Philosophical paper

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SOCIAL CONTRACT THEORY

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  • The passions that incline men to peace, are fear of death; desire of such things as are necessary to commodious living; and a hope by their industry to obtain them. And reason suggests convenient articles of peace, upon which men may be drawn to agreement.”
  • THOMAS HOBBES, LEVIATHAN 1651

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  • What if there was no such thing as government—no laws, no police, and no courts?
  • Hobbes called this the "state of nature." What would it be like?

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  • Hobbes writes in Leviathan:

“no place for industry, because the fruit thereof is uncertain: and consequently no culture of the earth; no navigation, nor use of the commodities that may be imported by sea; no commodious building; no instruments of moving, and removing, such things as require much force; no knowledge of the face of the earth; no account of time; no arts; no letters; no society; and which is worst of all, continual fear, and danger of violent death; and the life of man, solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short.”

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Each of us needs the same basic things in order to survive—food, clothing, shelter.

The things we need to survive do not exist in plentiful supply

Each of us will want to get as much as we can

If we cannot prevail by our own strength, what hope do we have?

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  • First, there must be guarantees that people will not harm one another—people must be able to work together without fear of attack, theft, or treachery
  • Second, people must be able to rely on one another to keep their agreements. Only then can there be a division of labor

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  • Explains the purpose of the state and it explains the nature of morality
  • The state exists to enforce the rules necessary for social living, while morality consists in the whole set of rules that facilitate social living

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  • The passage from the state of nature to the civil state produces a very remarkable change in man. . . . Then only, when the voice of duty takes the place of physical impulses . . . Does man, who so far had considered only himself, find that he is forced to act on different principles, and to consult his reason before listening to his inclinations.

Jean-Jacques Rousseau The Social Contract (1762)

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  • Man must set aside his private, self-centered “inclinations”
  • He must support rules that impartially promote the welfare of everyone alike
  • Others have agreed to do the same thing that is the essence of the "contract."

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  • Morality consists in the set of rules, governing behavior, that rational people will accept, on the condition that others accept them as well

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  • Morality consists in the rules that rational people will accept, on the condition that others accept them as well
  • What moral rules are we bound to follow, and how are those rules justified?
  • Morally binding rules are the ones that facilitate harmonious social living

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  • We do so because the rules will be enforced, and it is rational for us to avoid punishment
  • Second we form an intention or a disposition to follow the rules
  • Some contract theorists believe that it is rational to follow the rules even when we think we can get away with breaking them

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  • The purpose of the state is to enforce the rules of social living.
  • State needs to punish to enforce the rules

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  • Morality requires impartiality, that we give no greater weight to our own interests than to the interests of others
  • Suppose you face a situation in which you must choose between your own death and the deaths of five other people
  • Philosophers consider such actions supererogatory—above and beyond the call of duty

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  • We have an obligation to obey the law. But are we ever justified in defying the law? And if so, when?

  • Examples of civil disobedience:
  • Gandhi
  • Martin Luther King, Jr.
  • Stonewall riots

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  • Why do we have an obligation to obey the law in the first place?
  • Each of us participates in a complicated arrangement whereby we gain certain benefits in return for accepting certain burdens
  • What if things are arranged so that one group of people within society is not accorded the rights enjoyed by others?

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  • If the denial of these rights is sufficiently widespread and sufficiently systematic, we are forced to conclude that the terms of the social contract are not being honored
  • Those denied are released from the social contract that otherwise would require them to support the arrangements

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  • The theory asserts we have no need for any mysterious “moral facts.”
  • Morality is just the set of rules that rational people would agree to for their mutual benefit
  • However the notion of a benefit is a moral or evaluative notion

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  • The theory is committed to the existence of moral facts, namely, facts about what constitutes a benefit.
  • In order to be a theory of morals, the Social Contract Theory would need to say that getting what you want is good or that acting rationally is good
  • Social Contract Theory is in the same boat as all the other moral theories

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  • It is based on a historical fiction. We are asked to imagine that people once lived in isolation from one another, that they found this intolerable, and that they eventually banded together, agreeing to follow social rules of mutual benefit.
  • None of this ever happened

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  • People are obligated to obey the rules because they had agreed to do so
  • Was the agreement unanimous?
  • Are the people who did not sign up required to act morally?
  • Is the "contract" renewed in each new generation?
  • There never was such a contract, and so nothing can sensibly be explained by appealing to it.

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  • There is an implicit social contract by which we are all bound
  • Each of us accepts the benefits conferred by this arrangement; and we expect and encourage other people to continue observing the rules. This is a description of the actual state of affairs; it is not fictitious

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  • What are our duties toward nonparticipants in the contract
  • Do we have responsibilities toward nonhuman animals?
  • Hobbes excluded animals from moral consideration
  • Human infants cannot participate in the kind of agreements envisioned by the Social Contract Theory - problem

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  • What about the mentally impaired?
  • This problem does not concern some minor aspect of the theory; it goes right to the theory's heart. Therefore, unless some way can be found to remedy this difficulty, the verdict must be that the basic idea of the Social Contract Theory is flawed.

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ETHICS OF CARE

VIRTUE ETHICS

BEST PLAN

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  • But it is obvious that the values of women differ very often from the values which have been made by the other sex; naturally, this is so. Yet it is the masculine values that prevail.

VIRGINIA WOOLF

A ROOM OF ONE'S OWN (1929)

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  • Carol Gilligan
  • Nel Noddings
  • Virginia Held
  • Annette Baier
  • Elizabeth Anscombe
  • Virginia Woolf
  • And of course, many others

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  • Rejected the idea of psychological differences between women and men
  • Men as rational and women as emotional was dismissed as a mere stereotype
  • Feminist thinkers have reconsidered the matter, and some have concluded that women do indeed think differently than men

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  • "Heinz's Dilemma” devised by Lawrence Kohlberg

A drug which could save his wife cost $200 to make, and the pharmacist was selling it for $2000. Heinz could raise only $1000. Would it be wrong for him to steal the drug?

  • Kohlberg used this and other examples to study the moral development of children

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  • 1. Punishment and obedience: Right is conceived as obeying authority and avoiding punishment
  • 2. Individual instrumental purpose and exchange: Right is conceived as satisfying one's needs and allowing others to do the same, while making "fair deals" to further one's ends.

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  • 3. Mutual interpersonal expectations, relationships, and conformity: Right is conceived in terms of the duties and responsibilities that go with one's social roles and one’s relationships; a critical virtue is keeping loyalty and trust with partners.
  • 4. Social system and conscience maintenance: Right is conceived as doing one's civic duty and maintaining the welfare of the group; personal relationships are subordinated to group interests.

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  • 5. Prior rights and social contract or utility: Right is conceived as upholding the basic rights, values, and legal arrangements of the society. (At this stage and the next, personal relationships are subordinated to universal principles of justice.)
  • 6. Universal ethical principles: Full moral maturity is manifested through one's fidelity to abstract principles that all humanity should follow.

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  • An 11-year-old boy named Jake, who thought it was obvious that Heinz should steal the drug. Jake explained:

For one thing, a human life is worth more than money, and if the druggist only makes $1,000, he is still going to live, but if Heinz doesn't steal the drug, his wife is going to die.

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  • But Amy, also 11, saw the matter differently. Compared to Jake, Amy seems hesitant and evasive:

Well, I don't think so. I think there might be other ways besides stealing it, like if he could borrow the money or make a loan or something, but he really shouldn't steal the drug but his wife shouldn't die either. . . . If he stole the drug, he might save his wife then, but if he did, he might have to go to jail, and then his wife might get sicker again, and he couldn't get more of the drug, and it might not be good. So, they should really just talk it out and find some other way to make the money.

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  • Amy refuses to accept the terms in which the problem is posed. Instead, she recasts the issue as a conflict between Heinz and the druggist that must be resolved by further discussions
  • Amy's response is typical of people operating at stage 3
  • Jake seemed to be operating at stage 4 or 5

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  • In 1982, Carol Gilligan, a professor in Harvard's School of Education, published an influential book titled In a Different Voice: Psychological Theory and Women's Development
  • There was a problem with Kohlberg‘s central idea
  • If children think differently at age 5, 10, and 15, that is certainly worth knowing.
  • It is also worthwhile to identify the best ways of thinking.

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  • Amy responds in a typically female fashion to the personal aspects of the situation
  • Jake, thinking like a typical male, sees only “a conflict between life and property that can be resolved by a logical deduction.”

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  • Most moral philosophers have favored an ethic of principle because most moral philosophers have been males
  • Impersonal principles abstract the details that give each situation its special flavor
  • Amy worries, “If [Heinz] stole the drug, he might save his wife then, but if he did, he might have to go to jail, and then his wife might get sicker again, and he couldn't get more of the drug.”

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  • Jake, who reduces the situation to “a human life is worth more than money,” ignores all this.
  • Women's basic moral orientation is caring for others, in "taking care" of others in a personal way, not just being concerned for humanity in general
  • Amy could not simply reject the druggist's point of view; she could only insist upon talking further with him and trying somehow to accommodate him

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  • Women's moral strength is an overriding concern with relationships and responsibilities.
  • “Caring, empathy.. being sensitive to each other's feelings all may be better guides to what morality requires in actual contexts than may abstract rules of reason, or rational calculation, or at least they may be necessary components of an adequate morality.”

In 1990, Virginia Held

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  • Perhaps differences of emphasis rather than differences in fundamental values
  • The two sexes do not inhabit different moral universes
  • There are women who are devoted to principles and men who care; there is no style that is exclusively male or female

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  • Traditional theories of obligation are ill-suited to describing life among family and friends
  • Traditional theories take the notion of obligation as morally fundamental
  • If parents care for their children only because they feel it is their duty, it will be a disaster.
  • The children will sense it and realize they are unloved.

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  • Ethics of care does not take "obligation" as fundamental
  • It begins with a conception of moral life as a network of relationships
  • Ethics of care confirms the priority that we naturally give to our family and friends, and so it seems a more plausible moral conception.

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  • UNICEF vaccinates third-world children against the major preventable diseases
  • A traditional ethic of principle, such as Utilitarianism, would conclude from this that we have a substantial duty to support UNICEF.
  • An ethic of care focuses on small-scale, personal relationships. If there is no such relationship, "caring" cannot take place.

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  • “Women theorists will need to connect their ethics of love with what has been the men theorists' preoccupation, namely, obligation.”

Annette Baier

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  • “Rational principles" says that we should be vegetarians because the business of raising and slaughtering animals for food causes them great suffering
  • How does the Ethics of Caring differ?
  • A relationship is established, and the attitude of care must be summoned. But one has no such relationship with the cow in the slaughterhouse, and so, Noddings concludes, even though we might wish for a world in which animals did not suffer, we have no obligation to do anything for the cow's sake, not even to refrain from eating him.

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  • First, intuitions and feelings are not reliable guides.
  • At one time, people's intuitions told them that slavery was acceptable
  • Second, whether “the cared for” is in a position to respond “personally” to you may have a lot to do with the satisfaction you get from helping, but it has nothing to do with the good you could accomplish

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  • Virtue Theory sees morality as having certain character traits: being kind, generous, courageous, prudent. . .
  • Theories of obligation emphasize impartial duty
  • The moral agent as one who listens to reason, figures out the right thing to do and does it

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  • Public life requires justice and beneficence, while private life requires love and caring
  • The ethics of care, therefore, turns out to be one part of the ethics of virtue
  • Virtue Theory may actually bring these two concepts together

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  • Aristotle and other ancient thinkers approached ethics by asking “What traits of character make one a good person?”
  • That is very different from the theories which ask the question, “what is the right action?”

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  • Instead of asking “What traits of character make one a good person?” They began by asking “What is the right thing to do?”
  • Think about the theories we have discussed:

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  • Utilitarianism: We ought to do whatever will promote the greatest happiness for the greatest number.
  • Kant's theory: Our duty is to follow rules that we could consistently will to be universal laws
  • Social Contract Theory: The right thing to do is to follow the rules that rational, self interested people can agree to for their mutual benefit.

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  • Aristotle said that a virtue is a trait of character manifested in habitual action
  • Pincoffs suggested that virtues and vices are qualities that we refer to in deciding whether someone is to be sought or avoided
  • We may define a virtue as a trait of character, manifested in habitual action, that it is good for a person to have

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  • Everyone needs courage, because no one (not even the scholar) is so safe that danger may not sometimes arise.
  • In every society, there will be property to be managed and decisions to be made about who gets what, and in every society, there will be some people who are worse off than others; so generosity is always to be prized.
  • Honesty in speech is always a virtue because no society can exist without communication among its members.
  • Everyone needs friends, and to have friends one must be a friend; so everyone needs loyalty.

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  • Love of family and friends is an inescapable feature of the morally good life
  • Impartiality will have a difficult time accounting for this

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  • The virtues, however, can account for all this
  • Love and friendship involve partiality toward loved ones and friends
  • Beneficence toward people in general is a virtue of a different kind.
  • What is needed is an understanding of the nature of these different virtues and how they relate to one another.

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  • An adequate theory of ethics must provide an understanding of moral character
  • Modern moral philosophers have failed to do this

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  • Virtue Theory is incomplete in the opposite way. Moral problems are frequently problems about what we should do
  • When action is at issue, some version of Utilitarian or Kantian policies might be recommended

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  • We must combine the right action approach with the virtues approach
  • We might try to improve Utilitarianism, Kantianism, and the like by adding to them a better account of moral character

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  • Some people believe that there cannot be progress in Ethics, since everything has already been said . . . I believe the opposite…Compared with the other sciences, Non-Religious Ethics is the youngest and least advanced.
  • DEREK PARFIT, REASONS AND PERSONS (1984)

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  • Reason requires impartiality
  • The requirements of social living requires adherence to a set of rules that would serve everyone's interests
  • Our natural inclination is to care about others, at least to a modest degree.
  • These principles work together to make morality not only possible but natural for us.

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  • Those who choose to behave decently toward others deserve to be treated well in return
  • Those who treat others badly deserve to be treated badly in return
  • People (including ourselves) have the ability to earn good treatment at the hands of others

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  • People should sometimes be motivated by an impartial concern for "the interests of everyone alike." But this is not the only morally praiseworthy motive
  • Love is a praiseworthy motive
  • The desire to create, pride in doing one's job well are also praiseworthy

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  • It is important that people be as happy and well off as possible.
  • This standard is to be used in assessing a wide variety of things, including actions, policies, social customs, laws, rules, motives, and character traits.

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  • We should act from the combination of motives that best promote the general welfare
  • Multiple-Strategies Utilitarianism does not focus exclusively on motives; nor does it focus entirely on acts or rules, as other varieties of Utilitarianism have done
  • Imagine a plan that would make a person’s life both satisfying to himself and have him contribute positively to the welfare of others

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  • How can these principles support the things we liked about Cultural Relativism without accepting the consequences of Cultural Relativism?
  • Can we show why we should respect different cultures and individuals based on Multiple-Strategies Utilitarianism and Virtue Theory?

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  • The virtues that are needed to make your life go well
  • The motives on which you will act
  • The commitments and personal relationships you will have to friends, family, and others
  • The social roles you will occupy, with the responsibilities and demands that go with them

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  • The duties and concerns associated with the projects you undertake, such as being a musician, a game designer, or a movie maker.
  • The rules that you follow most of the time without even thinking
  • A strategy about when to consider exceptions to the rules, and when you will make those exceptions

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  • What is your best plan?
  • How will it influence the games you design and the cinematic art you create?
  • How will your work effect the moral community in which we live?
  • What duty do you have to make life better for everyone your work touches?
  • To be continued…………

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