Making the World a Better Place Philosophy 1001, Dr. Cara Nine

Making the World a Better fanny Philosophy 1001, Dr. Cara Nine Better Place? Making the world ? Making the world a conk emerge place There be two sets of philosophical questions 1. What is keen or separate? (That is, what does a better world look like and why? ) 2. What kinds of actions argon right? (What atomic number 18 we cleanified in doing to take apart close to the faithful? ) Ideas of the grievous life Hedonism Desire comfort Theory accusing Goods Theory Theories of beneficial Action Utilitarian Deontological feminist Virtue Theory Cases Protesting Unjust Government Aiding an impoverished fellowship anguish Letter to menoeceusBy Epicurus (341-270 BC) Epicurus Hedonism in popular culture http//www. hedonism. com/ Hedonism different kinds of desires. Just to be clear It is not an unceasing victoryion of drinking-bouts and of merrymaking, not sexual love, not the enjoyment of the fish and other delicacies of a luxurious carry over For Hedonism For the bl ock up of exclusively our actions is to be free from pain and consternation Intrinsic vs. Instrumental goods Instrumental good Intrinsic Good For Epicurus, gaiety is secured by A tranquil emotional state. Example We should not fear death Evidence Misery clearly hampers the good life happiness clearly improves it. nevertheless, is happiness what we require for our loved ones? I recall a talk by a doctor who described a patient of his (who had perhaps had a prefrontal lobotomy) as perfectly adroit all day massive picking up leaves. This impressed me because I thought, Well, nearly of us are not happy all day long doing the involvements we do, and realized how strange it would be to think that the very kindest of fathers would arrange such an public presentation for his (perfectly normal) child. Philippa Foot, Natural Goodness, p. 65 Desire Theory and Problems with Hedonism Hedonism Happiness is the only intrinsically valuable good. A happy life is a good life.The argument from evil pleasures Hedonisms response Happiness from evil actions IS as good as happiness from virtuous actions. The Paradox of Hedonism Happiness is like a butterflythe to a undischargeder extent you pursue it, the more it eludes you. Be still and let it come to you. Paradox of Hedonism 1. If happiness is the only thing that directly makes us better off, then(prenominal) it is rational to single-mindedly pursue it. 2. It isnt rational to do that. 3. Therefore, happiness isnt the only thing that directly makes us better off. Argument from multiple harms If hedonism is true, then you faecal matter be harmed by something only because it saddens you.You can be harmed in other ship canal. Therefore, hedonism is false. False Happiness Nozicks get Machine Experience Machine Nozick thinks that the real life is clearly better, despite meet levels of happiness. What makes the real life better? Desires and The good We desire for our springys to be based in reality. This desire involve ments. different desires matter, too. Desire Satisfaction Theory The good life is getting what you fate. Something is good for you if and only if it satisfies your desires. Good things about desire-satisfaction system Allows for a variety of good lives. Good things about desire-satisfaction guessPrioritizes soulal autonomy and avoids paternalism Avoids objective value objective = fixed indep discontinueently of your desires and opinions subjective = refers to your desires and opinions Motivation? Problems with the Desire Satisfaction Theory Getting what you want may not promote your good Desires based on false beliefs Fix The desire must(prenominal) be based on informed beliefs. More Problems Dis-interested or Other-regarding desires Problems, cont. Disappointment I was playing peachy tennis Id finally taken my game to what felt like a passing above all my opponents. It should have been great But it wasnt.It felt hollowIt reminded me of the story of King Midas My success was nt translating into happiness. John McEnroe(with James Kaplan, You basisnot be Serious) Impoverished Desires Objective Goods Theories of the Good Life Hedonism Desire Satisfaction Theory Objective Goods Theory Objective Goods Theory What is good is defined independent of your desires or opinions. Objective well-being concept Income? The objective/ public approach defended Nussbaums approach http//www. youtube. com/watch? v=Qy3YTzYjut4 Appeals to ingrained law theory, that things are good when a thing fulfills its nature. Things are bad when they are unnatural.Solves (? ) Humes argument We can bash only two sorts of claims conceptual truths or empirical truths. Moral claims are neither conceptual nor empirical truths. Therefore, we can have no moral knowledge. Natural law theorys response If you know the nature of human, and what it takes to fulfil our human nature, then we can know what is chastely good. Options for objective goods Happiness Options for objective goods Autonomy Relationship with other objective goods. Essence of human Possible riddle with adding autonomy to the list Cultural variations. But Do we have to be culturally relative? Options for objective goodsA sense of self Having commitments, likes and dislikes, values and intents. Options for objective goods Morality Aristotelian faithfulness Human flourishing If you concern yourself not at all with what you owe to others or with what they need from you, you live in profound isolation. .. Morality is good for us because it gives me a kind of friendship not just with my friends but with everyone. (Kazez 54) Martha Nussbaum Basic capabilities. Life. Bodily health Bodily integrity. Senses, imagination, thought. Emotions. Practical reason. Affiliation. Other species. Play. Control over ones environment.Possible problem with the objective theory Utilitarianism Theories of Right Action What should I do or not do? Utilitarianism A brand of consequentialism An action is morally required just because it produces the best results. John Stuart Mill (1806-1873) Utilitarianism (1861) The quest for the good is identified with the question of what is right and wrong to do. Mill writes All action is for the sake of some end and rules of action, it seems natural to suppose, must take their whole character and color from the end to which they are subservient. (in other terminology The ends unblock the authority ) 1.Rationality in choice of conduct is truismizing the satisfaction of ones chosen object (or the goal that is best to pursue). 2. The rational goal of human striving is happiness, and happiness consists in pleasure and the absence of pain. I should do what maximizes happiness-for-me-over-my-entire-life. Acting effectively to achieve this goal is being prudent. Prudence requires a kind of righteousness. So In merely unmarriedistic terms Ice cream NOW = 2 units of Happiness, and 3 units of botheration later. To maximize happiness over my entire life, I should not have ice cream now. But Mills utilitiarianism is universal project (not individualistic 3. Human striving 4. The moral goal involves impartiality. unmatchable persons good counts the same, in the determination of what is to be done, as the same-sized good of any other person. 5. The moral goal equals the aggregate happiness of all persons. 6. So, moral rationality demands that we maximize aggregate human happiness. and animals? Problems Utility hulk Trolley Problem Trolley Problem Trolley Problem Trolley Problem Deontology Kantian ethical motive Immanuel Kant (1724-1804) What matters with regard to whether an action is right or wrong is what kind of an action it is. (The end doesnt justify the means )Kantian Deontology Persons essence = autonomy Autonomy = self+rule Ethical patterns chase logically. Consistency and Fairness Equal with regards to our autonomous rational personhood. What if everybody did that? How would you like it if I did that to you? Problem Case If grim resu lts would occur if everyone did X, then X is immoral. Redescribe the act? But this makes the morality of an act merely a matter of its description. Kants answer The Categorical Imperative (version 1) Act only fit to that maxim by which you can at the same time will that it should fuck off a universal law. Is a maxim universalizable? pronounce your maxim clearly. Imagine a world in which everyone supports and acts on on your maxim. Then ask Can the goal of my action be achieved in such a world? Example Lying The universalized maxim of lying generates a contradiction. Categorical Imperative (version 2) The Principle of Humanity Act so that you treat humanity, whether in your receive person or in that of another, always as an end and never as a means only. Persons are rational agents The moral law is the law of reason So we rational beings are beyond value since we are the sources of value Means only Used as a means AND respected as rational agent at the same time problems with the principle of humanity The apprehension of treating someone as an end is vague. 2. The principle fails to give us good advice about how to determine what race deserve. punishment and Lex Talionis (Law of Retaliation) 3. The principle assumes that we are genuinely autonomous, but that assumption may be false. Baron dHolbach The Argument Against Autonomy 1. Either our choices are necessitated or they are not. 2. If they are necessitated, then they are out of our control, and so we lack autonomy. 3. If they are not necessitated, then they are random, and so we lack autonomy. 4.Therefore, we lack autonomy. 4. The principle cannot explain why those who lack rationality and autonomy are deserving of respect. What is the scope of the moral community? Argument against animals 1. If the principle of humanity is true, then animals have no rights. 2. If animals lack rights, then it is morally agreeable to torture them. 3. Therefore, if the principle of humanity is true, then it is morally acceptable to torture animals. 4. It isnt. 5. Therefore, the principle of humanity is false. Feminist Ethics The male is by nature headmaster, and the feminine inferior the one rules, and the other is ruled. Aristotle As regards her individual nature, each woman is defective and mis-begotten. Aquinas Women must be trained to bear the yoke from the first, so that they may not feel it, to master their own caprices and to submit themselves to the will of others. Rousseau laborious learning or painful pondering, even if a woman should greatly succeed in it They will weaken the charms with which she exercises her great power over the other sex. Her philosophy is not to reason, but to sense. Kant Feminist Ethics precedent (male-dominated) philosophy Made false claims about women.Identified female with nature/animals and male with reason/human. Ignored female passs and perspectives. Un Chien Andalou , 1929 silent surrealist short film by the Spanish director Luis Bunuel and artist Salvador Dali General Approach Women are the moral equals of men. The right to life of women in Pakistan is conditional on their obeying social norms and traditions. Hina Jilani, lawyer and human rights activist 2. Experiences of women deserve our respect and are vital to a full and accurate understanding of morality. Some statistics Womens nominal wages are 17 share lower than mens.Women perform 66 percent of the worlds work, produce 50 percent of the food, but earn 10 percent of the income and own 1 percent of the property. 3. Traits that have traditionally been associated with women are at least as morally grave as traditionally masculine traits. 4. Cooperation, flexibility, openness to competing ideas, and a connectedness to family and friends, are often superior to ways of reasoning that emphasize impartiality, abstraction, and strict adherence to rules. Lawrence Kohlbergs 6 stages of moral development Moral cultivation Gilligan Women fared poorly on Kohlbergs model. Advanc ing to only around stage 3. ) Women tend to think and experience the world differently than men. Gilligans model or moral thinking In A Different Voice Womens Experience Justice is. blind Dr. Denis Mukwege tries to restore dignity in Congo. Womens Experience Vulnerability to Rape Major-General Patrick Cammaert, former commander of UN peacekeeping forces in the eastern Congo It has probably become more dangerous to be a woman than a soldier in armed conflict. Perceptions of enthrall in war From something that is inevitable when men are deprived of female companionship for prolonged periodsTo an unquestionable tactic in conflict. Effect on victim Rape is always torture. Womens Experience change magnitude dependence and diminished autonomy. Fewer choices and less control over meaning(a) aspects of their lives (than men). Central fact of most womens lives is their dependence. Consider a moral assumption stand up for our rights and defend our honour against attacks Does a woman stan d up to an abusive husband, knowing she may be killed, have her children taken away from her, not know where her next meal will come from? Not just women We all are deeply connected with others.Moral philosophy that pretends that we are fully autonomous beings without dependent relationships fail to take an important part of human life into measure. Ethics of Care Importance of Emotions Reason is a slave of the passions. David Hume Motivates. Helps us Understand (Sympathy/Empathy) Care combination of sympathy, empathy, sensitivity, and love. Particular vs. Universal Describes our obligations. Particular obligations = I have them only to detail people. Universal obligations = I have them to all persons. A strict version of Ethics of Care theory denies the existence of universal obligations.Ethics of Care Moral obligations come from RELATIONSHIPS. Relationship roles will sometimes require of you remote actions. There is no easy formula. Problems with the Ethics of Care Must be sup plemented by other theories. Or risk restricting the scope of the moral community too much. Role of emotions needs further exploration. Downgrading impartiality has its costs. Review Theories of The Right Utilitarianism Theory Pleasure/freedom from pain is the only intrinsic good. An action is morally required just because it produces the best results. Rationality Impartiality Maximize human happiness UtilitarianismPositives Intuitive Matches good with the right Equality Useful for social policy Utilitarianism Negatives Utility monster Animals? Conflicts with Justice Deontology Theory (Study of Duty) The end doesnt justify the means Derived from Autonomy (self + rule) Deontology Categorical Imperative 1 Act only according to that maxim by which you can at the same time will that it should become a universal law. Deontology Categorical Imperative 2, The Principle of Humanity Act so that you treat humanity, whether in your own person or in that of another, always as an end and never a s a means only. Deontology PositivesExplains duties of judge Clear rules Equality Intuitive Deontology Negatives Principles difficult to apply Problems with autonomy Scope? Feminism Theory Men and women are moral equals. All of human experience deserves our attention/respect. Feminine traits are as morally relevant as male traits Interpersonal ways of moral reasoning are often superior to abstract, universalized, rule-governed moral reasoning. Care/Relationships Feminism Positives Embraces full account of human experience Can account for interpersonal moral reasoning, dependence. Feminism Negatives Problems with accounts from emotion Downgrades impartiality