Modern Political Philosophy

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Chapter 12

• Modern Political Philosophy

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Chapter 12

• G.E. Moore
• W.D. Ross
• John Rawls
• Robert Nozick
• Alasdair MacIntyre
• Herbert Marcuse
• Ayn Rand

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G.E. Moore

• The Naturalistic Fallacy.
• Moore claims that the majority of moral
  philosophers have assumed that goodness is a
  natural property of objects. He claims that it
  is not.
• He claims that the concept of good is non-complex
  and non-natural.
• The Good is indefinable.

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Normative Ethics vs. Meta-ethics

• Normative Ethics deals with what is right or
  wrong.
• Meta-Ethics deals with value concepts such as
  good, right, duty, obligation and value.
• Many of these concepts are discussed by various
  moral philosophers.

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Intuitionist

• W.D. Ross

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Prima Facie Duty

• Prima Facie duty vs. absolute duty
• A prima facie duty is a conditional duty. It may
  be overridden by a duty of greater importance.
  Prima Facie duties are not static. This means
  that one may out weight another in one situation
  and the same two duties might switch positions
  given other circumstances. We know which one
  takes precedent by intuition- we just know.

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Not Quite Utilitarianism

• Example
• Keeping a promise
• Utilitarian, act utilitarian, keep the promise if
  it produces beneficial consequences
• Keep the promise, because you have a moral duty
  to keep them promise, unless a greater duty comes
  into conflict with keeping your promise.

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Emotivism

• Emotivism claim that there are no ethical facts.
  There is no right or wrong.
• When I say, Abortion is wrong, I am stating my
  preference, my opinion, how it makes me feel.
  But there is no right answer to this, or any
  other moral issue.
• C.L. Stevenson was an emotivist.

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John Rawls

• Defined Justice as fairness.
• Discussed the Original Position.

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2 basic principals of Equality

• Each person has an equal right to the most
  extensive scheme of equal basic liberties
  compatible with a similar scheme of liberties for
  all
• Social and economic inequalities are to meet two
  conditions they must be a) to the greatest
  expected benefit to the least advantaged b)
  attached to offices and positions open to all
  under conditions of fair equality of opportunity.

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Egalitarianism

• What Rawls wants is everyone to have the same
  basic liberties, and social and economic
  inequality to benefit the poor instead of the
  rich. Inequality, say in taxes, ought to be at
  the expense of the rich in order to benefit the
  poor.

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Original Position

• Rawls argues that we would arrive at these
  principles if we in the Original Position.
• A hypothetical situation where there is no
  government.

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Veil of Ignorance

• The veil of ignorance is a hypothetical thought
  experiment where one is to imagine oneself as a
  representative of the populous as a whole. Under
  the veil you will be looking for guiding
  principles of justice and begin to stipulate laws
  and regulations for your government. The point is
  that you are ignorant of your social status and
  position. You dont know your race or your
  economic class.

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Maximin

• Rawls thinks that a reasonable person in such a
  situation would adapt his strategy of maximin.

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Princess or Pauper

• Make life the best you can for the people at the
  bottom. He thinks that rationality entails that
  you will do this.

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Robert Nozick
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Alasdair MacIntyre
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Herbert Marcuse
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Ayn Rand
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Crime and Punishment

• Theories of Punishment
• Retributive Theories
• Deterrence Theories
• Forfeiture Theory
• Reform/ Rehabilitation Theory

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Theories of Punishment

• Punishment is the deliberate limitation or
  revocation of rights and liberties by the
  government, as such, it must be justified.
• There are 4 contemporary theories for the
  justification of punishment by the state.

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RETRIBUTIVE THEORY- Lex Talionis (an eye for an
eye)

• Direct Retributivism- says that a person
  committing a crime ought to be punished for the
  crime by having the same crime inflicted upon
  them literally, an eye for an eye.

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State sanctioned what?

• Yet this is not practical. If a murder kills your
  father, are we to kill his father.
• It simply is not practical to employ this type of
  Retributivism.

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Proportional Retributivism

• Claims that a person should be punished in a way
  proportional to the crime they committed. We are
  going to inflict pain and suffering to an equal
  degree upon them. The rapist is not going to be
  raped, but he is going to suffer in a equal
  degree.

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FORFEITURE THEORY

• This theory states that although we have certain
  positive rights within society, when we violate
  laws and violate the rights of others, then we
  forfeit our own rights.
• As such we must be punished for these violations,
  and the state has the right, obligation and duty
  to see that we are punished.

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DETERRENCE THEORY

• This theory claims that punishing criminals
  deters others from committing the same crimes.
• Punishment is justified only if it has a
  deterrent effect. If punishment did not deter
  future crimes then there would be no reason to
  punish people.

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REFORM THEORY

• This theory claims that the goal of punishment is
  to reform criminals.
• If the punishment does not have such an effect
  then it is not justified.

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MIXED THEORIES

• It is possible to mix elements of the different
  theories and claim that together they justify
  punishment.