Download the ethics of obligation

THE ETHICS OF
OBLIGATION
“How Should I Behave In
Order To Promote A
Cooperative Society Where
I, And Every Other Human
Can Pursue Their Life’s
Plan?”
Obligations
of the Social Contract
• Our duty, to gain the benefits of an
ordered society, requires that we set
aside our short term self-interested
inclinations in favor of general rules
that impartially promote the welfare
of everyone … including ourselves
(ultimately); rules that are in our
enlightened self-interest.
• We can do this because others in
society have agreed to do the same
thing, because it is in their
enlightened (ultimate) self-interest
as well.
• The social contract is how we create
an ordered society, escaping anarchy.
Common Morality:
Deciding What To Do *
Bernard Gert
Stone Professor of Philosophy
Dartmouth College
2004
* Common Morality is a major
revision for the lay audience of
Dr. Gert’s 1984 treatise
Morality: A New Justification
for the Moral Rules
Moral Precepts are
rules or principles
that no rational
person would want
violated with regard
to themselves or
anyone for whom they
cared … without
reason. They are
precepts that protect
the individual from
suffering or evil at the
hands of another.
THE MORAL
PRECEPTS
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
Don’t Kill
Don’t Cause Pain
Don’t Disable
Don’t Deprive of Freedom
Don’t Deprive of Pleasure
Don’t Deceive
Don’t Break Your Promises
Don’t Cheat
Don’t Disobey the Law
Don’t Fail to do Your Duty
Moral Precepts
Summarized:
“Don’t Cause Evil or
Harm”
“The only purpose for which
power can be rightly exercised
over any member of a civilized
community, against his will, is
to prevent harm to others…He
cannot rightfully be compelled
to do or forbear because it will
be better for him to do so,
because it will make him
happier, because in the
opinions of others, to do so
would be wise or even right.”
John Stuart Mill
in On Liberty
Ethics
as a
‘Blunt Instrument’
• Ethics is a fairly ‘blunt
instrument,’ it is not a ‘scalpel’
that cuts sharply.
• Although precise and rigorous,
ethics does not enable one to
determine that one and only one
action is moral.
• Certain alternatives may be
ruled out, but not infrequently
range of possible actions often
remain that are morally
acceptable.
Ethics As A ‘Blunt
Instrument’ (continued)
• Sometimes all possible actions
infringe on one moral rule or
another.
• It sometimes becomes a matter
of determining which is the
lesser of two evils, or
• which moral rule deserves
receiving the most weight in a
particular circumstance.
Moral Precepts Are
Universal, Not Absolute
• Universality in applying the
moral precepts means that all
rational human beings with
voluntary abilities are to
abide by the moral precepts.
• Moral absolutism is the
claim that we ought never
break any moral precept for
any reason.
Moral Justification
• Everyone is always to obey the precepts
except when impartial, rational people who
know all of the relevant facts advocate that
violating it be allowed.
• On reflection, the consequences of
following a moral precept in a situation
could result in more harm than good.
• Not infrequently all of the options
available in a situation would result in
violating a moral precept. Thus reflection
forces consideration (and justification) of
which course of action will result in the
greater good or the lesser harm.
EXAMPLE
• Nazi storm troopers at the door of
the Dutch home where Anne Frank
and her family are hiding--does one
lie to the storm troopers, and violate
the moral precept, "do not deceive,"
or tell the truth, revealing the hiding
place of the Frank family, and
violate the moral rule, "do not
deprive of freedom or opportunity?"
The moral life is ambiguous, and
frequently requires reflection and
justification.
Rationality
• Rationality is concerned with
actions/behavior. Rational
actions are actions that comport
with one’s “enlightened selfinterest,” or the interest of one
for whom one cares.
• Irrational actions are actions
everyone would agree they
would not advocate for one for
whom they were concerned or
cared. Rather they would avoid
these actions.
• They are actions prohibited
by reason … against reason.
Irrationality
• Actions against reason; prohibited
by reason.
• To act contrary to one’s self-interest,
for no reason.
• Actions characterized as crazy,
stupid, idiotic, and insane.
• Distinguished from ‘mistaken’
judgements or reasoning. It is
irrational for adults to believe in the
tooth fairy or Santa Claus or that the
earth is flat.
• Many beliefs are ‘mistaken,’ but not
irrational, e.g., believing Oswald did
not kill John Kennedy or the
Holocaust did not really occur.
Impartiality
A person is impartial when
their evaluation of actions
is not influenced by who is
benefited or harmed by
those actions.
Applying Moral
Justification
•
“Moral Justification” indicates that
when every impartial, rational person
who knows and understands the
relevant features of a proposed violation
of a moral precept and agrees that it is
morally permissible, then it is strongly
justified morally.
• When every knowledgeable impartial,
rational person agrees it is not
permissible then the violation is strongly
unjustified.
• When people disagree about whether the
violation is justified, then the violation is
weakly justified, and the person could
be sanctioned for the violation.
Kant’s “Categorical
Imperative”
• Immanuel Kant, the 19th century
German philosopher, helps further
characterize moral justification with
his famous dictum, “act only on that
maxim that you would will it as a
universal law.”
• If your action in a given
circumstance could be willed to be
universalized, that is, you would
advocate that all people do what you
are proposing to do in like
circumstances, then you could make
the claim that the action is
impartial...and appropriate .
Moral Rules
(Duties to Others)
Correspond to
Individual Rights
I have right
to:
Therefore …
You have
duty to:
Honesty
…
Not Deceive
Fairness
…
Not Cheat
Freedom
…
Not Restrict
Life
…
Not Kill
Possessions
…
Not Steal
Reciprocity
“Rights are correlates of duties-the performance of which we are
not willing to leave to individual
discretion.”
James Rachels
in Created From Animals
But…
What Is the Role of “Doing
Good” in the Moral Life?
The Moral Ideals
“Prevent Evil or Harm”
The Moral Ideals
1. Prevent Killing
2. Prevent the Causing of Pain
3. Prevent Disabling
4. Prevent Deprivation of
Freedom
5. Prevent Deprivation of
Pleasure
6. Prevent Deception
7. Prevent the Breaking of
Promises
8. Prevent Cheating
9. Prevent Disobeying the Law
10. Prevent Others From Failing
to do Their Duty
Gert’s Summary...
“Obey the moral rules
(precepts)…
follow the moral ideals.”
The Moral Ideals…
• Encouraged but not required.
• Sanction someone for violating
a moral precept… causing
harm, unless able to be justified.
• Do not sanction someone for
failing to follow the moral
ideals…doing good.
• Can we require the doing of
good? Why? Why not?
Moral Heroism
• Heroes are individuals who, in
the view of society, take actions
that are dangerous to self, in
general, put their lives at risk, in
an attempt to come to the aid of
another.
• Heroes are people who do not
only “not kill” (moral precept)
but go beyond that, risking their
lives to prevent killing (moral
ideal.)
• This introduces the subject of
“altruism.”
Altruism
• Altruism refers to actions taken
by one person, which at some
cost to the self, improves the
welfare of another.
• “behaves in such a way as to
increase another entity’s welfare
at the expense of his own.”
Richard Dawkins
• Definition of altruism is based
solely on outcome, not
motivation.
Motivations To
Altruism
• desire to provide aid to another that has no selfinterested dimension: strong altruism. Many do
not think such exists.
• to escape the personal distress from seeing another
in distress.
• to avoid the guilt and shame which would result
from not helping.
• to gain social rewards that come from acting in
socially approved ways.
• to avoid social sanctions that could be incurred
from not helping.
• to develop in the other a sense of responsibility to
help one in return at a later date. .reciprocal
altruism--I’ll help you now so that I can depend on
you to help be later. Reciprocal altruism is the
technical name for what is understood as
cooperation; or
• to share in the joy the distressed may be expected to
receive.
Altruism
• The dominant view is that all helping acts
are fundamentally egoistic. That is, despite
any surface indications that a helping act is
intended simply to aid the victim, all
helping ultimately results from a desire to
ultimately increase the welfare of the
helper, rather than the victim--weak
altruism.
• Altruism, in the strong sense of the word,
that is, motivated solely by increasing the
welfare of the other, does not exist except
potentially in relationship to individuals
who are closely related genetically, such
as children, siblings, or other closely
genetically related individuals.
Altruism
• Are dentists, or any
“professionals” altruistic?
• If so, in what sense?
• Does the concept of
professionalism require that
professionals be altruistic if
they are to be ethical?