Transcript Morality: constitutive of or overcoming self-interest?

Michael Lacewing
Self-interest and morality
 Can we say what is in our self-interest without
referring to morality?
 E.g. cheating - might make you feel happy at the time,
but you don’t gain what is of real value (‘achievement’)
 Self-interest is getting what is truly valuable
Aristotle on ‘flourishing’
 We all aim at living the best life we can. But what
this is depends on what we are.
 Human beings are capable of reason.
 So living well is living in accordance with reason.
 Our character is important here - to be virtuous is
to have desires and emotions that are ‘reasonable’.
Virtue
 As we are social, we need to consider what counts
as the most appropriate response to living with
others.
 E.g. anger; to feel it ‘at the right times, with
reference to the right objects, towards the right
people, with the right motive, and in the right way’
 The moral life is the life that is best for us.
Objections
 Being moral because it benefits me doesn’t recognise
the value of other people.
 It doesn’t recognise how morally good people think
and feel – they aren’t aiming to get the best for
themselves.
 It doesn’t explain the importance of morality.
 In general, ‘You ought to do x’ doesn’t mean ‘If you
want to live the best life for you, you ought to do x’.
Kant’s big idea
 If self-interest is irrelevant to morality, what reason to
do we have to be moral?
 Kant: morality is reason itself
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Morality is meant to guide our actions.
We act on maxims: principle of action, what we intend.
Morality is universal, the same for everyone.
So “Act only on that maxim through which you can at
the same time will that it should become a universal
law”.
Imperatives
 An imperative is just a command.
 A hypothetical imperative is a command that
presupposes some further goal or end.
 A categorical imperative is not hypothetical. It is
irrational and immoral not to obey it.
Happiness and reason
 Only reason and happiness motivate us. Morality
motivates us, so must be one of these.
 It can’t be happiness, since what makes people happy
differs, and happiness can be good or bad.
 And we’ve argued that self-interest is not the right
motivation for morality.
 It is reason: morality is universal and categorical - so is
reason.
Objections to Kant
 Is Kant right that reason alone can motivate me? Even
knowing what I ought to do, don’t I have to care about
morality?
 Is Kant right that rationality requires me to act in a way
in which everyone can act?
 The difference between ‘theoretical’ reason and
‘practical’ reason
Aristotle’s defence of self-interest
 Being moral because it benefits me doesn’t recognise the
value of other people.
 The best life for you involves recognising other people’s value,
and treating them accordingly.
 It doesn’t recognise how morally good people think and feel
– they aren’t aiming to get the best for themselves.
 Morality is not distinct from self-interest - a good person does
not think that being moral is no good for them.
 It doesn’t explain the importance of morality.
 Failing to be motivated by other people’s rights or needs
means not having the right relationship with them.