Transcript Philosophy 220

Philosophy 220
Introducing Moral Theory
(and the Topic of Sexual Morality)
The Role of Reasons
 A fundamental feature of philosophy’s contribution
to our understanding of the contested character of
our moral lives is the insistence that our responses
to moral concerns must be justified.
 That is, we must have reasons for believing what
we do about the moral dimensions of our sexuality
or any other moral issue.
 An essential element of the philosophical attempt
to provide justifying reasons is the appeal to moral
theory.
What Counts as a Reason?
 As we will see, many sorts of reasons can and are
offered in a philosophical justification of a moral claim,
but an essential element of any philosophical attempt
to provide morally justifying reasons is the appeal to
moral theory.
 In order to understand what a moral theory is and how
moral theories do the justifying work required, we have
to address these questions.
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What concepts do moral theories rely on?
What do moral theories aim to provide?
How and why do moral theories employ moral principles?
How are moral theories structured?
The Right And The Good
 All moral theories employ and deploy these two main
concepts.
 “Right” and it’s inverse “Wrong” are typically used to
evaluate actions.
 “Good” and it’s inverse “Bad” are typically used as an
assessment of the value of agents, experiences, things
or states of affairs.
Right/Wrong Action
 The concept “Right” has both a narrow and a broad
meaning.
 Narrowly, right actions are those we are morally obligated
to do.
 Broadly, right actions are all actions that are not wrong.
 The concept “Wrong” has only one meaning. We are
forbidden to do wrong actions.
Tripartite Deontic Schema
 Given these accounts of the rightness and
wrongness of actions, ethicists typically divide
the realm of actions for purposes of moral
evaluation into three basic categories.
Obligatory
Actions
Permissible
Actions
Forbidden
Actions
Moral Value
 When we identify something or someone as good or
bad, we are speaking to its character, and particularly
of the moral value that it has.
 Things can have or be morally valuable in one of two
ways.
 Intrinsic value refers to a character or feature inherent in the
thing.
 Extrinsic value refers to how a thing is related to some other
valuable thing (ultimately one with intrinsic value).
 Intrinsic value is what philosophers are typically
concerned with.
Tripartite Axiological Schema
 Given the importance of intrinsic value we can once
again identify three basic value categories.
Intrinsically
Good
Intrinsically
ValueNeutral
Intrinsically
Bad
A Theory of the Right and the
Good
 In light of this, we can define Moral Theory as
the systematic investigation into the nature of
the right and the good with the aim of guiding
moral judgment.
 As such, we can identify three tasks that a
moral theory must accomplish.
 MT must identify the right-making features of actions.
 MT must provide an account of intrinsic value.
 MT must specify how these accounts can serve as the
basis for the justification of specific moral conclusions.
Two Main Aims of Moral Theory
 These three tasks of moral theory provide us
with the means of distinguishing two main aims
of such theories.
 The theoretical aim (corresponding to first two tasks) is to
identify the underlying features of actions, persons and
other morally relevant elements that make them right or
wrong, good or bad. In other words, MTs have to account
for what makes something morally relevant.
 The practical aim (corresponding to the third) is to be
action-guiding. In other words, to provide us with
resources with which to respond to the moral issues
which confront us.
Taking Aim with Moral Principles
 An important tool that philosophers use to
satisfy these aims is the moral principle.
 A moral principle is a general statement of the
right-making characteristics of actions or the
specification of intrinsic value.
 Principles that focus on actions are called “Principles
of Right Conduct.”
 Principles that focus on intrinsic value are called
“Principles of Value.”
What About the First Aim?
 Principles of Right Conduct and Principles of Value
certainly seem to satisfy the practical aim of MTs,
but what about the theoretical aim?
 The operative presumption is that if the principles
are correct, then employing the principles to
evaluate proposed actions or possible values
provides justifying reasons for moral decision
making.
 But the question remains: are the principles
correct?
Conflict of the Principles
 Though all Moral Theories have to include both a
PRC and a PV, typically these principles are not
given equal weight in any given theory.
 Some theories make the Good (considerations of
moral value) more important than the Right, some
the Right (considerations of the deontic status of
action) more important than the Good.
 The former are called “Value-based MTs” the latter
are called “Duty-Based MTs.”
A Plurality of Theories
 Given that different moral theories emphasize different
values, you shouldn’t be surprised that when we start
looking at specific theories, we will find that they
highlight different features of our moral lives.
 In many cases, these differences mask an essential
continuity in moral evaluations, but on occasion there
will be important evaluative differences.
 We need to consider how we should evaluate the
differing claims of the moral theories we will study.
Evaluating Ethical Theories
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In addition to a consideration of the adequacy of the arguments offered
in support of a particular theory, there are a number of features which a
successful ethical theory must exhibit.
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The two central features correspond to the two main aims of moral
theory
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Corresponding to the theoretical aim is the standard of explanatory
power: a theory should help us understand our moral evaluations.
The better the explanation, the better the theory.
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You know murder is wrong. Now ask yourself why? That’s a harder question to
answer than it might at first seem, and moral theory can fill in the explanatory gap.
Corresponding to the practical aim is the standard of practical
guidance: a theory should help us make the morally correct
choices. The better the guidance, the better the theory.
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If you are faced with the challenge of having to help a friend decide whether or not
to have an abortion, you need a theory that provides determinate, consistent and
actionable verdicts.
The Example of Ethics By Authority
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We can begin to appreciate the value of these
evaluative principles by putting them to work
in a consideration of a popular, but not
necessarily successful, approach to moral
theory.
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“Ethics by Authority” refers to a family of
approaches to moral justification which share
the insistence that all the moral explanation
and guidance we need can be located in
some “authority.”
Divine Command Theory
● DCT is one example of an authority based moral theory.
● The key claim of DCT is that, “An action is right if and only if [iff] (and
because) God does not command that we not do that action” (p. 33).
● One of the virtues of this approach is that it does satisfy MT’s
practical aim.
● The 10 commandments don’t leave a lot of wiggle room.
● However, it does nothing to satisfy the explanatory aim.
● Why should we honor our parents?
● To say that “It pleases God.” just pushes the question back a level. Why
does/should it please God? God’s willing it is no explanation of why it is the
right thing to will. Insisting that God is good doesn’t help. After all, goodness
is a moral quality which still needs an explanation.
Ethical Relativism
 ER is another example.
 It’s key claim is, “An action (performed by a
member of Group G) is right iff the moral norms
accepted by G permit the performance of the
action” (p. 34).
 Like with DCT, ER seems appropriately action-
guiding, but it doesn’t do any better job with MT’s
theoretical aim.
 Why should the fact that a majority of some members of a group
believe that the death penalty is morally acceptable make it so?
 Most Europeans used to believe that the earth was flat, but that didn’t
make it so.
What have we seen?
 Our consideration of DCT and ER has revealed that
these two very common approaches to moral
justification do not satisfy the evaluative constraints
which moral theories should satisfy.
 At the very least, this fact calls into question the ability
of these two ways of thinking about morality to do the
work we ask of moral theories.
 As we turn in the next unit to other theoretical
approaches, let’s keep this lesson in mind and ask
ourselves if they do a better job of satisfying the
fundamental aims of moral theory.
Sexual Morality: Some Helpful
Distinctions
 Though we are more familiar with their use as political
labels, the terms “Conservative,” “Liberal,” and
“Moderate” are frequently used in moral theoretical
discussions of a range of moral issues.
 In the context of Moral Theory, these terms refer not to
political ideologies, but to accounts of how narrow or
wide the range of permissible behavior is.
 In MT, conservative positions tend to advocate a very narrow
range of permissible behavior, liberals a wide range, while
moderates fall somewhere in the middle.
The Range of Sexual Behavior
 In the context of sexual morality, conservatives,
moderates and liberals tend to disagree about the sorts
of relationships in which sexual behavior is permissible.
 Conservatives tend to restrict sexual behavior to
married couples. A more moderate person may argue
that sex is permissible if the people are in love. A liberal
on sexual matters is likely to argue that more general
restrictions on human interactions (for example: don’t
hurt people) are the only constraints on sexual
interactions.
A Few Caveats
 Remember, these labels are not the same as the political
ones, even when there are obvious points of overlap.
 Some political conservatives will also be sexually conservative,
but not necessarily. Some political liberals will be sexually
liberal, but not necessarily.
 These labels do not always map straightforwardly on to
questions of the moral status of a range of sexual behaviors
(like pornography or prostitution).
 Different representatives of these positions are not always in
agreement with each other.
 One sexual liberal may think adultery acceptable, another not.