the same time will that it become a universal law

  • Humanity formulation - treat everyone, in their humanity, as an end not as a means. Respect humanity

  • What does it look like?

  • rule following

  • Acting from duty and not just in accordance with duty

  • Human rights

Virtue Ethics

  • Aristotle - the chief end of humanity is eudaimonia

  • “Virtue is a state that decides the mean relative to use to the reason by reference to which the prudent person would define it. It is a mean between two vices, one of excess and one of deficiency”

  • Particular case

    • Feelings of fear and confidence

    • Giving and taking money

  • Excess

    • Foolhardiness; without fear and rash

    • Wastefulness

  • Mean

    • Courageous

    • Generous

  • Deficiency

    • Cowardice

    • Stinginess

  • The end (telos) of a human person answers questions such as:

    • What does it mean to be a human being?(or)

    • What is a well-lived life?

    • What is the good life?

    • What will bring happiness to a human life?

  • “I can only answer the question ‘what and I to do?’ If I can answer the prior questions ‘of what story or stories do i find myself a part?’” - Alasdair Maclntyre

Using these Theories

  • Is there a best theory?

Applying Ethics

Types of Ethics

  • Descriptive ethics - doesn’t make any claims or theories, but just describes

  • Normative ethics - gives a way to reason through; will guide you to act

  • Metaethics - ethical implications, but doesn’t tell us how to live

    • The beginning of the universe

  • Applied ethics - applying theories to situations

Applying Ethics

  • Simplifying examples

  • Analogies

  • Crafting plausible principles

Singer: famine, affluence, and morality

  • “The way the people in relatively affluent countries react to a situation like that in Bengal [i.e., famine] cannot be justified” (pg 679)

  • Thesis: “if it is in our power to prevent something bad from happening, without thereby sacrificing anything of comparable moral importance, we ought, morally, to do it” (pg 679)

  • This should take no account of proximity

    • Impartiality and negative responsibility

  • Should not matter if others could also provide aid

  • This upsets the categories of duty and charity

    • Supererogation is not possible

  • I ought to give money way rather than spend it on clothes that I don’t need to keep me warm…To do so it not charitable, or generous…we ought to give money away, and it is wrong not to do so - Singer

  • How much should we give away?

  • Among practicing christians

    • 5% do not give financially

    • 34% give, the amount varies

    • 8% give, the proportion varies yearly%

    • 11% giving is set at less than 10% of income

    • 42% giving is set at 10% or more

Diamond: Eating meat and people

  • Speciesism: “our attitude to members of other species we have prejudices which are completely analogous to the prejudices people may have regard to members of other races," sex, etc. (pf 723)

  • Singer and others who assert speciesism begin by drawing a connection between humans and other (animal) lives

  • An articulation of specieisism’s argument: “we are only one kind of animal; if what is fair for us is concern for our interest, that depends only on our being living animals with interests - and if that is fair, it is fair for any animal” (pg 726)

  • This often relies on the notion of rights

  • It also raises questions of moral status

    • Substantive approach

      • Singer suggests sentience or the ability to feel pain is what gives animals equal status with humans

    • Functional approach

    • Relational approach

    • Imago Die - image/reflection of God

  • Diamond thinks we must begin by asking about the significance of being human. In other words, what are the differences between humans and animals?

  • We do not eat our dead…even if they die of natural causes, amputations, etc. (except in situations of extreme need, particular rituals, etc.)

  • This discinciton is visible in the fact that we do not eat pets

  • “A pet is not something to eat”… if someone eats a pet, then it is not a “pet” in the way that we mean the word

  • A pet “is given a name, is let into our house and may be spoken to in ways in which we do not normally speak to cows or squirrels. That is to say, it is given some part of the character of a person

  • Diamond is a vegetarian…but she describes Singer as a knee-jerk liberal on racism and sexism extending that sentiment to cows and guinea pigs

  • Because she fears that doing so will cause us to lose sight of the fact that human life is at “the source of moral life, and not appeal to the prevention of suffering which is blind to this can in the end be anything but self-destructive” (pg 726)

Anscombe’s Intention

  • Mr. Truman’s degree

  • When “a man is known everywhere” as a notorious criminal”, “it is sycophancy to honor him”

  • “For men to choose to kill the innocent as a means to their ends is always murder, and murder is one of the worst of human actions” (pg 741)

  • Definitions of intention

    • Foreseen consequences

    • The relevant answer to the questions “why”?

  • Should intentions be considered internal and private?

  • What consequences are you responsible for?

  • If ethics is only about foreseen consequences, you are only responsible for the consequences that you anticipate and hope to bring about (Anscombe think this is wrong)

  • Anscombe thinks you are responsible for the good results of good actions (but not the bad results)

  • Anscombe thinks you are responsible for the bad results of bad actions (but not the good results)

Moral Theology (Christian Ethics)

Teaching and Learning Christian Ethics

  • Moral theology and/or Christian ethics

  • How do theology and ethics relate? Is Christian ethics just one more theory to choose from when thinking about ethics?

  • What is ethics?

  • “As an academic discipline, ethics has been in search of a method, system, or procedure that will give it precision, so that an individual know what they ought to do” (pg 1)

  • If ethics becomes theory it is separated from what matters most - life

  • “What theology brings to ethics is an understanding of the moral life as a gift that seeks to participate in divine perfection” (pg xi)

  • Ethics is a gift found in the virtues of faith, hope, and love

  • We receive all these through charity that comes through the Holy Spirit

Theology Matters

  • Christology - how Jesus lives

    • Christian ethics vs moral theology

  • Anthropology - study of humanity and nature

  • Pneumatology - study of the Holy Spirit

  • Ecclesiology - study of the church

  • Eschatology - study of the end times

Political Philosophy

Ethics and Political philosophy

  • It is hard to draw a sharp line between ethics and political philosophy

  • One’s ethical approach brings with it a politics

  • Plato’s Republic

Political Authority

  • Imagine a world in which there is no government. There are no taxes, no armies, police, etc…What would that world look like?

  • This is the sate of nature

Social Contract

  • The social contract theory suggests that we all sacrifice some of our individual freedoms in order to establish a sovereign that will help us live in harmony together

  • Political authority combines coercion and trust

Forms of Sovereignty

  • Monarchy - no indecisiveness or subject to internal divisions

  • Aristocracy - “rule of the best”

  • Democracy - majority rule

    • Everyone has a voice

Anarchist Critiques

  • Because of the oppression and domination that comes from sovereigns (in any form), life would be better without then entirely

  • Communitarian anarchists - there have been stateless societies that live in better harmony than those with sovereigns

  • Utilitarian/ market anarchists (libertarians) - society would be better if the market decided what people wanted and goods were bought/sold rather than having any common goods

Freedom and Limits to Liberty

  • Negative freedom - “freedom from” or noninterference; having multiple choices available

    • This is classical liberalism

  • Positive freedom - “freedom for” or the ability to genuinely choose differently

  • Can a homeless person free to eat at the Ritz?

    • Negative freedom - yes; has freedom to eat at the Ritz

    • Positive freedom - no; does not have the freedom to afford to eat at the Ritz

  • The blanket idea that “the move a government does, the less freedom we have” people doesn’t capture important aspects of freedom

    • Some things restrict freedoms (seat-belt legislation), but some things ave things possible that otherwise would not have been (ex. government funding for education)

Mill and Liberty

  • Mill believes that some actions, those that don’t harm other, should be involably free

  • Unless an action causes harm, the following items should fall within this real on liberty: expressing and publishing opinions, framing the plan of one’s own life, uniting with others for common purposes

    • For Mill, harm is generally physical harm and does not include offenses

  • Mill thinks that offense is not a harm. Can harm and offense be separated?

  • Three things to consider when evaluating harm and offense

    • Is it a matter of personal idiosyncrasy or generally offensive?

    • Is it avoidable?

    • Does the offensive behavior have positive value in contrast to the distress it causes?

  • Mill thinks the alcoholic should only have freedom limited if they are violent

  • What is the alcoholic ends up in the Emergency Room weekly?…Should there freedom be limited?

  • Should people’s diets be monitored?

Rawls and Justice

  • Commutative justice - fairness in exchange

  • Distributive justice - equality is distribution of resources

    • Challenges

      • Need - unequal distribution of resources (natural lottery)

      • Desert - unequal distribution of talents

  • Veil of Ignorance and the Fact of Oppression

  • Equality of Fair opportunity

    • Everyone has a fair opportunity to succeed

  • Two principles

    • “Each person is to have an equal right to the most extensive scheme of equal basic liberties compatible with a similar scheme of liberties for others” pg. 1126

    • “Social and economic inequalites are to be arranged so that they are both (a) to the greatest expected benefits of the least advantage and (b) attached to office and positions open to all under conditions of fair equality of opportunity…” pg. 1130

Christian Political Philosophy

  • Dangers to be avoided in two extremes

    • Christians should transform culture and make it according to their own values

      • Can become theocracy, dominionism, constantinian

    • There are two distinct realms of culture and church (two swords) and the values of one do no translate necessarily to the others

      • Can become quietism

    • The church is an alternative culture, It does not “have a social ethic; it is a social ethic”

      • Can become sectarianism