Exploring Ethics (Cahn): Regan--Morality is not Constructed

1. What is THE GOOD?

2. The Nature of Good • Conventionalism • Good is what we or the gods make it. • Objectivism • Good is what it is. (Tom Regan)

3. Conventionalist Command Theories • Divine Command Theory: The gods (or God) determine the good, rewarding the good and punishing the bad. • Social Command Theory: The social community in which one lives determines the good (law), rewarding the good and punishing the bad. • Individual Command Theory: An individual moral agent determines the good, rewarding the good and punishing the bad.

4. Social Command Theory: IS THE “LAW” CONVENTIONAL? • No: • Natural Law Theory: Lex iniusta non estlex(Crito, Thomas Aquinas) • Law and Morality are necessarily connected. • E.g. slavery, abortion, gay rights • Yes: • Legal Positivism: A law is just a law subject to change according to cultural demands. (John Austin) • Law and Morality are unconnected. • E.g. slavery, abortion, gay rights

5. Individual and Social Command Theory: PROBLEMS Regan’s “Interference” Argument: a)Societies and Individuals are in disagreement about what is good and bad. b) If there is disagreement, then there cannot be a coherent moral system of punishment and reward. c) So, Individuals or Societies cannot prescribe what is just and unjust. Response: Divine Command Theory?

6. DIVINE COMMAND THEORY PROBLEM Socrates’ Argument: “Euthyphro Dilemma” I. Is something good because god says it is good or does god say it is good because it is good? II. HORN 1:If something is good because god says it is good, then anything may be good, even the “wrong.” III. HORN 2: If god says it is good because it is good, then being good is greater than god. IV. So, either the good is arbitrary or good is greater than god.

7. EUTHYPHRO DILEMMA: WHICH HORN? • Horn 1: Conventionalism--God makes up the good. Hence, the good is subject to the whims of God. • But “the good” and reasons for the good appear to be connected in a non-whimsical way. • “I will call no being good, who is not what I mean when I apply that epithet to my fellow creatures; and if such a being can sentence me to hell for not so calling him, to hell I will go” (J.S. Mill)

8. Euthyphro Dilemma: Which Horn? • Horn 2: Objectivism--The “Good” determines what God says is good. • But if there is a thing greater than God, God is unworthy of devotion. • Summary: On either horn, God is not deserving of devotion.

9. EUTHYPHRO DILEMMA: RESPONSES • Aquinas: False Dilemma! God’s essential nature is good. • Swinburne: Equivocation! The good the gods create is necessaryand so could not have been otherwise. The good the gods agree on is contingent and so could have been otherwise and further is not greater than the gods.

10. Euthyphro Dilemma: Problem • Claiming that God’s “nature” is good just pushes the dilemma back one level. • What is the reason for God’s nature being “good” in the way that it is? • Horn 1: Because God determined it to be so? • Horn 2: Because Good determined it to be so? • Either way, God is unworthy of devotion.

11. The Nature of Good • Conventionalism • Good is what we or the gods make it. • Objectivism • Good is what it is. (Tom Regan)

12. Objectivism • Good is what it is. (Tom Regan) • Uh……..

13. The Good is What it is….

14. The Good is What it is….

15. The Good is What it is….

16. The Good is What it is….

17. Summary of Regan • The good is what it is, not what you, society, or god makes it. • One version of “the good as what it is” is the open question argument: • The “good” is the type of thing we know to be true (2+2=4), but we do not know for certain it is true because no external authority can determine its truth.