Introduction

1. Introduction Values, Self & Knowledge

2. The big picture • Meetings • Topics • Aims • Constraints • Assessment • Essay plan, essay, exam, tutorial participation • Admin details

3. Our meetings • 10 lectures • 3 hours (!) • 2 breaks • Slides available after lecture • 5 tutorials • 1 hour

4. What is Philosophy? • Biology • Civil Engineering • Philosophy?

5. A puzzle

6. The Swiss Cheese Paradox • The more holes there are, the less cheese there is. • Swiss cheese has holes. • More Swiss cheese, more holes. • Therefore, the more Swiss cheese there is, the less cheese there is.

7. The Swiss Cheese Paradox (X) Swiss cheese has holes. (1) More Swiss cheese, more holes. (2) The more holes there are, the less cheese there is. (3) Therefore, the more Swiss cheese there is, the less cheese there is.

8. The Swiss Cheese Paradox (1) X Y (2) Y Z (3) Thus, X Z (1) More Swiss cheese, more holes. (2) The more holes there are, the less cheese there is. (3) Therefore, the more Swiss cheese there is, the less cheese there is.

9. Compelling example (1) Tom is a lion Tom is a cat (2) Tom is a cat Tom is a mammal (3) Thus, Tom is a lion Tom is a mammal

10. The Swiss Cheese Paradox (1) X Y (2) Y Z (3) Thus, X Z (1) More Swiss cheese, more holes. (2) The more holes there are, the less cheese there is. (3) Therefore, the more Swiss cheese there is, the less cheese there is.

11. What important thing have you learnt about the world?

12. What philosophers do Consider Bill Clinton. Clinton might have been different in many ways. Had things turned out otherwise, he might have never been impeached. In fact, he might never have been president… He might have lived in a different country. He might have had electric blue hair. But now: could he have been a flower?

13. What philosophers do We can of course imagine an eccentric person naming a flower ‘Bill Clinton’. But the question is not whether a flower could have been named ‘Bill Clinton’. The question is whether a flower could have been Bill Clinton. Concerning the man actually called Bill Clinton (i.e. the actual 42nd president of the United States), could he have been a flower? And the answer seems to be no… Likewise, it seems that Clinton could not have been a table, or an antelope. Ted Sider, Riddles of Existence

14. Introduction to Philosophy Through Process Through Issues

15. Topics What is morality? Ethics Is this moral? Why be moral? Are we free? What am I? Self Is the mind the brain?

16. Recommended approach • Solve the puzzles • Understand the questions Participate Read

17. Assessment Essay Plan (10%) • 500 words • Due 11 March 9 am • Submit via Turnitin Exam (40%) • Short essay responses • 2 hrs • Focus on 2nd half of term Essay (40%) • 1500 words • Due 8 Apr 9 am • Submit via Turnitin Tutorial participation (10%) • Constructive contribution

18. Contact details • Jason Phan • jphan@uow.edu.au

20. Philosophy & the others Morality • What moral beliefs do different cultures have? • How best to develop a child morally? • How is moral behaviour linked to brain function? Why should we be moral? Is morality merely social conventions? Is it immoral to eat meat?

21. Why should I be moral?

22. Why be moral?

23. What’s the difference? I would be a nice person by ceasing to exploit the poor I should be a nice person by ceasing to exploit the poor Would you be moral? Should you be moral?

24. What should I do? • What I should do • What I have reason to do • Matter of rationality • What I would do • What I actually do • Empirical matter

25. Why should I be moral?

26. Something puzzling about morality Catherine Wilson: Moral obligations “reduce the advantages of those who observe them” = It is rational to reduce one’s advantage???

27. Nature • A system of increasing & using one’s advantages • The strong take advantage of the weak • The smart take advantage of the dim

28. Why should I be moral? Nature seems a system of increasing one’s advantage Being moral seems to reduce my advantage

29. Mother Teresa • For over 45 years, she ministered to the poor, sick, orphaned, and dying in the slums of India • Praiseworthy human being

30. The Ring of Gyges

31. The Ring of Gyges “…as he was sitting among them he chanced to turn the collet of the ring inside his hand, when instantly he became invisible to the rest of the company and they began to speak of him as if he were no longer present. Whereupon he contrived to be chosen one of the messengers who were sent to the court; where as soon as he arrived he seduced the queen, and with her help conspired against the king and slew him, and took the kingdom.”

32. The Ring of Gyges “…If you could imagine any one obtaining this power of becoming invisible, and never doing any wrong or touching what was another's, he would be thought by the lookers-on to be a most wretched idiot, although they would praise him to one another's faces, and keep up appearances with one another from a fear that they too might suffer injustice.”

33. Egoism • Psychological egoism • Every person’s actions are only motivated by her concern for her own well-being • Rational egoism • Every person’s actions should only be motivated by her concern for her own well-being

34. Is altruism possible? “Why, bless your soul, Ed, that was the very essence of selfishness. I should have had no peace of mind all day had I gone on and left that suffering old sow worrying over those pigs. I did it to get peace of mind, don’t you see?”

35. Is altruism possible? • Whenever you act, you are acting out of an interest that you have. • Since you are acting out of your interest, then you are acting selfishly. • Since you’re acting selfishly, you’re not being altruistic. What if you have an unselfish interest?

36. Ted Bundy • Confessed to 30 murders committed between 1974 – 78. • "...a sadistic sociopath who took pleasure from another human's pain and the control he had over his victims, to the point of death, and even after.” The Stranger Beside Me, by Ann Rule

37. Why should Bundy be moral? “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.

38. Nor is there any "reason" to obey the law for anyone, like myself, who has the boldness and daring -- the strength of character -- to throw off its shackles. ... I discovered that to become truly free, truly unfettered, I had to become truly uninhibited. 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. I asked myself, who were these "others"? Other human beings, with human rights? Why is it more wrong to kill a human animal than any other animal, a pig or a sheep or a steer? Is your life more to you than a hog's life to a hog? Why should I be willing to sacrifice my pleasure more for the one than for the other?

39. Surely, you would not, in this age of scientific enlightenment, declare that God or nature has marked some pleasures as "moral" or "good" and others as "immoral" or "bad"? In any case, let me assure you, my dear young lady, that there is absolutely no comparison between the pleasure I might take in eating ham and the pleasure I anticipate in raping and murdering you. That is the honest conclusion to which my education has led me -- after the most conscientious examination of my spontaneous and uninhibited self.” - Statement by Ted Bundy, paraphrased and rewritten by Harry V. Jaffa.

40. Why are we trying to find out if we should be moral by analysing a psychopath? • Not because we are psychopaths • But because the psychopath illustrates more clearly the implications of our view of moral motivation

41. Should Bundy be moral? • Interest-based theories • A person should be moral if and only if being moral furthers his/her interests • Are Bundy’s interests served by being moral?

42. A thought experiment • Super-Bundy • A lot smarter than Bundy • Will not get caught • Will do a lot more evil than Bundy • No feeling of guilt, only intense pleasure • Why should Super-Bundy be moral?

43. How should we respond to Super-Bundy? • Call him names • Evil, terrible, inhuman… • Try to influence him • “You would be moral if you stop murdering…”

44. Big picture Why should I be moral? Because it furthers my interests ??? My interests are all selfish My interests are not all selfish Rational Egoism

45. How should we respond to Bundy? • Demand that he stop harming others • “You should not cause others to suffer just for your own pleasure…” • Consider him blameworthy • But someone seems blameworthy only when he did something he should not do

46. More puzzling things about morality • Morality seems to have authority • Super-Bundy is blameworthy for his evil action • Super-Bundy should be moral

47. More puzzling things about morality Morality seems to have authority “What is distinctive of moral requirements is that they are thought of as providing a reason to act which outweighs or overrides any reason the agent may have to act in some other way. Moral requirements are thus seen as independent of desire in the further sense that they have a claim on our obedience that is not conditional on there being nothing else which we want more.” - David McNaughton

48. A matter of arbitrary taste? A saintly life An evil life BETTER!

49. Reflective equilibrium • One should do only what furthers one’s interests • Morality has authority

50. Big picture Why should I be moral? Because it furthers my interests ??? My interests are all selfish My interests are not all selfish Rational Egoism