1. Philosophy Unit 1 Why should I be moral?
10th October 2013
AS Philosophy
Jez Echevarría

2. Objectives To examine where morality may come from
To begin to understand why we act morally
To consider Egoism and Social Contract as explanations for morality

3. Why should I be moral? Morality as social contract  Three sub-units
Morality as a constitutive of self-interest
Morality as overcoming self-interest

4. Desert Island Scenario
Remembering the Island Scenario activity from the previous session, can you remember what things all the groups had in common?
Do you have any other observations?
Things in common Other observations

5. Morality and God
It is clear that many societies base their laws initially upon church or religious laws – this is certainly the case in the UK.
Religions usually put forward a way of behaviour the has been ordained by a God or gods, and normally forms the basis of a just escahatology (end time- Heaven, Hell, Death and Judgement)
Some however could claim that morality is meaningless – “If God did not exist, everything would be permitted” (Satre quoting Dostoevsky)
Do we need a God or gods for morality to make sense?

6. Morality as a social contract
Interests of the stronger – in Thrasymachus in Plato’s Republic
So why be moral?
Should we act in our own self-interest?
We should act morally because it is in out interest to do so – EGOISM
As part of our self-interest we should make a contract with others. So acting morally is justified by the agreement we have made with others - CONTRACTISM

7. Egoism 1) Ethical Egoism 2) Psychological Egoism
Origins can be traced back to ancient Greek philosophy in Epicurus (341BCE-270BCE), who believed that pleasure alone was good (Hedonism is a philosophy where the highest goal is to seek pleasure)
We should act in order to further our own self interest, happiness and for our own goals
As opposed to Altruism where we act for the good of others regardless of our own good.
2 types:
1) Ethical Egoism
2) Psychological Egoism

8. Ethical Egoism
This is a statement of value: that we ought to maximise our own good.
Not as selfish as it appears on first sight. It does not propose a life of short-term hedonistic pleasure seeking (though it could)
Apparently altruistic actions might be explained by the longer term pleasures that they engender; Hume would argue that sympathy with others might be a good reason to act in that way e.g. helping others may make us feel good about ourselves.
However, our sympathy may not be universal and would only be a factor if we were getting a final “pay-off” as such.

9. Ethical Egoism
Charitable or selfless acts might be called “enlightened” egoism, which might describe a situation where long-term self interest may be preferred over short term pleasure (e.g. studying – denying ourselves short term measures in order to achieve higher earnings and pleasure in the future)
But…..could an egoist explain altruistic acts where was not going to be a pay-off? E.g. a soldier giving his life to save his comrades.

10. Ethical Egoism But…..Prisoners’ dilemma (pp 63-4 text book) Options:
Explain scenario
Rules a) 2 cards C=confess and S=silent
5 games with 5 diferent partners
Tom
Dick
Both Confess
5 years
5 Years
Both Stay Silent (trust card)
1 year
Tom confesses and Dick stays silent 10
Dick confesses and Tom stays silent

11. Ethical Egoism
Moral action becomes a mater of calculation rather than doing the right thing. You might consider other people’s interests only in so far as they further your interest.
Machiavelli ( ) The Prince
The prince should try to do good but needs
to be able to do evil if the need arises because
otherwise he will taken advantage of.
An egoist, by his or her very nature would not
want to universalise egoism because everyone behaving that way will eventually negate the advantages. This would be inconsistent in that the egoist denies others what he/she want for him/herself

12. Psychological Egoism
Human nature is such that we can’t do anything about our propensity to act out of pure self-interest
We act morally because if benefits us and furthers our own life
Friederich Nietzsche ( ) Beyond Good and Evil (1886)
“the will to power” Life is the will to power and every living thing acts to release its strength and further its own sake (sipo matador plant example)

13. Psychological Egoism
Story about Abraham Lincoln who claimed that all men were motivated by selfishness, but acted apparently selflessness, jumping out of a coach to save some pigs from a swamp. When asked why he did this as it went against his claim about human nature, he answered that his actions were the very essence of selfishness since had he not saved the pigs he would have lost “peace of mind”

14. Criticisms of Psychological Egoism
Is the factual account correct? We could deny the facts that are presented about people and their motivations.
Even if the facts are correct, they are simply descriptive and do not tell us what we ought to do
Nietzsche and Machiavelli draw questionable moral conclusions from their work that are seriously at odds with conventional notions of right and wrong
In short, where is the evidence to back the claim that human motivation is solely selfish?

15. Criticisms (cont)
If every action is performed soley to gain peace of mind or to gain power, then how it is achieved is not important. You can get peace of mind by killing someone if you are an assassin, and you could get peace of mind by helping an old lady cross the road. Both give satisfaction but are clearly morally different.
Finally, psychological egoism wavers beween making empirical claims and claiming an a priori necessity about its status. What would count as a counter argument? How is the sacrifice of other accounted for in such a theory?
Psychological egoism will not help us to answer the question “why be moral”. It simply tells us that whatever we choose will, due to our human nature, be in our self-interest

16. Next time
Contractism

17. What have I learnt today?
To set the scene for a philosophical study of morality
To examine where morality may come from
To begin to understand why we act morally