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Philosophy 224
Moral Theory: Introduction
The Role of Reasons
• A fundamental feature of philosophy's
contribution to our understanding of the contested
character of our moral lives is the insistence that
our responses to moral concerns must be justified.
• That is, we must have reasons for believing what
we do about torture or any other moral issue.
• An essential element of the philosophical attempt
to provide justifying reasons is the appeal to moral
theory.
What is a Moral
Theory?
• Answering this question requires we ask some subsidiary
ones.
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What concepts do moral theories rely on?
What do moral theories aim to provide?
How and why do moral theories employ moral principles?
How are moral theories structured?
The Right And The
Good
• All moral theories employ and deploy these two main
concepts.
• "Right" and it's inverse "Wrong" are typically used to
evaluate actions.
• "Good" and it's inverse "Bad" typically assess the value of
agents, experiences, things or states of affairs.
Right/Wrong Action
• The concept "Right" has both a narrow and a broad
meaning.
• Narrowly, right actions are those we are morally obligated to
do.
• Broadly, right actions are all actions that are not wrong.
• The concept "Wrong" as only one meaning.
Tripartite Deontic
Schema
• Given these accounts of the rightness and wrongness of
actions, ethicists typically divide the realm of actions for
purposes of moral evaluation into three basic categories.
Obligatory
Actions
Permissible
Actions
Forbidden
Actions
Moral Value
• When we identify something or someone as good or bad,
we are speaking to its character, and particularly of that
value that it has.
• Things can have or be valuable in one of two ways.
• Intrinsic value refers to a character or feature inherent in the thing.
• Extrinsic value refers to how a thing is related to some other
valuable thing (ultimately one with intrinsic value.
• Intrinsic value is what philosophers are typically
concerned with.
Tripartite Axiological
Schema
• Given the dominance of intrinsic value we can once again
identify three basic value categories.
Intrinsically
Good
Intrinsically
ValueNeutral
Intrinsically
Bad
A Theory of the Right
and the Good
• Given these accounts of the Right and the Good, we can
identify three tasks that a moral theory must accomplish.
• MT must identify the right-making features of actions.
• MT must provide an account of intrinsic value.
• MT must specify how these accounts can serve as the basis
for the justification of specific moral conclusions.
Two Main Aims of
Moral Theory
• These three tasks of moral theory provide us
with the means of distinguishing two main
aims.
• The theoretical aim (corresponding to first two
tasks) is to identify the underlying features of
actions, persons and other morally relevant elements
that make them right or wrong, good or bad. In
other words, MTs have to account for what makes
something morally relevant.
• The practical aim (corresponding to the third) is to
be action-guiding. In other words, to provide us with
resources with which to respond to the moral issues
which confront us.
Taking Aim with Moral
Principles
• The tool that philosophers use to satisfy these aims is the
moral principle.
• A moral principle is a general statement of the rightmaking characteristics of actions or the specification of
intrinsic value.
• Principles that focus on actions are called "Principles of
Right Conduct."
• Principles that focus on intrinsic value are called "Principles
of Value."
What About the
Second Aim?
• PRC and PV certainly seem to satisfy the theoretical aim
of MTs, but what about the practical aim?
• The operative presumption is that if the principles are
correct, then employing the principles to evaluate
proposed actions or possible values provides justifying
reasons for moral decision making.
Conflict of the
Principles
• Though all MTs have to include both a PRC and a PV,
typically these principles are not equal in any given
theory.
• Some theories make the Good more important than the
Right, some the Right more important than the Good.
• The former are called "Value-based MTs" the latter are
called "Duty-Based MTs."
A Plurality of Theories
• Given that different moral theories emphasize
different values, you shouldn't be surprised that
when we start looking at specific theories, we will
find that they highlight different features of our
moral lives.
• In many cases, these differences mask an essential
continuity in moral evaluations, but on occasion
there will be important evaluative differences.
• We need to consider how we should evaluate the
differing claims of the moral theories we will
study.
Evaluating Ethical
Theories
•
In addition to a consideration of the adequacy of the arguments
offered in support of a particular theory, there are a number of
features which a successful ethical theory must exhibit.
•
The two central features correspond to the two main aims of
moral theory
Corresponding to the theoretical aim is the principle of explanatory
power: a theory should help us understand our moral evaluations. The
better the explanation, the better the theory.
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You know murder is wrong. Now ask yourself why? That's a harder
question to answer than it might at first seem, and moral theory can fill in
the explanatory gap.
Corresponding to the practical aim is the principle of practical
guidance: a theory should help us make the morally correct choices.
The better the guidance, the better the theory.
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If you are faced with the challenge of having to help a friend decide
whether or not to have an abortion, you need a theory that provides
determinate, consistent and actionable verdicts.
The Example of Ethics By
Authority
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We can begin to appreciate the value of
these evaluative principles by putting them to
work in a consideration of a popular, but not
necessarily successful, approach to moral
theory.
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"Ethics by Authority" refers to a family of
approaches to moral justification which
share the insistence that all the moral
explanation and guidance we need can be
located in some "authority."
Divine Command
Theory
• DCT is one example of an authority based moral theory.
• The key claim of DCT is that, an action is right if and only
if [iff] (and because) God does not command that we not do
that action.
• One of the virtues of this approach is that it does satisfy
MT's practical aim.
• The 10 commandments don't leave a lot of wiggle room.
• However, it does nothing to satisfy the explanatory aim.
• Why should we honor our parents?
• To say that "it pleases God" just pushes the question back a level. Why
does/should it please God? God's willing it is no explanation of why it is
the right thing to will. Insisting that God is good doesn't help. After all,
goodness is a moral quality which still needs an explanation.
Ethical Relativism
• ER is another example.
• It's key claim is that an action (performed by a
member of Group G) is right iff the moral norms
accepted by G permit the performance of the
action.
• Like with DCT, ER seems appropriately actionguiding, but it doesn't do any better job with the
MT's theoretical aim.
• Why should the fact that a majority of some members of a group believe
that the death penalty is morally acceptable make it so?
• Most Europeans used to believe that the earth was flat, but that didn't
make it so.
What have we seen?
• Our consideration of DCT and ER has revealed
that these two very common "moral theories" do
not satisfy the evaluative constraints which moral
theories should satisfy.
• At the very least, this fact calls into question the
ability of these two ways of thinking about
morality to do the work we ask of moral theories.
• As we turn in the next to other theoretical
approaches, let's keep this lesson in mind and ask
ourselves if they do a better job of satisfying the
fundamental aims of moral theory.