Moral Theory

1
Moral Theory

• Mark Pursley

2
Issues in Moral Theory

• Do statements containing value terms have a truth
  value?
• If so, what are the truth conditions for value
  claims?

• Are relativist or subjectivist accounts of moral
  language plausible?
• How does a community reach a consensus about
  moral issues?

3
Virtue Theory

• Plato and Aristotle offer virtue theories of
  ethics.
• Virtue theories rely on an analogy between health
  (the good of the body) and eudaimonia (the good
  of the mind).

4
Aristotle on Human Excellence

• A virtue (arete, excellence) is a character
  trait, acquired by practice, that disposes a
  person to adopt the right course of action in
  morally charged situations. Virtues are
  life-skills that enable a person to realize their
  potential for living the good life as a rational,
  social, animal.

5
Are we not more likely to hit the mark if we have
a target?

• Good the aim, end, or goal (telos) of an
  activity. What is the goal (final end) of living
  a human life? All agree Happiness (eudaimonia,
  well-being, flourishing).
• What is happiness?

• Pleasure? No, too Brutish.
• Wealth? No, its a means, not a final end.
• Honor? No, its not self-sufficient.
• Virtue? No, its not complete.
• The end sought must be final, self-sufficient,
  and complete.

6
What is the function of human life?

• To find the human good, find the human function
  (ergon, what a thing does that makes it what it
  is). What is the characteristically human
  activity? Nutrition and growth? (No, all living
  things) Sensation? (No, all animals) Rational
  activity. Function of a good human rational
  activity in accordance with virtue. Objectors
  ask Are evil people irrational?

7
Becoming Excellent

• As a skill or craft, virtue is acquired by
  practice. Patterns of behavior produce states of
  character. Good character produces good behavior.
  If you imitate good people, youll become one.

• Moral virtues control natural feelings (passions,
  appetites) and actions, making them arise in the
  right amounts at the right times for the right
  reasons (such a rule or principle as would arise
  in the mind of the practically wise person).

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Virtue a mean between extremes

• Confidence, appetites, anger, giving .
• Excess Mean Deficiency
• Foolhardiness Courage Cowardice
• Indulgence Temperance Insensibility
• Hot head Cool head Apathetic
• Too generous Generous Stingy

9
Character Types

• Heroic extraordinary goodness.
• Virtuous Takes pleasure in doing good.
• Continent Must control bodily desires in order
  to do good.

• Incontinent Try's, but fails, to control bodily
  desires, and so does evil.
• Vicious Takes pleasure in doing evil.
• Bestial Subhumanly wicked.

10
Immanuel Kant (1724-1804)

• Defends a deontological approach to morality.
• Everyone must admit that if a law is to be
  morally validthen it must carry with it absolute
  necessity. The ground of obligationmust be
  sought apriori in the concepts of pure reason.

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Kantian Ethics

• Morality is a sacred duty, not a means to
  happiness. (A good will is more important than a
  good life.) Reason can discern the moral law.
  The will chooses which actions to perform.
  Inclination reflects how one feels about ones
  options. When reason (not inclination) directs
  the will, one does ones duty.

12
The motive of duty.

• Acting from inclination or acting from duty. An
  action has moral worth if and only if it is done
  from the motive of duty. The prudent shopkeeper
  acts honestly because it is good policy. Such
  acts have no moral worth. Nor do the kind acts of
  helpful people.

• The cold, uncaring person who helps others
  because duty commands it, has moral worth.
• Hypothetical imperative, if you want x, do j.
  Conditional.
• Categorical imperative Unconditional commands.
  Do X! (Whether you like it or not.)

13
The Categorical Imperative

• Act only on a maxim which you could (at that
  time) will to become a universal law.
• Act as if the maxim of your action would
  instantly become a general law of nature.
• Maxim I do action x in circumstances C to
  obtain end E.
• 1. Find the maxim 2. Universalize 3. Imagine
  the universalized
• maxim as a natural law 4. Ask Is this a
  possible law of nature?
• 5. Ask Can one will this to be a law of
  nature?
• CI 3 Act so as to treat humanity (yourself and
  others) always as
• an end, never merely as a means.

14
Consequentialism

• Consequentialist theories hold that the goodness
  or badness of actions resides in the consequences
  those actions produce. J.S. Mills
  Utilitarianism is the leading theory.

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Mills Utilitarianism

• Greatest Happiness Principle Actions are right
  in proportion as they tend to promote happiness,
  wrong as they tend to promote the reverse of
  happiness. Happiness is pleasure and freedom
  from pain. Unhappiness is pain and the privation
  of pleasure. Not an invitation to indulgence A
  beasts pleasures do not satisfy a human beings
  conception of happiness.

16
Ways to Measure Pleasure Quantity and Quality.

• Pleasure is not just a matter of quantity.
  Higher quality pleasures (like using ones mind,
  creativity, doing good deeds, having friends) are
  more desirable and make life more worth living
  than mere bodily sensations.

• Aim of utilitarianism An existence exempt as far
  as possible from pain, and as rich as possible in
  enjoyments, both in point of quantity and
  quality. Morality consists in the rules which, if
  followed, would secure this end for all sentients.

17
Utilitarianism and Justice

• A standard objection to utilitarianism alleges
  that the theory will require the use of unjust
  means whenever doing so is likely to produce a
  greater balance of pleasure. This would permit a
  policy of punishing the innocent to avert a riot,
  to deter wrongdoers, etc.
• Utilitarians may respond by pointing out that, in
  fact, no society which falsely accuses innocent
  citizens will promote a greater balance of
  pleasure in the long run. The greater good can
  only be attained in a society that upholds basic
  principles of justice (e.g.. the guilty are
  punished and the innocent acquitted).

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Alfred Jules Ayer 1910- 1989

• Language, Truth, and Logic.
• A defense of radical empiricism.
• Logical Positivism
• Argues that metaphysical, theological, and moral
  propositions are meaningless.

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Ayers Critique of Utilitarianism

• Verificationism An empirical hypothesis is
  significant (legitimate) only if some possible
  sense experience is relevant for determining its
  truth or falsity.
• Utilitarianism claims actions are good if they
  produce pleasure or reduce pain.

• We cannot agree that to call an action right is
  to say...it would cause...the greatest balance of
  pleasure...because it is not self-contradictory
  to say it is....wrong to perform the action that
  would...cause the greatest happiness.

20
Ayers Emotivism

• Since absolutist theories are unverifiable, and
  naturalistic theories violate linguistic
  convention, moral propositions are simply
  expressions of approval or disapproval.
• Adultery is wrong just means I disapprove of
  adultery, or Boo! adultery!
• Realist response Moral propositions may express
  emotions but it is still legitimate to ask about
  the sorts of conditions that appropriately evoke
  approval or disapproval.