Ross: The Right and the Good

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Ross The Right and the Good
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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.

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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

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• 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

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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?

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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

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• 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

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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

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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.

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