Transcript Ross - bYTEBoss

Ross: The Right and the
Good
Utilitarianism and Kantian ethics
are both flawed
Kantian ethics is flawed because of the
belief in absolute duties.
Utilitarianism is flawed because it tries to
reduce all our duties to the duties of
beneficence and non-maleficence.
An argument against Utilitarianism
When you make a promise, you think you
are obliged to keep it because you made
the promise, not because you believe
keeping the promise will lead to the best
outcome.
Some of our duties are “backward looking”
rather than “forward looking”
Suppose you make a promise, and you
have the option of doing something else
that results in slightly better
consequences.
What should you do?
Ross thinks it obvious you should keep your
promise
Desert Island example
Suppose you are on a desert island with a dying
woman. She tells you to promise to take her
money and give it to a certain charity. You
promise to do so, and she dies.
You get rescued, and are about to give her
money to charity A, but learn that charity B is
actually slightly better.
What should you do? Keep your promise or do
what creates the greatest net good?
Prima facie vs. absolute duties
Some kinds of actions are duties when
considered in isolation. If I am in a
situation in which the only relevant fact is
that I made a promise, I ought to keep my
promise
But life is not like that. We are always in
situations that involve all sorts of duties
and sometimes they conflict
Utilitarianism: determine what you should
by weighing the consequences.
Ross: what you really should do, your
actual duty, can only be discovered by
carefully considering your situation.
We can know what sorts of actions are
prima facie duties. We cannot be so sure
about our absolute duties
How do you know prima facie
duties
Ross thinks these duties are self evident.
Once you consider “keeping your promise”
you will realize that this sort of action is
one that obliges. Just like simple truths of
mathematics or logic. “There cannot be a
round square” is known from considering
the meaning of the statement, the nature
of “round” and “square”
Ross and the Plain Man
Ross appeals to what we would ordinary
think in everyday life. He thinks this
ordinary way of thinking about morality is
the sort of data that moral theory has to
correspond to, at least roughly.