Moral Theory Introduction The Role of Reasons A fundamental feature of philosophy s contribution to our understanding of the contested character of our moral lives is the insistence that our responses to moral concerns must be justified ID: 319130
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Slide1
Philosophy 224
Moral Theory: IntroductionSlide2
The Role of Reasons
A fundamental feature of
philosophy
'
s
contribution to our understanding of the contested character of our moral lives is the insistence that our responses to moral concerns must be justified.
That is, we must have reasons for believing what we do about torture or any other moral issue.
An essential element of the philosophical attempt to provide justifying reasons is the appeal to moral theory.Slide3
What is a Moral Theory?
Answering this question requires we ask some subsidiary ones.
What concepts do moral theories rely on?
What do moral theories aim to provide?
How and why do moral theories employ moral principles?
How are moral theories structured?Slide4
The Right And The Good
All moral theories employ and deploy these two main concepts.
"
Right
"
and it
'
s inverse
"
Wrong
"
are typically used to evaluate actions.
"
Good
"
and it
'
s inverse
"
Bad
"
typically assess the value of agents, experiences, things, or states of affairs. Slide5
Right/Wrong Action
The concept
"
Right
"
has both a narrow and a broad meaning.
Narrowly, right actions are those we are morally obligated to do.
Broadly, right actions are all actions that are not wrong.
The concept
"
Wrong
"
has
only one meaning.Slide6
Tripartite Deontic Schema
Given these accounts of the rightness and wrongness of actions, ethicists typically divide the realm of actions for purposes of moral evaluation into three basic categories.
Obligatory Actions
Permissible Actions
Forbidden ActionsSlide7
Moral Value
When we identify something or someone as good or bad, we are speaking to its character, and particularly of
the moral
value that it has.
Things can have or be valuable in one of two ways.
Intrinsic value
refers to a character or feature inherent in the thing.
Extrinsic value
refers to how a thing is related to some other valuable thing (ultimately one with intrinsic value.
Intrinsic value is
what
philosophers are typically concerned with.Slide8
Tripartite Axiological Schema
Given the dominance of intrinsic value we can once again identify three basic value categories.
Intrinsically Good
Intrinsically Value-Neutral
Intrinsically BadSlide9
A Theory of the Right and the Good
Given these accounts of the Right and the Good, we can identify three tasks that a moral theory must accomplish.
MT must identify the right-making features of actions.
MT must provide an account of intrinsic
moral value
.
MT must specify how these accounts can serve as the basis for the justification of specific moral conclusions.Slide10
Two Main Aims of Moral Theory
These three tasks of moral theory provide us with the means of distinguishing two main aims.
The
theoretical aim
(corresponding to
the first
two tasks) is to identify the underlying features of actions, persons and other morally relevant elements that make them right or wrong, good or bad. In other words, MTs have to
explain
what makes something morally relevant.
The
practical aim
(corresponding to the
third task) is to be action-guiding. In other words, MTs must provide us with resources with which to respond to the moral issues that confront us.Slide11
Taking Aim with Moral Principles
One
tool that philosophers use to satisfy these aims is the moral principle.
A
moral principle
is a general statement of the right-making characteristics of actions or
of the
specification of intrinsic value.
Principles that focus on actions are called
"
Principles
of Right Conduct
."Principles that focus on intrinsic value are called "Principles of Value."Slide12
What About the Second Aim?
PRC and PV certainly seem to satisfy the theoretical aim of MTs, but what about the practical aim?
The operative presumption is that if the principles are correct, then employing the principles to evaluate proposed actions or possible
value assignments
provides justifying
reasons (as well as motivation) for
moral decision making.Slide13
A Plurality of Theories
Given that different moral theories emphasize different
principles,
you
shouldn’t
be surprised that when we start looking at specific theories, we will find that they highlight different features of our moral lives.
In many cases, these differences mask an essential continuity in moral evaluations, but on occasion there will be important evaluative differences.
We need to consider how we should evaluate the differing claims of the moral theories we will
discuss.Slide14
Evaluating
Moral
Theories
In addition to a consideration of the adequacy of the arguments offered in support of a particular theory, there are a number of features which a successful ethical theory must exhibit.
The two central features correspond to the two main aims of moral
theory
Corresponding
to the theoretical aim is the
principle of explanatory power
: a theory should help us understand our moral evaluations. The better the explanation, the better the
theory.
You know murder is wrong. Now ask yourself why? That's a harder question to answer than it might at first seem, and moral theory can fill in the explanatory gap.Corresponding to the practical aim is the principle of practical guidance: a theory should help us make the morally correct choices. The better the guidance, the better the theory.If you are faced with the challenge of having to help a friend decide whether or not to have an abortion, you need a theory that provides determinate, consistent, and actionable verdicts.Slide15
The Example of Ethics By Authority
We can begin to appreciate the value of these evaluative principles by putting them to work in a consideration of a popular, but not necessarily successful, approach to moral theory.
"
Ethics
by
Authority
"
refers to a family of approaches to moral justification which share the insistence that all the moral explanation and guidance we need can be located in some
"
authority.
"Slide16
Divine Command Theory
DCT is one example of an authority based moral theory.
The key claim of DCT is that
, an action
is right if and only if [
iff
] (and because) God does not command that we not do that
action.
One of the virtues of this approach is that it does satisfy
MT
'
s
practical aim.The 10 commandments don't leave a lot of wiggle room.However, it does nothing to satisfy the explanatory aim. Why should we honor our parents?To say that "it pleases God" just pushes the question back a level. Why does/should it please God? God's willing it is no explanation of why it is the right thing to will. Insisting that God is good doesn’t help. After all, goodness is a moral quality which still needs an explanation.Slide17
Ethical Relativism
ER is another example.
It
'
s
key claim
is that an action
(performed by a member of Group G) is right
iff
the moral norms accepted by G permit the performance of the
action.
Like with DCT, ER seems appropriately action-guiding, but it
doesn’t do any better job with the theoretical aim.Why should the fact that a majority of some members of a group believe that the death penalty is morally acceptable make it so?Most Europeans used to believe that the earth was flat, but that didn’t make it so.Slide18
What have we seen?
Our consideration of DCT and ER has revealed that these two very common
"
moral theories
"
do not satisfy the evaluative constraints which moral theories should satisfy.
At the very least, this fact calls into question the ability of these two ways of thinking about morality to do the work we ask of moral theories.
When we review later in the semester a range of specific moral theories, we will consider whether they do a better job of satisfying
these constraints.