Essay

Shea Wallin

RE: Metaethical Theories

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Hey Latorrie! I really enjoyed reading your post! A great example of a current utilitarianism vs. egoism issue that is going on in our country right now is these "Black Lives Matter" protests following the murder of George Floyd. The sole purpose of these protests was supposed to be about the death of George Floyd. Now people are using his death as an excuse to commit crimes so they can get what they want. There are lots of African Americans who want to peacefully protest to help improve the justice system, speak up about George Floyd’s death, and get their "Black Lives Matter" message across without destroying their community and other people's lives which is a utilitarianism approach to this issue. Utilitarianism wants you to utilize objects to benefit yourself and others equally and maximize peace from the beginning to the end of life. You then have people who feel like destroying, looting, and vandalizing their communities is a better way to get their message across for the black lives matter and to get what only they want. When you destroy your community, you also destroy people’s businesses, valued public property, they endanger people’s lives especially those of their own race and destroy their homes. This behavior is not Christian or ethical nor is it unifying African Americans, so it goes against what they are actually trying to protest for with the end result being satisfaction for only themselves. I don’t know if you remember from one of the first philosophers we learned about, I believe it was Socrates that said, “two wrongs don’t make a right.” This is a fitting example of egoism because egoism does not always bring satisfaction to the entire population of your community. Philippians 2:1-2:4 says “Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others (Day, 2013).” Utilitarianism in this case would be the stronger theory because not only is the theory’s goal to maximize peace and happiness for all, it also prevents mischief, pain, evil, and unhappiness. Lots of God’s moral commands are based on happiness and his goal is to provide us with pleasure and happiness like the goal of utilitarianism. These days people are always putting things on social media on the internet so people especially police officers, politicians, and other government officials have to be careful not to do or say anything unethical because it can quickly change someone’s opinion about you. The mainstream media for example is diverting whites and blacks during this whole far left, black lives matter rioting to encourage a completely unnecessary race war and some celebrities are now donating money to bail out members of the far-left terrorist group ANTIFA who were recently arrested for destroying their community. At the end of all this are people going to shrug these unethical decisions off or are people going to look at these Hollywood celebrities and media networks as pro-terrorist, anti-American Democratic supporters? Utilitarianism is a consequentialist theory and has consequences for bad behavior which is something egoism lacks.

 

References

Day, Michael (2012, March 13) “Utilitarianism vs. Biblical Christianity” retiredday.wordpress.com

Aaron Gleason Instructor Manager (Professor)

RE: Metaethical Theories

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Lots to respond to here.

A) While I don't object to the term African American I think its imprecise. There's a lot of white Africans who live in America now and we clearly aren't referring to them by that phrase. Also not all black Americans are from Africa. Ironically this is similar to the reason I refer to American Indians (as opposed to Indian Americans, aka persons from the country of India who live in America) as Indians instead of Native Americans. I was born in these United States, therefore I am a Native American but I have about as much Indian blood as Elizabeth Warren. All that to say I refer to black Americans as black Americans. I came to these conclusions about what words to use because of black intellectuals mostly, and the standard usage of Indian by American Indians to this day.

B) Black Americans are not the only demographic involved in these riots and protests, so referring to this as a black American issue is in my opinion incorrect.

C) If you want to watch an amazing discussion on this issue go on youtube and look up Glen Loury and John McWhorter. Their discussions in general are awesome. They are both black intellectuals and they are both brilliant.

D) Now for ethics! I think you're misinterpreting utilitarianism. Utilitarianism is the theory that an action's rightness comes from whether or not it maximizes happiness for the greatest number.  It is very hard to see how riots and protests maximize happiness for anyone. In my opinion the protesters seem to be acting out of a very strict anti utilitarian ethic, even though in their view I think they're also acting altruistically. An altruistic act can be utilitarian, as in the man who throws himself upon a grenade in a fox hole to protect his brothers (the end of Star Trek II: The Wrath of Kahn, "The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few or the one," I'm a huge nerd, big surprise) and it is possible that the protesters see themselves as trying to benefit others. But I'm pretty sure they would be doing what they're doing anyway. The rightness and goodness of protesting is seen by progressives as innate, it's part of their political liturgy if you will. The rioters on the other hand are almost certainly not acting from a utilitarian point of view because they aren't trying to maximize happiness, they're acting out of rage or selfishness or some combination of the two.

That being said I think I understand what you mean by claiming they're acting out of utility. One can act out of utility and not be a utilitarian. Rioting and looting targets could have a particular utility for someone who wanted a new big screen TV or was simply angry. But there's personal utility and then there's utilitarianism.

Remember that my comments in these discussion boards are not taken to be final statements or definitive answers. I'm merely participating in the discussion!

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16 days ago

Aaron Gleason Instructor Manager (Professor)

RE: Metaethical Theories

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I think you're misinterpreting Ethical Egoism as simple hedonism. My understanding has always been that the egoist thinks your action has to truly benefit you, it can't be merely pleasurable. For instance committing adultery could be very pleasurable for one night, but the outcomes are often horrible for everyone involved. Therefore adultery, in the normal case where it potentially ruins your life, would not be moral for the Ethical Egoist. Sometimes it would be, but only if you were actually benefited, if it ruins your life then it would turn out that the Egoist would say that restraint and fidelity were actually the most "selfish" things to do.

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