Chapter 8 - Moral Truths

CHAPTER 8 Are there moral truths ?  What is your ethical code? What is the “Moral”? What is ethical? What are the sources of that code? Religion, Family, Culture (yours or else), Declaration of Human Rights,……..? What is your opinion as regard those issues? Stealing, Cheating, Corru...

CHAPTER 8 Are there moral truths ?  What is your ethical code? What is the “Moral”? What is ethical? What are the sources of that code? Religion, Family, Culture (yours or else), Declaration of Human Rights,……..? What is your opinion as regard those issues? Stealing, Cheating, Corruption Slavery, Polygamy, Age of Marriage, Capital punishment, Euthanasia, Organ donation, Eating Animals, Trolley Problem, Lifeboat, Just War.  ETHICAL ETHICAL RELATIVISM ABSOLUTISM Deny the possibility of At least some moral absolute values. values are universal and apply to all individuals and cultures.  A) ETHICAL RELATIVISM Ethical values depend on: Ethical values depend on: the individual Culture (Ethical Subjectivism) (Cultural Relativism) (Ethical Subjectivism) The ultimate moral authority is the individual. Many people enjoy the idea that they alone determine what’s right and what’s wrong in their lives, independent of the views and pressures of others. (Cultural Relativism) Cultural norms determine what is ethically right or wrong. It is an ethical subjectivism on a societal level. Ruth Benedict Cultural norms No culture is Cultures are determine what better than the different is ethically other right or wrong (Cultural Relativism) An Anthropological Debate Margaret Mead Her reports detailing the attitudes towards sex in South Pacific and Southeast Asian traditional cultures influenced the 1960s sexual revolution. She was a proponent of broadening sexual conventions within the context of Western cultural traditions. Derek Freeman Mead's misunderstandings of Samoan culture were due to her having been hoaxed by two of her female Samoan informants, who had merely joked about sexual escapades that they did not in fact have. If you are going to adopt ethical relativism, you should consider the difference between normative ethics and descriptive ethics. Descriptive Ethics Normative Ethics What ought to be What is the case the case “It is often said that one cannot derive an “ought” from an “is.”... Put in more contemporary terminology, no set of descriptive statements can entail an evaluative statement without the addition of at least an evaluative premise. To believe otherwise is to commit the naturalistic fallacy. John Searle Descriptive Ethics’ pitfall The Naturalistic fallacy: Simply describing a situation provides no evidence for concluding that this is the way things should be.  B) ETHICAL ABSOLUTISM At least some moral values are universal and apply to all individuals and cultures. A moral value such as “Human slavery is wrong” applies to all individuals and cultures. It doesn’t matter if some individuals believe that slavery is ethically acceptable It doesn’t matter if human slavery is an integral component of a culture’s social and economic fabric: Slavery is morally wrong, and this moral evaluation is independent of whatever customs and moral practices a particular culture holds. The key insight for the ethical absolutist is the belief that morality is in some sense objective, non man-made, not produced by human opinion. Its principles are real truths which men have to learn—just as they have to learn about the shape of the world.  ETHICAL EGOISM We act morally when we pursue our own self- interest.  ETHICAL EGOISM One of the first coherent expressions of the ethical egoist perspective is found in Plato’s Republic. Plato gives voice to this view through the person of Glaucon, who tries to convince Socrates that pursuing our own self interest is our natural condition, and rather than denying this fact, we should embrace it. Glaucon’s next point in his argument for ethical egoism is that although people have freely entered into a social contract to escape the danger and instability of the “state of nature,” they do so reluctantly.  ETHICAL EGOISM Abiding by the laws of the social contract runs counter to our nature to dominate and exploit others for our own personal advancement. And if we had an opportunity to break these laws without suffering negative consequences, all of us would leap at the opportunity to do so. And such behavior would be morally appropriate, because we would simply be acting in accord with our universal nature. Social Contract theory; “we form “just” communities out of necessity for fear of a state of nature and a war of all against all.” – Thomas Hobbes  ETHICAL EGOISM Ayn Rand : The virtue of selfishness; the evilness of altruism !! Selfishness is simply concerned with one’s own “rational” interests. Altruism means: caring for others is good; caring for oneself is evil. Result: hypocrisy, conflicts, contradictions. Philosophy comes first: Hierarchically, the science of economics is a derivative, which succeeds philosophy; since economics presupposes politics, it also presupposes morality and, beneath that, metaphysics and epistemology. This is why economics cannot alter philosophic truths and why an economist without the right philosophy (at least in implicit terms) is doomed to failure; such a man can neither identify economic laws nor predict a country's long-range economic future.  ETHICAL EGOISM The virtue of selfishness; the evilness of altruism !!  ARGUMENTS AGAINST ETHICAL EGOISM Promises/obligations/ duties Satisfaction from doing good is a byproduct not an aim in itself. Selfishness ≠ Self-interest Egoism can't be universally adopted by everyone. Egoism is dangerous and inhuman; conflicts will always arise between egoistic people. James Rachels RELIGION AND UNIVERSAL VALUES “Do the Gods love piety because it is pious, or is it pious because they love it” - Plato Because they Because it is love it pious Divine Natural Law Command Theory Theory  RELIGION AND UNIVERSAL VALUES Divine Command Theory We act morally when we do what God commands us to do. Problems: - Suspension of critical judgements? Slavery? - What about non-believers? Are they necessarily immoral?  RELIGION AND UNIVERSAL VALUES Natural Law Theory Moral values can be discovered in nature using reason. Problems: “Good is to be pursued, and evil is to be avoided.” This is, presumably, the purpose of any ethical theory. The salient question is, naturally, what exactly is “good” and “evil”?