Part 1 Flashcards
Niklas Luhmann’s sociological perspective of morality:
Moral (communication) = communication that processes ESTEEM or DISESTEEM. Morality defines, so to speak, the conditions in the market of social esteenm.
> > Moral communication categorizes people and their actions in terms of “good” (moral, legitimate) or “bad” (immoral, illegitimate).
Why do we need to understand morality?
To be able to address it with a critical distance because:
i. Constructive discourse can fail if moral communication gets out of control.
ii. Morality can polarize. Morality binds and blinds.
iii. Moral discourse can effectively shut down the constructive discourse we need to address complex problems.
What is morality?
Customs and conventions of a community. ‘Morality’ in this sense is a description of what is — what we find empirically in the social sphere.
It focus on what is (real life practices). It is a set of empirically observable values and norms.
Ethics = “reflective theory of morality”
Critically look at factual norms (morality) and reflect the reasons provided for them.
According to whom?
(Luhmann 1990, 2008)
Please give the definition of the term “morality”
empirically observable set of moral beliefs and norms
Can you define the term “ethics”?
ethics = “reflective theory of morality” (Luhmann 1990, 2008)
Critically look at factual norms (morality) and reflect the reasons provided for them
Which of the following statements about morality is not true?
a. Our observations of facts and reality are influenced by our moral identity.
b. Morality is what people think or express as their moral perspective.
c. According to Luhmann, morality defines the conditions in the market of social esteem.
d. Morality makes us more open to learn and change our views.
d.
The German sociologist Niklas Luhmann defines morality as a specific type of communication. Often in most moral conflicts, the more heated the conflict is, the more people will engage in moral language.
So how does the moral communication work?
Moral communication______
categorizes people and their actions in terms of “good” or “bad”
Please illustrate with different examples of your choice how the perspectives of what is legal, profitable and moral may overlap and not overlap.
Can you also give an example of how multiple moral perspectives exist and result in conflicting assessments of what is acceptable? What is the implication for ethics?
Not everything that is profitable is also legitimate. Not everything that is legal is also legitimate. Dilemmas arise when logics and criteria get in conflict.
The case of corruption may serve to illustrate. In most countries, it is illegal to bribe a government official. However, it may well be profitable to bribe somebody in order to get a favour in return. Interestingly, until the 1990s, it was legal in countries like Germany if a German company engaged in corruption abroad. The German law even allowed to deduct these corruption payments from your German taxes!! Over time, however, the moral view in countries like Germany changed and led to a change in laws, too. Now, it is not only considered immoral but also illegal in Germany to engage in corruption elsewhere. Yet, some cultures take a different moral view. Here, people expect you to give gifts to politicians or to business partners - although such behaviour would qualify as corruption according to Western perspectives. In fact, in these cultures, it might be considered immoral if you refuse to give such gifts. The moral perspectives of different communities thus differ regarding the appropriateness of „gifts“ or „bribery”.
This example can also be used to illustrate the difference between ethics and morality. Morality describes how people judge in terms of right and wrong. Yet, there can be multiple and conflicting moralities. So how do you engage in a dialogue about that? Here, ethics may help.
Instead of taking morality at face value, ethics takes a step back and tries to reflect the reasons for a moral judgment. Can we justify why we consider something right or wrong? The better we can make the reasons for moral assessments transparent, the better we can discuss, reflect, criticise or defend them and engage in a (more) rational argument about morally charged issues.
Man is a moral creature: We are designed to seek the approval of others – and want to feel for ourselves that we really earn it.
Who said that?
Adam Smith (1723-1790)
Evolution by natural selection.
Explain it and who published it?
Charles Darwin.
Evolution describes how organisms change over time in a way that allows them to be more successful and to adapt to their (changing) environment.
“Humans are 90% chimp and 10% bee.”
Who said that?
Jonathan Haidt
Our dual nature raises the fundamental problem of…
what is a solution to this problem?
Me Versus Us.
Morality as a solution to this problem
So what does innate mean?
Who developed the theory nature versus nurture?
literally, it means “inborn”, “natural”
“We are predisposed but not predestined.”
For Jonatha Haidt, “innate” means structured in advance of experience–but experience can revise it. Or differently: Our hardware is inborn, our software is acquired.
Six Moral Foundations:
- Care vs Harm - evolutionary: important to protect from harm
- Fairness (equality/rights) vs cheating - evolutionary function: equality and rules need to be respected
- Liberty vs oppression - evolutionary function: if alpha male is too dominant, group needs to revolt.
- Authority vs subversion - evolutionary function: accepting order and leaders provides stability.
- Loyalty vs betrayal - evolutionary function: to favor in-group over other
- Sanctity/purity vs degradation - evolutionary function: to protect purity, to create common symbols and purpose
Why we are very similar (are even the same!) in our general ability to view the word in moral terms, but also why and how we differ in operationalizing the moral code?
two ways:
1) people can use the same moral dimensions but specify them with a different content - different cultures have different concepts of what is sacred, what is purity, whom to respect, etc…
2) how relevant people view the different moral dimensions
WEIRD people
Western Educated Industrialized Rich Democratic
Their morality (on the left-leaning political spectrum) is mostly reduced to care, fairness, and liberty considerations.
Conservatives
have a richer moral sense of taste. They draw
more generally on all six moral foundations.
Our thinking relies on two very different systems:
fast versus slow thinking
According to Kahneman, explain the difference between system 1 and system 2 of thinking
What is that theory called?
“Systems 1 and 2 are both active whenever we are awake. System 1 runs automatically and System 2 is normally in a comfortable low-effort mode, in which only a fraction of its capacity is engaged. When System 1 runs into difficulty, it calls on System 2 to support more detailed specific processing that may solve the problem of the moment.”
Dual Process Theory
System 1 name and characteristics:
FAST THINKING ! Automatic ! Intuitive ! Emotional ! Impulses/Drives ! Habits ! Beliefs ! Primary ! Parallel ! Rapid
System 2 name and characteristics:
SLOW THINKING ! Effortful ! Considered ! Logical ! Reflection ! Planning ! Problem solving ! Secondary ! Focused ! Slower ! NB: Lazy
What is morality according to Joshua Greene (Psychologist)?
“Morality is a set of psychological adaptations that allow otherwise selfish individuals to reap the benefits of cooperation.”
The “Dual Mode Camera” Analogy explain it
Automatic Mode: ! Efficient ! But inflexible ! Great to address standard situations ! Poor results for non-standard situations
Manual Mode:
! Flexible
! But inefficient
! Better to address non-standard situations
! Yet, slow, painful, needs to applied with care
Morality evolved to support ______ within the ____ group. Here, there are different _______ _______.
Morality evolved to support cooperation within the small group. Here, there are different cooperative
strategies.
Cooperative strategies:
! Concern for others: with the feelings of empathy, care
! Direct reciprocity: including the emotions of anger (vengeance) and gratitude
! Commitment to threats and promises: related to vengefulness, honor, shame, guild, loyalty.
! Reputation: elated to shame, embarrassment etc.
! Assortment: play as a team: tribalistic feelings
For Greene (2013, p. 293), emotions help us solve the following moral problem:
„The … problem is Me versus Us. … Our moral brain solves this problem primarily with emotion.
Feelings of empathy, love, friendship, gratitude, honor, shame, guilt, loyalty, humility, awe, and embarrassment impel us to (sometimes) put the interests of others ahead of our own. Likewise, feelings of anger and disgust impel us to shun or punish people who overvalue Me relative to Us.
Thanks to these automatic settings, we do far less lying, cheating, stealing, and killing than we otherwise would, and that enables Us to succeed.“
Fast moral machinery is explained by whom?
Joshua Greene
Most of the time, morality is processed by thinking ___ (with System __ )
Most of the time, morality is processed by thinking fast (with System 1)
Our “_____” moral compass helps us
to solve the problem of “_____”.
Our “emotional” moral compass helps us
to solve the problem of “me versus us”.
