Philosophy & Your C onscience

1. Philosophy & Your Conscience Values, Self & Knowledge Lecture 2

2. Admin • Module blog • Comprehension exercise • To be discussed in class next Monday (22/7)

3. Please share: • One action that is clearly morally wrongin your view • One action that is clearly morally permissible in your view • One action that you’re not sureif it’s morally wrong Please be ready to justify your view

4. Moral philosophy – the big picture What is ethics? Applied Ethical Theory Applied ethics Meta-Ethics

5. Recap: Why should I be moral?

6. Typical responses • “I should be moral only because it benefits me.” • “I should be moral only because it helps me get what I want.”

7. Why? Why?? What reason is there to treat your friends well? “Because I care about my friends.” What reason is there to care about your friends? “None”

8. Lack of foundation Treating friends well No reason to do this! Justified by Care for friends Justified by Nothing!

9. Lack of foundation Treating friends well Treating friends well Justified by Justified by Care for friends Care for friends Justified by Justified by Intrinsic value of friendship Nothing!

10. The calculated pursuit of Hello Kitty • I want the Hello Kitty figure • I would get the figure if I queue at McDs • Therefore, I should queue at McDs I should try to get what I want.

11. Rationality principle • “I should be moral only because it benefits me.” • “I should be moral only because it helps me get what I want.” I should do only what benefits me I should do only what satisfies my wants

12. Putting them together Rationality Principle Our wants decide what we should do. Moral action doesn’t always get us what we want. Observation About Morality Conflict Moral Conviction Moral obligation doesn’t depend on our wants.

13. Coming up… Why should I be moral? What is morality?

14. Morality, according to Bundy “Then I learned that all moral judgments are "value judgments," that all value judgments are subjective, and that none can be proved to be either "right" or "wrong." I even read somewhere that the Chief Justice of the United States had written that the American Constitution expressed nothing more than collective value judgments. Believe it or not, I figured out for myself - what apparently the Chief Justice couldn't figure out for himself -- that if the rationality of one value judgment was zero, multiplying it by millions would not make it one whit more rational.

15. “And I quickly discovered that the greatest obstacle to my freedom, the greatest block and limitation to it, consists in the insupportable "value judgment" that I was bound to respect the rights of others.”

16. What is morality? • Is it merely a social construct? • Or is its reality independent of us? What do these mean? How do we tell?

17. Empirical claims • There are chairs in this room. • Singapore has a smaller land area than Russia. • Aliens exist • Economic growth leads to higher income for everyone

18. The nature of morality What is it for something to be true independently of us? • “The Earth revolves around the Sun.” • Its truth doesn’t depend on us • “Golf is extremely enjoyable.” • Its truth doesn’t depend on us? • Depends on whether we in fact enjoy it?

19. Are moral judgments absolutely true? Its truth doesn’t depend on us?

20. Strange & Stranger “But there was one man who liked to work and liked to be helpful. The compulsion was too strong for him to repress it in favour of the opposite tendencies of his culture. Men and women never spoke of him without laughing; he was silly and simple and definitely crazy. Nevertheless, to the ethnologist used to a culture that has, in Christianity, made his type the model of all virtue, he seems a pleasant fellow…”

21. “Morality differs in every society, and is a convenient term for socially approved habits.” Ruth Benedict, Patterns of Culture

22. Criterion How do we tell if we have the right answer? Are moral judgments absolutely true? What is the right criterion?

23. Stepping back How do we tell if we have the right answer? Are moral judgments absolutely true? Claim/Theory How do we tell if the claim/theory is right?

24. Observation/Evidence Theory Gravity

25. What’s the evidence Moral Relativism Moral Absolutism

26. “All moral judgments are relative” What does this mean? • Situational relativism • Descriptive relativism • Meta-ethical relativism

27. Situational relativism • Whether an action is right depends on the situation • Entering a home • Killing a person • “If I throw a pen, it will fall.” • Depends on the situation?

28. Situational relativism • General claims have exceptions • Should be revised to account for exceptions • “X will happen if these conditions are met.” • E.g. Higher and lower laws of nature • “X is wrong if these conditions are met.” • Higher and lower moral laws?

29. Descriptive relativism • What people accept as moral depends on their culture, upbringing, external circumstances • Sociological claim • Can be verified by empirical observation

30. Meta-ethical relativism • Whether a moral judgment is right fully depends on the culture in which the judgment is made • The rightness/wrongness of moral judgments are not independent of culture • Not right ‘simpliciter’

31. What the difference? • Descriptive relativism • What people actually accept something as moral • Meta-ethical relativism • What determines if the judgments people accept are right/wrong • When people should accept something as moral

32. Good argument? Descriptive relativism • What people actually accept Meta-ethical relativism • What people should accept Different cultures consider different actions moral/immoral What’s moral/immoral depends on culture

33. Good argument? Culture A: “Cross-dressing is wrong” Culture B: “Cross-dressing is not wrong” Culture A: “The Earth is flat” Culture B: “The earth is not flat” Cross-dressing is neither right nor wrong in itself Whether it is wrong depends on culture The Earth is neither flat nor not-flat in itself Whether it is flat depends on culture

34. Good argument? Culture A: “The Earth is flat” Culture B: “The earth is not flat” Different people have different beliefs about the Earth’s shape Their beliefs are relative to culture The Earth is neither flat nor not-flat in itself Whether it is flat depends on culture Since they have different beliefs, therefore the Earth has different shapes depending on their culture?

35. Culture A: “The Earth is flat” Culture B: “The earth is not flat”

36. Hidden principle Culture A: “The Earth is flat” Culture B: “The earth is not flat” “When people have different views about something, then there is no fact of the matter?” Everyone is always correct? The Earth is neither flat nor not-flat in itself Whether it is flat depends on culture

37. Good argument? Culture A: “Cross-dressing is wrong” Culture B: “Cross-dressing is not wrong” Culture A: “The Earth is flat” Culture B: “The earth is not flat” Cross-dressing is neither right nor wrong in itself Whether it is wrong depends on culture The Earth is neither flat nor not-flat in itself Whether it is flat depends on culture

38. Good argument? No way to know who is right? Culture A: “Cross-dressing is wrong” Culture B: “Cross-dressing is not wrong” Cross-dressing is neither right nor wrong in itself Whether it is wrong depends on culture

39. Physical & Moral Realities? • “There is a bottle in this room.” • “The Earth is not flat.” We can verify these claims by our senses! • “Bullfights are morally ok.” • “Slavery is immoral.” We cannot verify these claims by our senses!

40. Further scrutiny • “There is a bottle in this room.” • “The Earth is not flat.” We can verify these claims by our senses! Because it seems to you that there is a bottle in this room? How do you know this?

41. Further scrutiny • “Bullfights are morally ok.” • “Euthanasia is immoral.” We can verify these claims by our moral sense! Because it seems to you that it is wrong to cause animals suffering for our recreation? How do you know this?

42. Parity? • In both domains, we acquire our views through how the world seems to us • Why allow verification by our physicalsenses, but not by our moralsense?

43. Because the physical world is all there is! But how do you know that?

44. Review • Aspects of ethics • Applied ethics, applied ethical theory, meta-ethics, moral motivation • Moral relativism & absolutism • How should we evaluate a theory? • Kinds of relativism • An argument for meta-ethical relativism

45. Their cause must be our cause too. Because it is not just Negroes, but really it is all of us, who must overcome the crippling legacy of bigotry and injustice. And we shall overcome. - United States President Lyndon Johnson, 1965. An argument for meta-ethical absolutism

46. Argument for moral realism • Meta-ethical absolutism = moral objectivism • Argument: Moral realism is the best explanation of 3 features of reality

47. (1) Convergence of moral judgments • There seems to be a diversity of contradictory moral judgments • Ruth Benedict’s description of the culture of paranoia, etc

48. (1) Convergence of moral judgments Primary moral judgment Secondary moral judgment Non-moral judgment It is morally right to ensure the wellbeing of the dead Eating the dead will ensure their wellbeing in the afterlife It is morally right to eat the dead

49. (1) Convergence of moral judgments ‘Every culture has a concept of murder, distinguishing this from execution, killing in war, and other “justifiable homicides.” The notions of incest and other regulations upon sexual behavior, the prohibitions upon untruth under defined circumstances, of restitution and reciprocity, of mutual obligations between parents and children – these and many other moral concepts are altogether universal.’ Clyde Kluckhohn

50. (1) Convergence of moral judgments • Convergence of perceptual judgments = There is an objective physical reality which we are all making judgments about • Convergence of moral judgments = There is an objective moral reality which we are all making judgments about