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Lec 5
Chapter 3: Subjectivism
Protagoras: Agnostic

"Concerning the gods,
I have no means of
knowing whether they
exist or not or of what
sort they may be,
because of the
obscurity of the
subject, and the
brevity of human life.
Protagoras: Moral Skeptic
 "Man
is the measure
of all things: of the
things which are, that
they are, and of the
things which are not,
that they are not"
The main points of Protagoras’
moral skepticism:
1.
There is no ultimate moral truth
2.
Our individual moral views are equally true
3.
The practical benefit of our moral values is
more important than their truth
4.
The practical benefit of moral values is a
function of social custom rather than
nature
William Graham Sumner:

We learn [the morals of our society] as
unconsciously as we learn to walk and
hear and breathe, and [we] never know any
reason why the [morals] are what they are.
The justification of them is that when we
wake to consciousness of life we find the
facts which already hold us in the bonds of
tradition, custom and habit.”
David Hume 1711 - 1776

Simple subjectivism...

‘morality is a matter of
sentiment rather than
fact…’

A sense like our other
senses...filtering our
experience...

The agent: the person doing (or not
doing) the action

The receiver: the person directly
affected

The spectator:
and judging
the person watching
Hume's moral theory:

Agents perform actions.

Receivers experience pleasure or pain.

Spectators sympathetically experience the
pleasure or pain.

The moral spectator's sympathetic pleasure or
pain constitutes a moral assessment of the
agent's character trait, thereby deeming the trait
to be a virtue or a vice.
Hume's moral theory:

Agents perform actions.

Receivers experience pleasure or pain.

Spectators sympathetically experience the
pleasure or pain.

The moral spectator's sympathetic pleasure or
pain constitutes a moral assessment of the
agent's character trait, thereby deeming the trait
to be a virtue or a vice.
Hume's moral theory:
The agent performs an act
The receiver either benefits or suffers
The spectator judges what he sees
 If the spectator approves, the act was moral
 If the spectator disapproves, the act was immoral
Also important:
Moral actions stem from character:
 Virtuous
 Vicious
Sympathy is the key...
Hume: simple subjectivism...

“defines virtue to be
whatever mental action
or quality gives to a
spectator the pleasing
sentiment of
approbation; and vice
the contrary.”
Simple subjectivism seems good
and easy and tolerant...
But it has traps:
1. It cannot account for moral
disagreement
Simple subjectivism seems good
and easy and tolerant...
But it has traps:
1. It cannot account for moral
disagreement
2. It implies that we’re always right
Simple subjectivism seems good
and easy and tolerant...
But it has traps:
1. It cannot account for moral
disagreement
2. It implies that we’re always right
3. It makes morality itself a useless
concept
Simple subjectivism seems good
and easy and tolerant...
But it has traps:
1. It cannot account for moral
disagreement
2. It implies that we’re always right
3. It makes morality itself a useless
concept
4. It reduces moral choices to mere likes
and dislikes
The Second Stage: Emotivism
Emotivist Thesis:

moral judgments -- though they have the
surface grammar of statements -- are
really disguised commands.
3.5: Rachels responds:
Moral judgments must be
supported by reasons...
 If you like peaches, you
don’t have to defend
your preference
 But if you like torturing
cats, you should have a
reason
3.5: Rachels’ counterproposal:
There are moral facts...
 It's a false dichotomy to think
 Either there are moral facts in the same
way that there are facts about stars and
planets
 Or else "values" are nothing more than
the expression of subjective feelings.
Maybe there’s a third way...
3.5: Rachels
"Moral truths are truths of reason:

that is...a moral judgment is true if it
is backed by better reasons than the
alternatives."
P 45
Conventional ethical relativism

If we are all our own moral arbiters, how
can there be any ‘morality’?

Conventionalism tries to blunt the
harshness of that by requiring ‘social
acceptance’
Traps here also...

Hitler had social
acceptance for his
invasion of Poland

George Bush had
social acceptance
for his invasion of
Iraq
3.7 The Question of Homosexuality...
Rachels conclusion...
 moral
thinking and moral conduct are
a matter of weighing reasons and
being guided by them
 in
focusing on attitudes and feelings,
Ethical Subjectivism seems to be
going in the wrong direction
Leopold and Loeb 1924

Clarence Darrow
for the defence
Charles Manson
Ashley...
Ashley
Ashley
Ashley
Katie Thorpe