The Majority View

1
The Majority View

• Created by Michael H. Cheney
• Source Thinking Critically About Ethical Issues,
  Ruggiero

2
The Role of the Majority View

• Majority view
• wisest most informed viewpoint?
• Gives impression of authoritativeness and wisdom.
• There is no magic in majorities

3
There is no magic in majorities

• Majority View on Issue
• Actual knowledge varies widely among individuals
• well informed
• Uninformed not aware of ignorance

• 2. Significant variations in degree and quality
  of consideration
• Critical thought
• Blind obedience
• Uncommitted inquiry
• 3. Wide differences in the quality of judgment of
  the issue
• Objectively
• Emotional
• Gut reaction

4
The Majority Can Err

• Poor Assumption
• Majority is necessarily enlightened.
• Majority ignorance is as common as majority
  wisdom.

5
Majority View Wisdom

• Hope the counsel of the majority will be the
  counsel of wisdom
• Yet in ethical judgment, where a singular
  potential for irrational reaction and even
  self-deception exist,
• Important not to slavishly follow the majority.

6
Inquiry

• At the beginning of the 20th century a majority
  of the lawmakers considered it morally right to
  deny women the right to vote. Was the majority
  morally correct in this instance?

7
Sample Response

• The majority was wrong
• The lawmakers believed women lacked the necessary
  level of intelligence and that involvement in
  politics would rob them of their femininity.
• Such reasons were not valid laughable
• No legitimate reason ever existed for deriving
  women of their rights of citizenship.

8
Inquiries

• Two years after segregation was outlawed, a
  national poll revealed 80 of citizens in
  southern states opposed school desegregation. Are
  such desegregation orders ethically valid?

• At various times polls have indicated that a
  majority of Americans favor outlawing the
  Communist party. Is it ethically valid in a
  democracy to outlaw any political party that
  citizens might in good conscience choose to
  support?