Political Philosophy and Ethics Exam Notes

Realist View:
- The primary purpose of government is to provide security.
Rousseau's View:
- In a well-organized society, extensive security measures are unnecessary due to reduced interpersonal conflict.
- Government's role shifts to fostering the arts and intellectual development through institutions like libraries, culinary arts programs, music departments, philosophy classes, history, and literature.
- The goal is to help individuals develop their capacities and expand their minds.
- Example: GCC is built with tax money.

Enlightenment View (1700s):
- Enlightenment thinkers perceived significant progress in various aspects of life:
  - Science
  - Standard of living
  - Technology (e.g., cell phones)
  - Food quality
  - Moral progress: People are becoming happier and nicer.
Rousseau's Criticism:
- Rousseau disagreed with the notion of overall progress.
  - He acknowledged economic advancements but argued that moral values, happiness, and kindness were declining.
Idealists and Culture
- Idealists are generally critical of the culture when they examine society.
- They are idealistic about human nature but not about the current state of culture.
- Figures like Karl Marx and Rousseau exemplify this by critiquing the perceived flaws in society.

Belief: The enlightened thinkers believed in scientific and moral progress.
Moral Progress: Defined as people becoming happier and more virtuous, with fewer instances of violence and increased cooperation.

Core Criticism: Economic and scientific progress leads to a decline in moral values (happiness and virtue).
Theory of Alienation: Explains why increased standard of living doesn't correlate with increased happiness and virtue.
- Alienation Defined: Separation.
  - Self-Alienation: Separation from one's true, natural, and happy self.
    - Occurs when individuals become obsessed with unnatural or artificial, unfulfilling desires.
    - This obsession separates them from their natural contentment.
    - Example: Becoming a heroin addict, being obsessed with a Kia Soul car.
  - Social Alienation: Separation from healthy, compassionate relationships with others.
    - Rousseau believed humans are naturally compassionate and kind.
    - Economic progress leads to inequality and competition, diminishing compassion.
    - Relationships become transactional and competitive rather than based on genuine care.
Rousseau's Conclusion: Alienation from oneself and others causes a decline in happiness and virtue.

Counter-Argument: Data indicates that things are generally improving.
Evidence:
- Significant decline in extreme poverty over the last century.
- Extreme poverty has decreased from 95% to 10%.

Definition: Moral truth is determined by each culture's attitudes and practices.
- Implies there's no universal moral truth independent of cultural context.
- Moral truth is determined by each culture, like how the meaning of the color red is determined by each culture.

Definition: The view that there is moral truth independent of what any culture believes.
- Morality doesn't need to be invented by cultures; some actions are inherently wrong (e.g., throwing infants into fires).

Relative to Circumstance:
- Morals are the same, but practices vary based on circumstances.
- Example: Wrapping infants depends on the climate (hot vs. cold), but the underlying moral value (caring for children) remains constant.
Descriptive Relativism:
- Different cultures have opposing moral values.
- This alone doesn't constitute cultural relativism.
Cultural Relativism:
- Cultures have opposing moral values, and neither culture's values are better or worse than the other.
- The values are simply different.
  *Note: to be a cultural relativist one must say that the different opposing morals are "just different".

The wrapping of infants example:
- The two cultures had different practices (True).
- The two cultures had different underlying moral values (False).
- The two cultures were operating under different circumstances (True).
Dog torture question:
- The cultures have different values.
- Jack is a cultural relativist (False) unless he explicitly states that neither culture's values are better.

Cultural relativism suggests that no culture is morally superior to another, which implies Nazi culture is neither better nor worse.
Cultural relativism denies the possibility of moral progress because there is no standard to compare past and present values.

Definition: An action is wrong because God says so.
Socrates' objection to the divine command theory can be outlined through an example concerning God's command:
- Consider the statement "God says torturing infants for fun is good".
- According to the divine command theory, if God commands something, it becomes morally right simply because God commanded it.
- An alternative perspective suggests that God would never command such a thing because torturing infants is inherently wrong.

An action is moral because it maximizes happiness for the greatest number of people.
An action is immoral because it fails to maximize happiness for the greatest number of people.

Deontology disregards consequences, focusing on adherence to rational principles.
Utilitarianism emphasizes consequences, aiming to maximize overall happiness and minimize suffering.
Case Studies:
- Anne Frank case: the right thing to do is to tell the truth (according to Kant).