Download Social Contract Theory

Social Contract Theory
Phil240, Ethical Theory
Benjamin Hole
April 2nd, 2012
Agenda
1. Administrative Items
2. Transition: Social Contract Theory
3. Hobbes, The Leviathan
Administrative Items Text book editions
„ No class Thursday, 4/5/2012 „ Quiz
„
(CS) “The rightness or wrongness of an action may
depend in part on facts about the agent and her
circumstances, where her circumstances may
include facts about the norms for what counts as
constituting insults, a person’s privacy, proper
respect for others, and so forth” (Timmons, 33).
DATE
READING
Week One: March 26‐30
Moral Theory Primer
Required
•Plato, 65‐78
•Timmons (electronic)
Recommended
•Shafer‐Landau, 1‐17
•Shafer‐Landau, 289‐305
Required
•Hobbes, 236‐247
•Hardin (electronic)
Recommended
•Shafer‐Landau, 201‐213
Required
•Nozick (electronic)
•Bentham, 353‐361
Recommended
•Shafer‐Landau, 21‐58
•Shafer‐Landau, 117‐132
Required
•Singer, 873‐880
•Mill, 362‐383
Recommended
•Shafer‐Landau, 117‐132
•Shafer‐Landau, 133‐153
Required
•Kant, 313‐352
Recommended
•O’Neil (electronic)
•Shafer‐Landau, 168‐186
Week Two: April 2‐6
Social Contract Theory
Week Three: April 9‐13
Utilitarianism
Week Four: April 16‐20
Utilitarianism
Week Five: April 23‐27
Kantian Ethics
Week Six: April 30 – May 4
Against Utilitarianism & Kantian Ethics
Week Seven: May 7‐11
Virtue Ethics
Week Eight: May 14‐18
Virtue Ethics
Week Nine: May 21‐25
Feminist Perspectives
Week Ten: May 28 – June 1
Contemporary Moral Problems
Required
•Williams, 657‐673
•Stocker (electronic)
Recommended
•Anscombe, 527‐539
Required
•Aristotle, 124‐140; 146‐147; 152‐157
Recommended
•Shafer‐Landau, 252‐271
Required
•Nussbaum, 755‐774
•Wolf, 790‐802
Recommended
•Annas (electronic)
Required
•Held, 775‐790
•Baier (electronic) Recommended
•Shafer‐Landau, 271‐286 Required
•TBD (class vote)
•Final Review
Social Contract (Definition)
“The imaginary device through which equally imaginary individuals, living in solitude … come together to form a society, accepting obligations of some minimal kind to one another and immediately or very soon thereafter binding themselves to a political sovereign who can enforce those obligations”
(Honderich, T., The Oxford Companion to Philosophy, 2nd eds, OUP 2005, pg. 174)
Contractarianism
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Contractarianism: “the view that morality is based on a social contract” (RSL, 188)
The challenge in Plato’s Republic.
Contractarianism
Equality of
Parties
Descriptive
Basis for
Cooperation
Mutual Advantage
Role of
Agreement
Underwrite a stable system of
social interaction between
actual agents
a)
Multiple individual interests …
b)
Common resources …
Prisoner's Dilemmas
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A prisoner's dilemma is any situation in which all people would be better off if all could agree to scale back their pursuit of self‐interest.
This happens in situations in which there is fierce competition for scarce resources.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IotsMu1J8fA
a)
It is individually
rational not to cooperate.
b)
It is collectively
rational to cooperate. Standard Solutions
•
Appeal to broader self‐interests …
•
Appeal to some notion of reciprocity or fairness …
Discussion Questions
1.
Glaucon & Hobbes both express certain psychological assumptions about human nature. Lay out both sets of assumptions as clearly and concisely as possible. Compare and contrast the two views. 2.
How does each set of assumptions motivation a prisoner’s dilemma where it is collectively rational to cooperate, but individually rational to not cooperate? Describe an example. Translated Thucydides History of the Peloponnesian War (1628)
The English Civil War (1642–1651)
a)
b)
c)
d)
The founder of modern contractarianism.
Hobbes imagined a state of nature, in which there is no central authority with the power to enforce its will on others.
Life in the state of nature, Hobbes said, would be “solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short.”
To escape the state of nature, people would establish a social contract—a set of rules to promote social cooperation.
Hobbes's “Fool”
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The Fool is someone who admits that breaking his promises is unjust but doesn't care if he behaves justly or not. If self‐interest is the fundamental reason for acting, and behaving unjustly is sometimes in our interest, it is sometimes rational be behave unjustly.
The Free‐Rider Problem
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When lots of people cooperate in a way that brings about a common good, all people can benefit from it—even those who didn't contribute.
If the point of morality is to promote one's self‐interest through mutually beneficial agreements, why refrain from free‐riding when you can get away with it?
What Social Contract?
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The Consent Argument
1)
2)
3)
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We have a duty to obey the law only if we have consented to do so.
Many have not given their consent to obey the law.
Therefore, many people do not have a duty to obey the law.
One reply: tacit consent?
Hobbes on The Good
Good and evil
The human good
“Whatsoever is the object of any man's appetite or desire, that is it which he for his part calleth
good; and the object of his hate and aversion, evil” (Hobbes, 237).
There is no summum bonnum, or ultimate state of satisfaction for which we all strive.
Good and evil are therefore relative
to the person making the judgment.
“I put for a general inclination of all mankind, a perpetual and restless desire of power after power, that ceaseth only in death” (Hobbes, 239).
Human equality and its consequences
a.
b.
c.
d.
All people are roughly equal in
body, mind, and hope of
attaining their ends.
This leads to conflict, when
more than one person desires
the same thing.
To be secure against others,
people use force against one
another.
The result is a war of every
person against every other,
and a state in which life is
“solitary, poor, nasty, brutish,
and short.”
Contractarianism
Equality of
Parties
Descriptive
Basis for
Cooperation
Mutual Advantage
Role of
Agreement
Underwrite a stable system of
social interaction between
actual agents
Discussion Question
“Hobbes holds a view of human nature according to which human beings are self‐interested individuals for whom society is of value only if and to the extent that it leads to greater security or other concrete advantages … Others have held views according to which human beings are essentially social creatures, incapable of having satisfactory lives outside of society. What do you think about this question? Is Hobbes right? If not, how seriously does this undermine his arguments?”
(B/B, 458)
Thomas Hobbes: Leviathan
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The right of nature
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“The liberty each man hath, to use his own power,
as he will himself, for the preservation of his own
nature.”
Laws of nature
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“A law of nature is a precept or general rule, found
out by reason, by which a man is forbidden to do
that, which is destructive of his life, or taketh away
the means of preserving the same.”
Thomas Hobbes: Leviathan
z
First law of nature
−
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“It is a precept, or general rule of reason, that every
man, ought to endeavor peace, as far as he has hope of
obtaining it; and when he cannot obtain it, that he may
seek, and use, all helps, and advantages of war.”
Second law of nature
−
“A man [ought to] be willing, when others are so too, as
far-forth, as for peace, and defence of himself, he shall
think it necessary, to lay down this right to all things; and
be contented with so much liberty against other men; as
he would allow other men against himself.”
Thomas Hobbes: Leviathan
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Justice
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Justice if failure to perform a covenant.
−
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Whatever is not unjust is just.
Covenants are only meaningful if there is some
coercive power to back them up.
Thus, nothing can be just or unjust until a
government is established with the power to enforce
covenants.
−
Until then, there is no such thing as property, or injustice.