Transcript Sept 7 - Acsu Buffalo

Duty and Desire 2
Lisa Does Her Duty
1
Moral “contentment” and happiness
• Stoics: doing one’s duty is true happiness
• Kant: moral contentment is not the same as
happiness
• The Simpsons: Marge feels moral contentment
in telling the truth, but she is not happy
because her legitimate desires are frustrated.
2
Being worthy of happiness
• When she gets her unemployment check she
is not happy
• Because she feels she doesn’t deserve it.
• Moral ideal:
– You should do your duty for the sake of duty,
– and as a result your desires are fulfilled.
3
Necessary but not sufficient
• For the moral person, fulfillment of duty is a
necessary condition for happiness
– It produces a kind of inner satisfaction
• But it is not a sufficient condition
– In addition, one’s (legitimate) desires should also
be fulfilled
• (What about the non-moral person, the
egotist? Can Lionel be truly happy?)
4
How do we know what is our duty?
• 1) Experience of dutifulness
– Duty v. desire
• 2) How know something is our duty?
• 3) The problem of happiness
– Duty plus desire (as consequence)
• 4) What is the source of the experience of
duty?
– Is it socialization? Innate feeling? Etc.
5
Hume’s theory of moral feeling
• Reason is cold, dispassionate: does not move
us to act
• Feelings, desires, “passions” do move us to act
• Morality does move us to act
• Therefore morality must be a certain kind of
feeling
• “Disinterested feeling”
6
1st problem with theory of moral
feeling: determinism
• Feelings that are caused by external
conditions imply determinism
• But determinism undermines morality
• Morality = responsibility
• How can we be responsible if our actions are
caused by outside forces?
7
Two kinds of feelings
• 1) externally caused feelings. Kant calls this
“pathological feeling”
– caused by outside forces
• 2) internally caused feeling based on our
shared humanity
– Marge feels bad about not telling the whole truth
to her customers because she feels connected to
them as fellow human beings
8
Moral choice (free will)
• 1) act on the basis of desires, feelings,
interests of separate individual (ego)
– Ordinary desires
• 2) act on the basis of one’s shared humanity
– And by extension, with one’s shared membership
with all intelligent and sentient beings
– Higher level, moral desire—the desire to be a
good person
9
2nd problem with theory of
morality as feeling: irrationalism
• Recall Bart’s feeling that killing a bird is wrong.
But why?
• Bart (indirectly) kills many birds in defending
his charges
• Lisa’s objection: “I don't get it, Bart. You got all
upset when you killed one bird, but now
you've killed tens of thousands, and it doesn't
bother you at all.”
10
Feeling is not enough
• Feelings imply principles, rules or laws
• Look at the inner meaning of the feeling, and
formulate it as a principle
• Inherent in our actions are ideas, general
thoughts, beliefs, or “maxims”
– E.g., it’s wrong to kill innocent animals
• Bart does not reflect on the principle that is
implicit in his feeling
– “I don’t get it Bart …”
11
Categorical Imperative
• “Act only on that maxim through which you
can at the same time will that it should
become a universal law.”
12
Hypothetical imperatives: technical
• Imperative: something you must do; it’s not
optional
• Technical imperatives:
– If you want to catch a fish, you must have a fishing
rod.
– If you want the end, you must employ certain
means to the end
• But the end itself is not necessary (it’s
hypothetical
Hypothetical imperatives:
Prudential
• Everybody necessarily desires happiness, but
the means are hypothetical (uncertain)
• Prudential imperatives
– Homer wants to go fishing. Why? Because it will
make him happy.
– But is it necessary for him to fish in order to be
happy? (necessity)
– Should everyone who wants to be happy go
fishing? (universality)
Ends and means
• In technical imperatives, the end or goal is
optional, but the means are necessary
• In prudential imperatives the goal is universal
and necessary, but the means are optional
“hypothetical”
– But what makes a person happy is different for
different people
– It’s not necessary for Homer to go fishing to be
happy. He could go to a bar and have a beer. He
could have a nice meal with his family
Categorical imperatives
• Homer abandons his fishing expedition
– Because he doesn’t want to hurt Marge
• The categorical imperative overrides the
imperative of happiness, with its prudential
means
• How do we know that a certain action is
categorically (absolutely) imperative?
– Negatively: when you cannot will the maxim of
the action as a universal law
How to know what is right?
• 1) Begin with feelings, desires, interests that
give rise to a possible action
• 2) Reflect on the maxim or principle implicit in
your action.
• 3) Can you will this maxim consistently, or
does it contradict itself or other maxims?
17
Why not steal from the collection
plate?
• 1) Desire for money leads to a plan: steal from
the collection plate
• 2) Maxim: People should steal from others
when they can get away with it.
• 3) But can Jessica Lovejoy will this maxim as a
universal law—governing how others treat
her?
– E.g., “It’s ok for others to steal from me.”
18
The Golden Rule
• Kant reformulates: “Do unto others as you
would have them do unto you.”
• See other persons as other selves
• Why?
• Because the rule of your action will become
the law of your world
• Do you want to live in such a world?
19
Microcosm and Macrocosm
• Red Jacket Realty is a microcosm of the world
in which all adopt the maxim of me-first
• 1) War within the company
• 2) War with customers
• The maxim of egotism (me first) creates a
Hobbsean world of warring egotists
– Hobbes: human beings are separate individuals,
acting solely for themselves as individuals
• Non-egotists are expelled (Marge)
– “You’re one of kind, Marge.”
20
Contradiction of stealing
• 1) Desire to have property (for oneself).
• 2) Means of realizing this goal: take or destroy
property (of others).
• 3) But 2) contradicts 1): destroy property to
obtain property
• The law of theft, when universalized, stated as
a universal law, makes property impossible
– And contradicts the maxim that you have
adopted: it’s good to have property
21
Why tell the truth?
• Lionel’s maxim: there’s the truth, and there’s
“the truth”
• Maxim: Tell others what is necessary to
persuade them to buy;
– if the truth as you understand it would not
succeed, “bend it”
• Can this be a universal law of human
communication?
22
Motto of salesmanship
• Motto or maxim of Red Jacket Realty: the right
house for the right person
• Maxim is universalizable: Lionel Hutz wants
the right house for himself
• But he denies for others this maxim that he
wants for himself
– He has two contradictory maxims
• = moral hypocrisy
23
Lionel’s real motto
• Lionel does not act on a feeling of shared
humanity: other people as other selves
• He acts for his own self, while separating
himself from others
24
Acting on the basis of shared
humanity
• Marge feels the primacy of her shared
humanity with her friends and neighbors
• And faces the moral choice: not self or others,
but selfishness versus humanity (including
herself)
– Marge too is a human being, and so she should
respect herself as well as others
25
Giving the laws that govern our
world
• In every action, you are a law-giver
• Reflect on the law that is implicit in your
action
• Act as if the laws of the world depend on
you—because they do!
26
Lisa goes vegetarian
• 1) Experience of little lambs in petting zoo.
– Maxim of action?
– One should care for innocent animals
• 2) Eating lamb for supper.
– Maxim of action?
– It’s ok to kill innocent animals
27
Independent thinking
• Lisa is thinking for herself
• Her school is not based on such thinking
• The film, presented by the Meat Council, justifies meat
eating
• = Corporate self-interest
• "The Meat Council Presents: `Meat and You: Partners in
Freedom'. Number 3F03 in the `Resistance is Useless'
series."
28
Scientific rationale?
• Jimmy: I have a crazy friend who says it’s wrong to eat
meat. Is he crazy?
• Troy: Nooo, just ignorant. You see your crazy friend
never heard of "The Food Chain".
• [Flash to a picture of "Food Chain", with all animals
and arrows pointing to a silhouette of a human.] Just
ask this scientician.
29
Survival of the fittest
(Dog-eat-dog world)
• He'll tell you that, in nature, one creature
invariably eats another creature to survive.
• Don't kid yourself Jimmy. If a cow ever got the
chance, he'd eat you and everyone you care
about! [Image of a cow quietly chewing cud,
but with a mean look on its face.]
30
Scientific point of view?
• All actions are governed by outside causes
(natural laws)
• Humans act to realize their feelings, desires,
and (rationally examined) interests on the
basis of natural laws
• = egotism, self-interest, >economic life
• Every one (animals as well as humans) uses
others to advance themselves
31
Hobbesean world:
Projection of human egotism
• =a picture of the animal world based on the
projection of human egotism
• Hobbes: human beings are self-interested
• > war of all against all
• Need the State to impose limits on natural
freedom—through threats of punishment
• Can the maxim of egotism (Me first!) be willed
as a universal law?
32
Morality and science
• If science is right, morality is an illusion
– Deterministic Science: all our actions are the
results of outside causes
• Morality implies responsibility for one’s own
actions, and so free will to choose between
• 1) the drives of ordinary life arising from
external causes (scientific perspective)
• 2) principles of action by which we choose to
live (moral perspective)
33
Bart learns the hard way
• Lisa: I never realized before, but some Itchy & Scratchy
cartoons send the message that violence against
animals is funny.
• Bart: They what? Cartoons don't have messages, Lisa.
[Moves toward door.] They're just a bunch of hilarious
stuff you know, like people getting hurt and stuff, stuff
like that. [gets slammed behind the door by Homer]
34
Lisa sees the principle
• Bart sees cartoons showing animals getting
hurt, and laughs hilariously
• Lisa objects: that’s a bad message.
• Bart: cartoons are funny because they show
animals and people getting hurt.
• Bart then gets slammed by Homer in a
cartoonish way
35
Bart’s double standard
• The Simpsons is a cartoon
• It shows Bart getting hurt, and we laugh, but
uncomfortably
• Bart doesn’t laugh at himself getting hurt!
• What is the message of this cartoon?
• 1) our maxim of laughing at others getting
hurt: It’s ok to laugh at people getting hurt
• 2) our maxim of others laughing at us: It’s not
ok to laugh at people getting hurt
36
Lisa’s stand
• Lisa: I'm never ever apologizing because I was
standing up for a just cause and you were
wrong wrong wrong!
• She causes the pig to fly and spoils Homer’s
barbecue
37
Lisa suffers and gives up
• She is isolated, lonely, suffering for her
principled action
– Example of duty!
– But if it’s useless, if no one listens, why persist?
• She gives up and eats a “hot dog”—but it’s
Apu’s tofu hot dog.
• Linda and Paul McCartney are on Apu’s roof
garden
38
Another kind of vegetarianism
• Lisa: When will all those fools learn that you
can be perfectly healthy simply eating
vegetables, fruits, grains and cheese.
• Apu: Oh, cheese!
• Lisa: You don't eat cheese, Apu?
• Apu: No I don't eat any food that comes from
an animal.
39
Tolerance
• Lisa: Ohh, then you must think I'm a monster!
• Apu: Yes indeed I do think that. But, I learned
long ago Lisa to tolerate others rather than
forcing my beliefs on them. You know you can
influence people without badgering them
always. It's like Paul's song, "Live and Let Live".
• Paul: Actually, it was "Live and Let Die".
40
2nd Fomulation of Categorical
Imperative
• “Act in such a way that you always treat
humanity whether in your own person or in
the person of any other, never simply as a
means, but always at the same time as an
end.”
• = other people too act for their own ends or
goals, and must be respected for this
41
Morality is for oneself
• Morality is about one’s inner intentions, not external
actions
• => Be consistent with one’s own principles of action
• How do we know the inner intentions of others?
• Are we ever sure we know even our own real
motives?
• Hence morality is not: impose one’s own principles
on others
42
Variety of beliefs
• People have different beliefs (thousands,
millions of them?)
• Morality: consistency, constancy in one’s
beliefs—taking control of one’s beliefs
• But this can lead to different moral standards
for different people
• Lisa’s vegetarianism v. Apu’s (deeper one?)
43
Kant’s “formalism”
• One formal principle: will your maxim as a
universal law
• Different possible contents of moral rules
• Doesn’t this produce moral relativism,
irrationalism?
44
Herodotus on cultural relativism
• Darius to the Greeks (who burn their dead):
what would it take for you to eat your dead?
Answer: not all the money in the world.
• With the Greeks present he asks the Callatians
(who eat their dead): what would it take for
you to burn your dead? Answer: not all the
money in the world.
45
Deeper universality
• There is one truly universal moral rule
(regarding content):
• Respect others as “ends in themselves”
• Not treat others as “mere means” to one’s
own ends
• Both the Greeks and the Callatians respect
their dead
• Contradicts egotism: (Lionel’s approach)
46
Persuasion not force
• Homer’s beliefs:
– 1) It’s natural for humans to eat meat
– 2) It’s sociable, generous, to provide meat
• Is Homer being consistent within his lights?
• Homer: Lisa, get a hold of yourself. This is lamb, not
_a_ lamb.
• Lisa: What's the difference between this lamb and
the one that kissed me?
• Bart: This one spent two hours in the broiler.
47
Reconciliation
• Lisa: I still stand by my beliefs. But I can't
defend what I did. I'm sorry I messed up your
barbeque.
• Homer: I understand honey. I used to believe
in things when I was a kid.
• 1) Consistency in one’s principles
• 2) Mutual respect despite differences
• => Higher universality of morality
48
Morality of meat-eating
•
•
•
•
•
1) Lisa’s vegetarianism
2) Apu’s veganism
3) Homer’s rationale?
Can each of these be willed as a universal law?
4) What about hunting cultures? How do they
justify killing animals?
– The circle of life (Lion King)
– Rituals of hunter/gatherers
50
Ritual of the hunt
• In “Avatar,” Neytiri teaches Jake to pray over the
body of an animal killed in the hunt:
– “I see you Brother, and thank you. Your spirit goes with
Eywa. Your body stays behind to become part of the
People.”
• It is the alien Sky People who destroy without
renewing,
– out of an unnatural thirst for money,
– aware of no connection or bond between themselves and
the natural world.
– See "Hegel's Philosophy of Nature as the Avatar of Spirit"
Morality and Legality
• When is it valid to “legislate morality”?
• Kant: When the exercise of freedom of one
person interferes with the equal exercise of
freedom of the other
– Violence in interpersonal relations
– Fraud in contracts
• Legality relates to external behavior, whatever
the motive
52
3rd Formulation of CI
• “In the kingdom of ends everything has either
a price or a dignity. If it has a price, something
else can be put in its place as an equivalent; if
it is exalted above all price and so admits of no
equivalent, then it has a dignity.”
– Equivalent prices:
• a Bible = $20
• A bottle of whiskey = $20
53
(Market) value as relative price
• “What is relative to universal human
inclinations and needs has a market price;
what, even without presupposing a need,
accords with a certain taste—that is, with
satisfaction in the mere purposeless play of
our mental powers—has a fancy price;”
– 1) On Saturday night I need whiskey
– 2) On Sunday morning I need to go Church
54
Moral value as intrinsic Dignity
• but that which constitutes the sole condition
under which anything can be an end in itself
has not merely a relative value—that is, a
price—but has an intrinsic value—that is,
dignity.
– Higher values:
• Having a nice lawn, having tasteful clothes: aesthetic
values
• Respecting the dignity of a human being
55
3rd Formulation
• There is a hierarchy of goals in society
– 1) economic goals: relative to needs
• Satisfying ones needs—pleasure, interests
• Exchanging goods for this purpose: buying and selling
– 2) aesthetic goals: relative to culture
• What looks good on a young person
• What looks good on an older person
– 3) moral goals: respecting the dignity of the human being
• 3rd formulation: create a society in which lower goals
are subordinate to the higher ones, ultimately to the
dignity of the human individual
Principle of Capitalist Economy
• “It is not from the benevolence of the butcher,
the brewer, or the baker, that we expect our
dinner, but from their regard to their own
interest. We address ourselves, not to their
humanity but to their self-love, and never talk
to them of our own necessities but of their
advantages.” Adam Smith
57
Kingdom of God
• Internal religion of morality: “The Kingdom of
God is within you.”
• Kant: Jesus’ Kingdom of God is the “Kingdom
of Ends”
• Human dignity has no price
• Market prices should be subordinated to it
58
The Highest Good
• People do their duty—above all respecting the
intrinsic dignity of humanity in each individual
• And as a result have their needs met
• To create a society based on such a rule is the
highest goal of morality
59
60
The Highest Good
• 1) Do the right thing in order to get the reward
(= self-interest)
• 2) Do the right thing because it is the right
thing
– And suffer for it?
– And be rewarded for it?
61
The Just Society
• A society in which
– people who do their duty are rewarded
– And those who violate it are punished
• Not the motive of duty
• But the consequence of it
• Highest duty (Kant) = to create a society in
which this is the general rule
62
Heteronomy
• The choice of ego produces a world of
conflicting egos, with its external laws of the
market
• These laws are unconsciously produced by the
separate individuals
• The individual must adopt to those laws to
survive: heteronomy
63
Autonomy
• Live according to laws that are implicit in one’s
actions
• E.g., laws of truthfulness, of respect for
property, of mutual tolerance
• Such actions plant the seeds of an alternative
world: the Kingdom of Ends, the Highest
Good, the Kingdom of God
64
Lisa’s suffering and sorrow
• Lisa stands up for principle and inevitably
suffers for it: Duty
• She is on the verge of despair before she
meets Apu, Paul, and Linda
• They form a sharing community, and Lisa
returns happily to her family, despite their
different beliefs
• V. warring world of Red Jacket Realty
65