Normative Ethics Flashcards
(15 cards)
Essay Structure
Philosophical Issue, Implication, Thesis statement, roadmap
No: Act utilitarianism, Jeremy Bentham, Hedonic Calculus, 4 Objections to Bentham
Yes: Psychological Egoism, Adam Smith, Critique of Adam Smith, Ethical Egoism, Ayn Rand, 3 Objections to Rand
Compare and Contrast, explore why psychological egoism is more plausible than act utilitarianism and ethical egoism.
Philosophical Issue
Does morality always have to be altruistic? Can we act selfishly and morally?
Implications
If morality always needs to be altruistic, then it is problematic for our legal system; since there are cases where the “minority needs to be sacrificed for the greater good”, believing in this has serious legal implications — it violates the universal declaration of human rights. Furthermore, it can divide societies and ostracise the minorities, since we won’t act according to their needs.
Thesis statement
I believe that morality doens’t always have to be altruistic; indeed, we can act selfish and morally at the same time. For reasons which will be discussed later in the essay.
Act utilitarianism
Philosophical position that says we should act to maximise overall happiness of the group, not just our own.
Jeremy Bentham
British philosopher that believed that pain and pleasure can in some ways be measured of quantified and that all other acts or qualities (honesty, compassion etc.) are not good or bad in themselves. They are merely instrumental in achieving pleasure. Therefore, he takes a consequentialist approach to morality, as he believes that the morality of an action is determined by its outcomes.
Hedonic Calculus
He created a system called hedonic calculus which could be used as a quantitative approach to determining whether something will cause more pleasure or pain. These steps include considering the intensity, duration, extent and certainty of the event that will cause pleasure or pain.
Objections to Bentham
The problem of quantification, it is very hard to quantify pain. Furthermore, some people are more “pain tolerant” than others — what they describe as a “5” might be someone else’s “7”. With this level of subjectivity, it is very hard to view utilitarianism as a moral science.
Problem of unknown consequences, it is very hard to calculate all probable consequences for every act.
Problem of Justice, utilitarianism doens’t take into account individual rights; in fact, unjust circumstances which abuse individual’s rights may arise from quantitative calculus. This has serious legal implications — it violates the universal declaration of human rights.
Problem of seeking pleasure, pleasure isn’t really our main motivation in life; in fact, Robert highlights that in his experience machine thought experiment, he suggests that we would sacrifice pleasure for other experiences and relationship.
Psychological egoism
Psychological egoism claims that humans are self-interested by nature, whether they know it or not.
Adam Smith
Adam Smith is a philosopher that shares this view, in fact he put forward the Economist argument: “it is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer or the baker, that we expect our dinner, but from their regard of their own self-interest.” Both the seller and consumer want the best deal they can get. It is also in the butcher’s self interest to give customers good value — not over charge the customers so they come back to buy more. The economist argument therefore advocates for the pursuit of self-interest for the collective good.
Critique of Adam Smith
Smith’s argument works well for goods which you need to repurchase on a regular bases; since if you get a bad deal, you won’t come back again. However, not all goods are like this; consider a car salesman selling you a car. It is the narrow self-interest of the agent to convince that the right car for you is the one that gives him the greatest commission. But if so much commission goes to the salesman, it is likely that the car he is selling you is a poor deal. However, this can be counter argued by the fact that the salesman’s reputation will decrease if he were to give you a poor deal; therefore it can be argued that it is against his self interest to give you a poor deal.
Ethical Egoism
On the other hand, ethical egoism argues that humans are morally obligated and ought to act in their own individual self-interest.
Ayn Rand
This theory is associated with Ayn Rand, in fact, She claims that we shouldn’t hide behind such superficialities as whether you should or should not give a dime to a beggar. Instead, the issue is whether you do or do not have the right to exist without giving him that dime. The issue is whether man is to be regarded as a “sacrificial animal”. She further states that if a man accepts the ethics of altruism, he suffers from the following consequences:
1) Lack of self-esteem, since his first concern is to not how to live his life, but rather how to sacrifice it.
2) Lack of respect for others, since he regards mankind as a herd of beggars crying for help.
3) A nightmare view of existence, since he believes that men are trapped in a “manevolent universe”.
She believes that a self-interested life can be a good life and can include generous behaviour to other people; however, for Rand, survival is the organism’s ultimate value, the final goal or end to which all lesser goals are the means.
She states that an organism’s life is its standard of value: that which furthers its life is the good, that which threatens it is the evil.
Objections to Rand
1) Problem of Universalisation; if everyone lived their lives like this then wouldn’t the world be chaos? Pushed to the extreme, this theory might require us to harm others and commit acts like theft against them.
2) Problem of Is-ought fallacy: Many can accept the descriptive arguments of psychological egoism, but struggle to accept the normative conclusions that Rand is drawing; indeed, just because something is the case doens’t mean that it should be the case (cultural relativism is the case, but that doens’t mean that moral relativism should be the case).
3) Problem of Optimism: She suggests that the vast majority of human beings can live their lives as they wish. However, this is often not the case; in fact there are instances of horrific poverty which suggests otherwise.
Compare and contrast
Compare and Contrast, Psychological egoism is more plausible because it is a descriptive argument; it is not as extreme as pure ethical egoism, hence it avoids the problems of is-ought fallacy and universalisation (economist argument). Furthermore, it also avoids the problems from act utilitarianism — it preserves the existence of universal declaration of human rights.
