Ethical Claims Are Objective PDF

THOMAS NAGEL Ethical Claims Are Objective Thomas Nagel, an American philosopher born in 1937, has contributed much to the study of ethics. His influence extended to the governmental arena in 1981, when he defended affirmative action in testimony before a US Senate subcommittee....

THOMAS NAGEL Ethical Claims Are Objective Thomas Nagel, an American philosopher born in 1937, has contributed much to the study of ethics. His influence extended to the governmental arena in 1981, when he defended affirmative action in testimony before a US Senate subcommittee. Nagel argues for objective values. He claims that some actions, like causing needless harm to others, can be judged as wrong or bad from a general standpoint that everyone should be able to understand. He ap- peals to consistency and to the resentment that we all feel when others cause needless harm to us. As you read the selection, keep in mind why some people see ethical claims as subjective. Ask yourself whether Nagel answers these objec- tions and whether he provides a satisfactory objective basis for ethics. Ethics and reasons Suppose you work in a library, checking people's books as they leave, and a friend asks you to let him smuggle out a hard-to-find reference work that he wants to own. You might hesitate to agree for various reasons. You might be afraid that he'll be caught, and that both you and he will then get into trouble. You might want the book to stay in the library so that you can consult it yourself. But you may also think that what he proposes is wrong- that he shouldn't do it and you shouldn't help him. If you think that, what does it mean, and what, if anything, makes it true? To say it's wrong is not just to say it's against the rules. There can be bad rules which prohibit what isn't wrong - like a law against criticizing the government. A rule can also be bad because it requires something that is wrong - like a law that requires racial segregation in hotels and restaurants. The ideas of wrong and right are different from the ideas of what is and is not against the rules. Otherwise they couldn't be used in the evaluation of rules as well as of actions. If you think it would be wrong to help your friend steal the book, then you will feel uncomfortable about doing it: in some way you won't want to do it, 64 NAGEL even if you are also reluctant to refuse help to a friend. Where does the desire not to do it come from; what is its motive, the reason behind it? There are various ways in which something can be wrong, but in this case, if you had to explain it, you'd probably say that it would be unfair to other users of the library who may be just as interested in the book as your friend is, but who consult it in the reference room, where anyone who needs it can find it. You may also feel that to let him take it would betray your employers, who are paying you precisely to keep this sort of thing from happening. These thoughts have to do with effects on others - not necessarily effects on their feelings, since they may never find out about it, but some kind of damage nevertheless. In general, the thought that something is wrong depends on its impact not just on the person who does it but on other people. They wouldn't like it, and they'd object if they found out. But suppose you try to explain all this to your friend, and he says, "I know the head librarian wouldn't like it if he found out, and probably some of the other users of the library would be unhappy to find the book gone, but who cares? I want the book; why should I care about them?" The argument that it would be wrong is supposed to give him a reason not to do it. But if someone just doesn't care about other people, what reason does he have to refrain from doing any of the things usually thought to be wrong, if he can get away with it: what reason does he have not to kill, steal, lie, or hurt others? If he can get what he wants by doing such things, why shouldn't he? And if there's no reason why he shouldn't, in what sense is it wrong? Reasons and self-interest There have been many attempts to answer this question. One type of answer tries to identify something else that the person already cares about, and then connect morality to it. For example, some people believe that even if you can get away with awful crimes on this earth, and are not punished by the law or your fellow men, such acts are forbidden by God, who will punish you after death (and reward you if you didn't do wrong when you were tempted to). So even when it seems to be in your interest to do such a thing, it really isn't. This is a rather crude version of the religious foundation for morality. A more appealing version might be that the motive for obeying God's com- mands is not fear but love. He loves you, and you should love Him, and should wish to obey His commands in order not to offend Him. But however we interpret the religious motivation, there are three objec- tions to this type of answer. First, plenty of people who don't believe in God still make judgments of right and wrong, and think no one should kill  ETHICAL CLAIMS ARE OBJECTIVE 65 another for his wallet even if he can be sure to get away with it. Second, if God exists, and forbids what's wrong, that still isn't what makes it wrong. Murder is wrong in itself, and that's why God forbids it (if He does). 1 God couldn't make just any old thing wrong - like putting on your left sock before your right - simply by prohibiting it. If God would punish you for doing that it would be inadvisable to do it, but it wouldn't be wrong. Third, fear of punishment and hope of reward, and even love of God, seem not to be the right motives for morality. If you think it's wrong to kill, cheat, or steal, you should want to avoid doing such things because they are bad things to do to the victims, not just because you fear the consequences for yourself, or because you don't want to offend your Creator. This third objection also applies to other explanations of the force of mor- ality which appeal to the interests of the person who must act. For example, it may be said that you should treat others with consideration so that they'll do the same for you. This may be sound advice, but it is valid only so far as you think what you do will affect how others treat you. It's not a reason for doing the right thing if others won't find out about it, or against doing the wrong thing if you can get away with it (like being a hit and run driver). Reasons and universality There is no substitute for a direct concern for other people as the basis of morality. But morality is supposed to apply to everyone: and can we assume that everyone has such a concern for others? Obviously not: some people are very selfish, and even those who are not selfish may care only about the people they know, and not about everyone. So where will we find a reason that everyone has not to hurt other people, even those they don't know? Well, there's one general argument against hurting other people which can be given to anybody who understands English (or any other language), and which seems to show that he has some reason to care about others, even if in the end his selfish motives are so strong that he persists in treating other people badly anyway. It's an argument that I'm sure you've heard, and it goes like this: "How would you like it if someone did that to you?" It's not easy to explain how this argument is supposed to work. Suppose you're about to steal someone else's umbrella as you leave a restaurant in a rainstorm, and a bystander says, "How would you like it if someone did that to you?" Why is it supposed to make you hesitate, or feel guilty? Obviously the direct answer to the question is supposed to be, "I wouldn't like it at all!" But what's the next step? Suppose you were to say, "I wouldn't like it if someone did that to me. But luckily no one is doing it to me. I'm doing it to someone else, and I don't mind that at all!" 66 NAGEL This answer misses the point of the question. When you are asked how you would like it if someone did that to you, you are supposed to think about all the feelings you would have if someone stole your umbrella. And that includes more than just "not liking it" - as you wouldn't "like it" if you stubbed your toe on a rock. If someone stole your umbrella you'd resent it. You'd have feelings about the umbrella thief, not just about the loss of the umbrella. You'd think, "Where does he get off, taking my umbrella that I bought with my hard-earned money and that I had the foresight to bring after reading the weather report? Why didn't he bring his own umbrella?" and so forth. When our own interests are threatened by the inconsiderate behavior of others, most of us find it easy to appreciate that those others have a reason to be more considerate. When you are hurt, you probably feel that other people should care about it: you don't think it's no concern of theirs, and that they have no reason to avoid hurting you. That is the feeling that the "How would you like it?" argument is supposed to arouse. Because if you admit that you would resent it if someone else did to you what you are now doing to him, you are admitting that you think he would have a reason not to do it to you. And if you admit that, you have to consider what that reason is. It couldn't be just that it's you that he's hurting, of all the people in the world. There's no special reason for him not to steal your umbrella, as opposed to anyone else's. There's nothing so special about you. Whatever the reason is, it's a reason he would have against hurting anyone else in the same way. And it's a reason anyone else would have too, in a similar situation, against hurting you or anyone else. But if it's a reason anyone would have not to hurt anyone else in this way, then it's a reason you have not to hurt someone else in this way. Therefore it's a reason not to steal the other person's umbrella. This is a matter of simple consistency. Once you admit that another person would have a reason not to harm you in similar circumstances, and once you admit that the reason he would have is very general and doesn't apply only to you, or to him, then to be consistent you have to admit that the same reason applies to you now. You shouldn't steal the umbrella, and you ought to feel guilty if you do. Someone could escape from this argument if, when he was asked, "How would you like it if someone did that to you?" he answered, "I wouldn't resent it at all. I wouldn't like it if someone stole my umbrella in a rainstorm, but I wouldn't think there was any reason for him to consider my feelings about it." But how many people could honestly give that answer? I think most people, unless they're crazy, would think that their own interests and harms matter, not only to themselves, but in a way that gives other people a reason to care about them too. We all think that when we suffer it is not just bad for us, but bad, period.  ETHICAL CLAIMS ARE OBJECTIVE 67 The basis of morality is a belief that good and harm to particular people (or animals) is good or bad not just from their point of view, but from a more general point of view, which every thinking person can understand. That means that each person has a reason to consider not only his own interests but the interests of others in deciding what to do. And it isn't enough if he is considerate only of some others - his family and friends, those he specially cares about. Of course he will care more about certain people, and also about himself. But he has some reason to consider the effect of what he does on the good or harm of everyone. If he's like most of us, that is what he thinks others should do with regard to him, even if they aren't friends of his. Ethics and impartiality Even if this is right, it is only a bare outline of the source of morality. It doesn't tell us in detail how we should consider the interests of others, or how we should weigh them against the special interest we all have in our- selves and the particular people close to us. It doesn't even tell us how much we should care about people in other countries in comparison with our fellow citizens. There are many disagreements among those who accept morality in general, about what in particular is right and what is wrong. For instance: should you care about every other person as much as you care about yourself? Should you in other words love your neighbor as yourself (even if he isn't your neighbor)? Should you ask yourself, every time you go to a movie, whether the cost of the ticket could provide more happi- ness if you gave it to someone else, or donated the money to famine relief? Very few people are so unselfish. And if someone were that impartial between himself and others, he would probably also feel that he should be just as impartial among other people. That would rule out caring more about his friends and relatives than he does about strangers. He might have special feelings about certain people who are close to him, but complete impartiality would mean that he won't favor them - if for example he has to choose between helping a friend or a stranger to avoid suffering, or between taking his children to a movie and donating the money to famine relief. This degree of impartiality seems too much to ask of most people: some- one who had it would be a kind of terrifying saint. 2 But it's an important question in moral thought, how much impartiality we should try for. You are a particular person, but you are also able to recognize that you're just one person among many others, and no more important than they are, when looked at from outside. How much should that point of view influence you? You do matter somewhat from outside - otherwise you wouldn't think other people had any reason to care about what they did to you. But you don't 68 NAGEL matter as much from the outside as you matter to yourself, from the inside - since from the outside you don't matter any more than anybody else. Not only is it unclear how impartial we should be; it's unclear what would make an answer to this question the right one. Is there a single correct way for everyone to strike the balance between what he cares about personally and what matters impartially? Or will the answer vary from person to person depending on the strength of their different motives? Study questions 1 Why does Nagel reject the idea that what is wrong is what goes against accepted rules - or what goes against God's commands? 2 What is Nagel's general argument against hurting other people? Explain the role of consistency and resentment in his argument. 3 Does Nagel think that some things are wrong from a general point of view that everyone can understand? How does he defend his answer? 4 How does Nagel evaluate the idea that we should care about every per- son as much as we care about ourselves, our family, and our friends? 5 What kinds of issues does the idea of impartiality raise for ethics? For further study This selection is from Thomas Nagel's What Does It All Mean? (New York: Oxford University Press, 1987), pages 59-69. See also his The View From Nowhere (New York: Oxford University Press, 1986) and Equality and Partiality (New York: Oxford University Press, 1991). Harry Gensler's Ethics: A Contem- porary Introduction (London and New York: Routledge, 1998) discusses related views in Chapters 2 and 8. Related readings in this anthology include Ayer, Benedict, Hume, Mackie, and Sartre (who oppose objective values); Lewis (who defends a religious basis for moral objectivity); Kant (who defends objective values); and Hare, Frankena, and Hertzler (who defend impartiality). Notes 1 For more on this point, see Plato's Euthyphro or Chapter 3 of Harry Gensler's Ethics: A Contemporary Introduction (London and New York: Routledge, 1998). 2 To appreciate his point, imagine how you would feel if your parents cared as much about a child they just met on the subway as they do for you.