Transcript moral imperative

HU300: Shades of
Morality
Welcome to our sixth
seminar! We will begin on
time. Feel free to chat until
then
Finding inspiration
• I know only that what is moral
is what you feel good after and
what is immoral is what you feel
bad after.
-- Ernest Hemingway
Unit 6 Work
• Read the chapter “Morality” (ch. 8) in The Art of Being
Human.
• Discussion Board
– Answer the questions and post responses to at
least two classmates.
– Notice that there are 2 threads this week, so you’ll
post a total of 6 messages (2 original, 4 peer
responses).
You do not have a formal project due this week
Morality
• How would you define morality?
• Why is it an important topic to discuss in
relation to the twentieth century?
Defining Morality
• Why is it so difficult to define morality?
Defining Morality
• “Morality can be defined as the basis for a
choice among significant options” (text,
p.261)
• Universal questions pondered by great
minds across time and cultures.
What is a moral system?
• A set of beliefs or values that help us to
make moral decisions.
• Ex: religion, reason
• Absolute morality vs. moral relativism
(what’s right for some, might not be right
for others)
Art and Humanties
• Whatever the moral system or viewpoint,
significant decisions are often painful.
Much of our literature, art, cinema, and
music explores people or situations
involved in moral dilemmas.
• Can you think of examples in literature, art
or film?
Moral Dilemmas in the
Humanities
• Examples in the book include: The Scarlet
Letter, Hamlet, and The Godfather.
• Art with a social conscience like Picasso’s
Guernica, social realism of the twenties
and thirties (The Road to Wigan Pier,
Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle)
• Protest poetry and music of the fifties and
sixties
Morality
• How do personal definitions of morality
relate to philosophical ones?
• We’ll look at some famous moral
questions in an effort to explore this
question.
Immanuel Kant (1724-1804)
• Kant believes that we are born knowing certain things, that certain
“mental categories” are innate.
• Knowing right from wrong is inborn.
• “He calls this inborn faculty the moral imperative, or sense of
ought: an intuitive classification of actions and choices as morally
acceptable or unacceptable. Experience teaches us which specific
actions are right and which are not, but “rightness” and “wrongness,”
like “nextness,” cannot be taught” (text, p. 282).
• According to Kant, we must simply ask whether it would be okay for
everyone to do a certain action. Answering this question tells us
whether it is morally right or not.
Learned or Innate?
• Is morality—or learning the difference
between right and wrong—something we
are taught or something we are born
knowing?
Self Interest vs. the Greater
Good
• Socrates vs. Glaucon
– Glaucon says that man always does what is
best for him. He believes in self-interest.
– Socrates says that man can commit a just or
virtuous act for its own sake.
Glacon
• What is the “Ring of Gyges”?
• What would you do if you had the ring?
• Glacon says that many people do
whatever they can get away with while
maintaining their reputation. What do you
think about his conclusion?
Altruism
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What does the term mean?
Is it possible?
Moral Authorities
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A Defense of Altruism
 John Rawls (1921-2000) agrees with Socrates that “reason does
not support self-interest.” He also argues that self-interest colors
our moral decisions.
Moral Mathematics
Jeremy Bentham—the good of the most people should be the
basis for morals and just government:
“For him, the goal was a society in which the maximum number of
people achieved the maximum amount of pleasure without
impinging on the rights of others. He denied the validity of moral
absolutism, defining the good as the greatest good for the greatest
number ” (text, p. 278).
 --critics argue that motives cannot be considered
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The Morality of Work
• A work life that denies our individuality, our
creativity, our moral and aesthetic sensibility is
one that denies our dignity as human beings
(text, p. 288).
• —Jerome M. Egal
• Do you agree or disagree with this? What
does morality have to do with work or the
workplace?
Feminist Morality
• Women have served all these centuries as
looking glasses possessing the magic and
delicious power of reflecting the figure of
man as twice its natural size.
• —Virginia Woolf
• What do you think Woolf means here?
Feminist Ethics
• Many feminists argue that much of philosophy ignores
women and their viewpoints.
• Rosemarie Tong says that for most philosophers,
including Kant and others, “the universal” only applies to
males. These philosophers were not considering women
and their perspective.
• Tong and other feminists suggest that we must consider
gender needs and differences when pondering moral
questions.
Feminist Ethics
• I have yet to hear a man ask for advice on
how to combine marriage and a career.
• —Gloria Steinem
• What do you make of this quotation?
Feminist Ethics
• Feminist philosophers believe that
injustices and inequalities still exist for
women today.
• They strive to raise awareness about
gender issues and their relationship to
morality.
Moral Conundrums
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Does the end ever justify the means?
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What would Machiavelli say?
Are punishment or fear of punishment the
only things that prevent people from doing
wrong?
Do the needs of society outweigh the
needs of the individual?
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Machiavelli
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How have Machiavelli’s ideas influenced
the twentieth and twenty first centuries?
Moral Questions
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Should economic resources be owned and
controlled by individuals or communities?
Are results all that matter or do intentions
count?
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What would Jeremy Bentham say?
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Economic Self-Interest
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Adam Smith
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Laissez faire (to allow to do)
Basis of capitalism
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Economics in Literature
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Ayn Rand—capitalism and complete reliance on the
market
Utilitarianism Revisited
• John Stuart Mill (1806-1873)
“Mill recognized that
government was needed to balance irresponsibility on the
• part of the general population. But this did not give government the
right to legislate morality for the responsible few” (text, p.280).
– Sports stadium vs. opera house example
– Letting the majority rule in all situations is dangerous. Minority
must be protected as well.
Can you think of how Mill’s thoughts might relate to our
government, culture, or society?
Religion and Morality
• The world’s major religions offer a moral
code for followers. These codes are
strikingly similar in their basic tenets and
are reflected in many governments as
well.
• For example, the moral code in many
western societies is based on the
concepts delineated in the Ten
Commandments.
Ten Commandments
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1. require people to recognize only one God.
2. forbid the making and worshiping of any graven image.
3. forbid the taking of the Lord’s name in vain.
4. require that the Sabbath be kept holy.
5. require that people honor their parents.
6. forbid killing.
7. forbid adultery.
8. forbid stealing.
9. forbid the bearing of false witness against another.
10. forbid the coveting of another’s wife and of another’s goods.
Moral Basis of Society
• How do you see these ideas shaping
society?
• Are they universal moral laws?
• If many of the tenets seem similar among
the major religions of the world, why are
there so many problems and wars that
stem from religion?
Moral Relativism
• What does this term mean?
• How do you see it working in our society
today?
• What are the advantages or positive
aspects of this viewpoint?
• What are the downsides?
Defining Moral Relativism
• Moral Relativism means that right and
wrong must be defined within a specific
situation or context.
• There is no universal right or wrong.
Morality
• Moral excellence comes about as a result of habit. We
become just by doing just acts, temperate by doing
temperate acts, brave by doing brave acts. –Aristotle
• Art, like morality, consists in drawing the line
somewhere. –G.K. Chesterton
• Compassion is the basis of morality. –Arthur
Schopenhauer
The Show is Over!
• Please email me with any
questions or concerns you have
about the course.
• See you on the DB!!