Justice

1. Justice What’s the right thing to do?

2. What types of questions are we talking about? Two interconnected categories: personal and political: • How should we treat one another? • What should the law be? • How should society be organized?

3. Types of Questions (cont.) • How should we distribute the things we prize? (what do people deserve and why?): • Income and wealth • Duties and rights • Powers and opportunities • Offices and honors

4. Two Basic Approaches to Ethics • Consequential • Right/wrong depends on consequences • Categorical • Right/wrong depends on fundamental, absolute rights and/or duties

5. 3 Ways to Think About Controversial Issues • Welfare/happiness • Consequences • Freedom • Rights and duties • Virtue - goodness

6. Utilitarianism • Main theory of #1 – maximize welfare/happiness (consequential) • Jeremy Bentham (1748 -1832) – mere calculation in the short run • John Stuart Mill (1806 -1873) – utility over the long run which necessitates maximum personal liberty and tolerance of dissent

7. Jeremy Bentham • Nature has placed mankind under the governance of two sovereign masters, pain and pleasure. It is for them alone to point out what we ought to do, as well as to determine what we shall do. • from Principles of Morals and Legislation

8. Bentham – The Principle of Utility • An action then may be said to be conformable to or dictated by the principle of utility, when in like manner the tendency which it has to augment the happiness of the community is greater than any which it has to diminish it. • From Introduction to the Principles of Morals and Legislation

9. Kant and Categorical Imperatives • Immanuel Kant (1724-1804) • Rejects Utilitarianism because: • Majorities are not always right • Morality can’t be based on desires/preferences • Morality must be based on reason – connected to freedom (sets us apart from animals) • What counts is intention, not consequences • Duty, not self-interest • Freedom means following duty, not being slave to desires

11. Kant’s Categorical Imperatives • First Categorical (unconditional) Imperative: • Universalize: “Act only on that maxim whereby you can at the same time will that it should become a universal law.”

12. Kant’s Categorical Imperatives • Second Categorical Imperative: • Treat Persons as Ends: “Act in such a way that you always treat humanity, whether in your own person or in the person of any other, never simply as a means, but always at the same time as an end.”

13. What Would Kant Say? • Apply the two Categorical Imperatives to: • Train/Fat Man story • Doctor/organs story • Slavery • Roman gladiators • “The Ones Who Walked Away from Omelas” • Torture a terrorist/child • Lying, even if it’s a “white lie” • Emailing essays to teacher

14. Libertarianism • Like Kant, focuses on rights rather than consequences. • The main theory of freedom: • Maximize individual freedom • Minimize government (the State)

15. Robert Nozick • The minimal state is the most extensive state that can be justified. Any state more extensive violates people’s rights. • from Anarchy, State, and Utopia

16. Libertarianism Only 3 State activities allowed: • Enforce contracts – free choice of individuals • Protect private property • Keep the peace - internal and external

17. Libertarianism Not allowed: • Paternalism – protecting people from themselves (seat belt laws) • Morals legislation – e.g. prostitution, homosexuality/same sex marriage • Redistribution of wealth/income – e.g. progressive taxation

18. Rawls and Fairness • John Rawls (1921-2002) • “Justice as Fairness” • Rights-based vs. Utilitarianism and Libertarianism • Social Contract • Hypothetical agreement in the original position • Thomas Hobbes • John Locke

19. Rawls’ Veil of Ignorance • What principles would we agree to in an original state of equality? • Assume we are rational, self-interested • Assume no one knows his/her ultimate place in society.

20. Two Principles Emerge - Rawls • Equal basic rights/liberties for all: • e.g. freedom of speech and religion • Takes priority over utility • Inequalities are permitted only if they work to the advantage of the least well off people.

21. Which economy would you choosein Rawl’s original position? Lifetime-average Income Levels

22. Rawls vs. Libertarianism • Rawls rejects idea that people are entitled to all the fruits of their success. • Talents are not totally of their own doing. • Effort is often a factor of good family upbringing.

23. Rawls vs. Libertarianism • Rawls rejects idea of rewarding virtue • Talents/effort not all my own doing. • The talents a society values are arbitrary • Fresco painters highly valued in 12th century Italy • Computer programmers highly valued now • Orators highly valued in ancient Greece • Athletes highly valued now • Judge Judy makes $25 million while Supreme Court Chief Justice Roberts earns $217,400

24. Aristotle • 4th century BC • Two key interrelated ideas: • Telos – purpose, end, or essence • Honoring and rewarding civic virtue • Differs from modern theories that try to separate fairness/rights from arguments about virtue, honor, and moral “goodness”

25. Aristotle - Telos • Justice is teleological • Requires first a definition of the telos • Flute player example • Goes beyond utilitarian considerations • Academic Awards example • Justice = giving people what they deserve

26. Aristotle - Honor • Arguments about justice/rights are often about the virtues they honor and reward. • Same sex marriage • PGA golf tournament • Political community rather than individuals operating to maximize their freedom. • Greek democracy

27. The Role of “The Good” • Kant and Rawls argue that “the right” is prior to “the good” • Justice cannot depend on arbitrary and changeable conceptions of “the good.” • Libertarianism also avoids defining “the good” • Individuals free to determine their own goals/good.

28. Communitarian Theory • Obligations to each other go beyond other theories. • Drowning children • The brother criminals – Bulger and Unabomber • Ethiopian Jews • Democratic citizenship depends on a sense of community

29. Alasdair MacIntyre • Man is “essentially a story-telling animal” • “The unity of a human life is the unity of a narrative quest.” • “For the story of my life is always embedded in the story of those communities from which I derive my identity.”

30. Membership in Community(s) “I am never able to seek for the good or exercise the virtues qua individual… I am someone’s son or daughter, someone else’s cousin or uncle; I am a citizen of this or that city, a member of this or that guild or profession; I belong to this clan, that tribe, this nation… These constitute the given of my life, my moral starting point.”

31. But What Is My Quest? • A general idea of the good is the initial guide. • The goals of the quest only become understood through dealing with “particular harms, dangers, temptations and distractions” along the way.

32. So What’s the Answer? • Different theories compete in our minds • Ethical questions are usually about competing “goods” • Different factors sometimes compete within a given theory. • E.g. we may belong to different/competing communities: obligations of family versus citizenship.