Transcript Notes on Jamieson, chapter 2

PHILOSOPHY 102 (STOLZE)
Notes on Dale Jamieson, Ethics
and the Environment, chapter 2
Chapter Two: Human Morality
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The Nature and Functions of Morality
Three Challenges to Morality
What Can These Challenges Teach Us?
The Nature and Functions of Morality
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Jamieson’s definition of morality = “a behavioral system,
with an attendant psychology, that has evolved among
social animals for the purposes of regulating their
interactions” (pp. 26-7).
Hobbesian solution to the problem of a “war of all against
all.”
Morality, then, is a “pattern of behavior” that enables social
cooperation and reciprocation among individuals.
Three Challenges to Morality
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Amoralism
Theism
Relativism
Amoralism
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An amoralist = someone who thinks that “there is no such
thing as right or wrong” and so “chooses to opt out of
morality altogether” (p. 31).
Thought experiment: Dirk the Amoralist (pp. 32-3)
Theism
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A theist thinks that “morality comes only from God” and is
not, as Jamieson claims, a “human construction” (p. 33).
Two reasons why someone might worry that “without God,
everything is permitted” (p. 34):
(1) Without god, morality would have no content.
(2) Without God, we would not be motivated to act morally.
Relativism
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A relativist = someone who “denies the possibility of moral
claims transcending the moral system of the speaker’s own
society” (p. 39).
Theoretical and practical objections to relativism
Strengths of relativism
What Challenges to Morality Can Teach Us
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Morality is ubiquitous and difficult to escape.
Morality does not need the support of God.
Morality is not culture-bound.