Introduction

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INTRODUCTION Values, Self & Knowledge

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Introduction. Values, Self & Knowledge. The big picture. Meetings Topics Aims Constraints. Assessment Essay plan, essay, exam, tutorial participation Admin details. Our meetings. 10 lectures 3 hours (!) 2 breaks Slides available after lecture 5 tutorials 1 hour. - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

Transcript of Introduction

Page 1: Introduction

INTRODUCTIONValues, Self & Knowledge

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The big picture Meetings Topics Aims Constraints

Assessment Essay plan, essay, exam, tutorial participation

Admin details

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Our meetings 10 lectures

3 hours (!)2 breaksSlides available after lecture

5 tutorials1 hour

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What is Philosophy? Biology Civil Engineering Philosophy?

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A puzzle

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The Swiss Cheese Paradox The more holes there are, the

less cheese there is. Swiss cheese has holes. More Swiss cheese, more holes. Therefore, the more Swiss

cheese there is, the less cheese there is.

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(X) Swiss cheese has holes.

(1) More Swiss cheese, more holes. (2) The more holes there are, the less cheese there is.(3) Therefore, the more Swiss cheese there is, the less cheese there is.

The Swiss Cheese Paradox

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(1) X Y

(2) Y Z

(3) Thus, X Z

The Swiss Cheese Paradox

(1) More Swiss cheese, more holes.

(2) The more holes there are, the less cheese there is.

(3) Therefore, the more Swiss cheese there

is, the less cheese there is.

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Compelling example

(1) Tom is a lion Tom is a cat

(2) Tom is a cat Tom is a mammal

(3) Thus, Tom is a lion Tom is a mammal

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(1) X Y

(2) Y Z

(3) Thus, X Z

The Swiss Cheese Paradox

(1) More Swiss cheese, more holes.

(2) The more holes there are, the less cheese there is.

(3) Therefore, the more Swiss cheese there

is, the less cheese there is.

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What important thing have you learnt about the world?

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What philosophers doConsider Bill Clinton. Clinton might have been different in many ways. Had things turned out otherwise, he might have never been impeached.

In fact, he might never have been president… He might have lived in a different country. He might have had electric blue hair.

But now: could he have been a flower?

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What philosophers doWe can of course imagine an eccentric person naming a flower ‘Bill Clinton’. But the question is not whether a flower could have been named ‘Bill Clinton’. The question is whether a flower could have been Bill Clinton.

Concerning the man actually called Bill Clinton (i.e. the actual 42nd president of the United States), could he have been a flower?

And the answer seems to be no… Likewise, it seems that Clinton could not have been a table, or an antelope.

Ted Sider, Riddles of Existence

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Introduction to Philosophy

Through Process

Through Issues

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Topics

Ethics

Self

Why be

moral?

What is moralit

y?

Is this moral

?

Is the mind the

brain?

What am I?

Are we free?

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Recommended approach

Solve the puzzles Understand the questions Read

Participate

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AssessmentEssay Plan (10%) 500 words Due 11 March 9

am Submit via

TurnitinEssay (40%) 1500 words Due 8 Apr 9 am Submit via Turnitin

Exam (40%) Short essay responses 2 hrs Focus on 2nd half of term

Tutorial participation (10%) Constructive contribution

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Contact details Jason Phan [email protected]

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Philosophy & the others

Morality

What moral beliefs do different cultures have?

How best to develop a child morally?

How is moral behaviour linked to brain function?

Why should we be moral?

Is morality merely social conventions?

Is it immoral to eat meat?

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Why should I be moral?

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Why be moral?

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What’s the difference?

I would be a nice person by ceasing to exploit the poor

I should be a nice person by ceasing to exploit the poor

Would you be moral?

Should you be moral?

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What should I do? What I should do

• What I have reason to do• Matter of rationality

What I would do• What I actually do• Empirical matter

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Why should I be moral?

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Something puzzling about morality

Catherine Wilson:Moral obligations “reduce the advantages of those who observe them”

= It is rational to reduce one’s advantage???

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Nature A system of increasing & using one’s advantages

The strong take advantage of the weak

The smart take advantage of the dim

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Why should I be moral?

Being moral seems to reduce my advantage

Nature seems a system of increasing one’s advantage

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Mother Teresa For over 45 years, she ministered to the poor, sick, orphaned, and dying in the slums of India

Praiseworthy human being

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The Ring of Gyges

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The Ring of Gyges“…as he was sitting among them he chanced to turn the collet of the ring inside his hand, when instantly he became invisible to the rest of the company and they began to speak of him as if he were no longer present.

Whereupon he contrived to be chosen one of the messengers who were sent to the court; where as soon as he arrived he seduced the queen, and with her help conspired against the king and slew him, and took the kingdom.”

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The Ring of Gyges“…If you could imagine any one obtaining this power of becoming invisible, and never doing any wrong or touching what was another's, he would be thought by the lookers-on to be a most wretched idiot, although they would praise him to one another's faces, and keep up appearances with one another from a fear that they too might suffer injustice.”

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Egoism Psychological egoism

• Every person’s actions are only motivated by her concern for her own well-being

Rational egoism• Every person’s actions should only be motivated by her concern for her own well-being

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Is altruism possible?“Why, bless your soul, Ed, that was the very essence of selfishness. I should have had no peace of mind all day had I gone on and left that suffering old sow worrying over those pigs.

I did it to get peace of mind, don’t you see?”

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Is altruism possible?1. Whenever you act, you

are acting out of an interest that you have.

2. Since you are acting out of your interest, then you are acting selfishly.

3. Since you’re acting selfishly, you’re not being altruistic.

What if you have an unselfish interest?

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Ted Bundy Confessed to 30 murders committed between 1974 – 78.

"...a sadistic sociopath who took pleasure from another human's pain and the control he had over his victims, to the point of death, and even after.” The Stranger Beside Me, by Ann Rule

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Why should Bundy be moral?“Then I learned that all moral judgments are "value judgments," that all value judgments are subjective, and that none can be proved to be either "right" or "wrong." I even read somewhere that the Chief Justice of the United States had written that the American Constitution expressed nothing more than collective value judgments.

Believe it or not, I figured out for myself - what apparently the Chief Justice couldn't figure out for himself -- that if the rationality of one value judgment was zero, multiplying it by millions would not make it one whit more rational.

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Nor is there any "reason" to obey the law for anyone, like myself, who has the boldness and daring -- the strength of character -- to throw off its shackles. ... I discovered that to become truly free, truly unfettered, I had to become truly uninhibited. And I quickly discovered that the greatest obstacle to my freedom, the greatest block and limitation to it, consists in the insupportable "value judgment" that I was bound to respect the rights of others. I asked myself, who were these "others"?

Other human beings, with human rights? Why is it more wrong to kill a human animal than any other animal, a pig or a sheep or a steer? Is your life more to you than a hog's life to a hog? Why should I be willing to sacrifice my pleasure more for the one than for the other?

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Surely, you would not, in this age of scientific enlightenment, declare that God or nature has marked some pleasures as "moral" or "good" and others as "immoral" or "bad"? In any case, let me assure you, my dear young lady, that there is absolutely no comparison between the pleasure I might take in eating ham and the pleasure I anticipate in raping and murdering you. That is the honest conclusion to which my education has led me -- after the most conscientious examination of my spontaneous and uninhibited self.”

- Statement by Ted Bundy, paraphrased and rewritten by Harry V. Jaffa.

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Why are we trying to find out if we should be moral by analysing a psychopath? Not because we are psychopaths

But because the psychopath illustrates more clearly the implications of our view of moral motivation

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Should Bundy be moral? Interest-based theories

A person should be moral if and only if being moral furthers his/her interests

Are Bundy’s interests served by being moral?

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A thought experiment Super-Bundy

A lot smarter than BundyWill not get caughtWill do a lot more evil than BundyNo feeling of guilt, only intense pleasure

Why should Super-Bundy be moral?

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How should we respond to Super-Bundy?

Call him names Evil, terrible, inhuman…

Try to influence him“You would be moral if you stop murdering…”

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Big picture

Because it furthers my

interests

Why should I be moral?

???

My interests are all selfish

My interests are not all

selfish

Rational Egoism

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How should we respond to Bundy? Demand that he stop harming others

“You should not cause others to suffer just for your own pleasure…”

Consider him blameworthy

But someone seems blameworthy only when he did something he should not do

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More puzzling things about morality

Morality seems to have authoritySuper-Bundy is blameworthy for his evil action

Super-Bundy should be moral

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More puzzling things about morality

Morality seems to have authority“What is distinctive of moral requirements is that they are thought of as providing a reason to act which outweighs or overrides any reason the agent may have to act in some other way. Moral requirements are thus seen as independent of desire in the further sense that they have a claim on our obedience that is not conditional on there being nothing else which we want more.”

- David McNaughton

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A matter of arbitrary taste?

A saintly life

An evil life

BETTER!

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Reflective equilibrium

Morality has authority

One should do only what furthers one’s interests

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Big picture

Because it furthers my

interests

Why should I be moral?

???

My interests are all selfish

My interests are not all

selfish

Rational Egoism

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What friends do I am buying her a gift because I value her friendship.

I value her friendship because of…

Why do YOU value friendship?

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2 kinds of value Instrumental value

Value possessed due to functionalityValuable as a means

Intrinsic valueValue possessed in itselfValuable as an end

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PuzzleUnknown to you, a scientist meddled with your brain such that you now value stacking and unstacking cards repeatedly.

Should you value stacking and unstacking cards repeatedly?

Cards are needed for you to stack and unstack them. Should you value cards for that reason?

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Puzzle of instrumental valueWhy do you value X? I value X because it gets me Y.Why do you value Y? I value Y because it gets me Z.Why do you value Z? No reason. Only causes.

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Reasoned or brute? Understanding why I am having this belief/response

• A scientist meddled with my brain

Understanding why I should have this belief/response.

• Because of scientific observations

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Looking back Are we assuming that only the satisfaction of our interests is intrinsically valuable?

Moral authority, moral blame & praise

We can best make sense of these if the subjects of moral consideration have intrinsic value

Need for respect

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Big pictureWhy should I be moral?

Other people/creature

s are intrinsically

valuable

Because it furthers my

interests

The satisfaction of my interests is

intrinsically valuable

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Challenge from Science?

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Moral action & science Are these theories

scientifically grounded?

•Rationality evolved in us only because that capacity increases reproductive fitness

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Don’t be too moral? It is rational to be moral only if it furthers your reproductive fitness

Sociobiology/evolutionary psychology we have evolved to be social creaturesWe have social interests

Docility and bounded rationality

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Moral action & science“Docile persons tend to learn and believe what they perceive others in the society want them to learn and believe.

Thus the content of what is learned will not be fully screened for its contribution to personal fitness.”

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Moral action & scienceBecause of bounded rationality, the docile

individual will often be unable to distinguish socially prescribed behavior that contributes to fitness from altruistic behavior (i.e., socially prescribed behavior that does not contribute to fitness). In fact, docility will reduce the inclination to evaluate independently the contributions of behavior to fitness.

…By virtue of bounded rationality, the docile person cannot acquire the personally advantageous learning that provides the increment, d, of fitness without acquiring also the altruistic behaviors that cost the decrement.

- Herbert Simon, 1990

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Is Simon right?Deeply wrong (I think)

Faulty reasoning

Just because you have evolved have a belief doesn’t prove you should hold the belief

Just because evolution is steered by reproductive fitness does not prove we should only pursue reproductive fitness

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Review

Should & WouldRational vs psychological

Specific to generalWhy should I be moral?Why should I do X?

Rational Egoism The possibility of altruism

Intrinsic & instrumental value

Moral authority & blame/praise

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Coming up…

Why should I be moral?

What is morality?


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