PHIL 335 Final Flashcards
One Shot Prisoner Dilemma
Defection is the most rational strategy because no mater what the other party does, you will secure a better payoff by defecting
Iterated Prisoners Dilemma
There are several rounds/plays of the game and participants can gain a reputation (e.g. either reliable or dishonest) and that reputation may have an influence on what strategy a rational agent pursues
The Bargaining Problem
What system of contraints should be adopted by rational individual utility maximizers in order to secure mutual advantage?
E.g. individual rights and principle of distribution of the benefits of cooperation
The Compliance problem
What justification is there for rational individual utility maximizers to comply with moral constraints?
Why be moral?
Contrasts between Compliance and Bargaining problem
- Compliance problem not a central issue for kantians, contractualists and utilitarians
-Bargaining problem arises in highly qualified way for Rawlsian contractualists
Hobbesian Contractarianism
Emphasizes the normative primacy of self-interest and the fundamentality of morality as an artificial device for facilitating mutual advantage
Contractualism, Kantianism and U adopt IMPARTIALIST conception of morality
Straightforward Maximizer
A person who seeks to maximize his utility given the strategies of those with whom he interacts
Constrained Maximizer
A person who seeks in some situations to maximize her utility given not the strategies but the utilities of those with whom she interacts
-conditional disposition to base actions on a joint strategy without considering whether some individual strategy would yield greater expected utility
-in PD a CM chooses to cooperate if given her estimate of whether or not her partner will choose to cooperate her own expected utility is greater than the utility she would expect from the non-cooperative outcome
Deliberative Justification
Humans represent preferences to ourselves and seek a way of resolving conflicts and making our preferences coherent
Initially most plausible principle for establishing coherence os a maximizing principle: we choose actions that will maximize satisfaction of our reflective preferences
Credible account of moral constraints must be reconciled with deliberative justification or moral constraints will lose their force/rational authority
Foundational Crisis of Morality
Ordinary moral discourse suggests that morality is a system of justified constraints on how persons may satisfy their preferences
Constraints seem objective
Idea of objective value is problematic
Foundational Crisis Solutions
Platonic challenge
Humean challenge
Autonomy of morality
Platonic challenge
Properly understood morality does not impose constraints
Humean challenge
Morality rests on sympathetic feelings that are sufficiently strong to avert the crisis
Autonomy of morality
Morality requires no non-moral justification
Solving Morality Foundational Crisis
Credible moral realism
Universalistic justification
Incorporate morality within deliberative justification
Credible moral realism
Provide compelling philosophical argument that values are objective and ontologically real
Universalistic justification
Develop a broadly Kantian conception of practical reason that goes beyond deliberative justification
Detecting Dispositions of Others
Identify and distinguish CM and SM
Opaque- opaque beings need Hobbesian/political solutions
Transparent- transparent beings can easily cooperate without political solutions
Translucent- translucent beings can employ moral solutions at least to some degree
State of Nature
Life without morality
A state of affairs when there is no constraint on actions
A state of absolute liberty in which the benefits of cooperation are absent and in which people ruthlessly compete for resources
A state in which people are motivated by (unconstrained) self-interest and not fully rational desires for glory.
State of Nature (features)
Natural Moral status
- human beings have no inherent worth/moral standing, value of a person is a function of power as judged by others
Relative scarcity
- the resources available for the satisfaction of human desires are scarce
Competition
- human beings compete for the scarce resources
Significance of power
- human beings attempt to acquire power that facilitates desire satisfaction and is conducive to self-preservation
Rough Natural equality
- humans are equal in the sense that no individual can reliably dominate others and gain advantage
Morality and Justice as artificial
- prior to the establishment of the commonwealth there are no binding constraints on the liberty of individuals
Rationality
- individuals can be guided by reason to advance their self preservation
Irrationality
- some individuals suffer from rational failings
Position of the Fool in Leviathan
The fool says that there is no thing as justice and how can it be against reason to break contracts when it is impossible to receive hurt by it
Causes of conflict in the State of Nature
Competition - equal hope of obtaining something
Diffidence - lack of trust, no one can secure themselves
Glory- some people will create conflict for glory
Hobbes Laws of Nature
- Rational agents seek peace
- It is mutually advantageous for individuals to scale back on our unlimited rights and accept less freedom
- People/rational agents should live up to their covenants
Hobbesian Contractarianism (in depth)
There are no natural or objective moral principles
Views morality as a system of constraints on the pursuit of individual utility maximization that rational egoists can endorse
Human life in the absence of extensive and sustained forms of cooperation is generally very poor
Morality is invented by humans in order to achieve mutual advantage
The quality of life for individuals in the absence of morality must be sufficiently poor to warrant establishment of constraints
The establishment and maintenance of constraints must be possible for individuals who are initially not bound by such constraints
Hobbesian Contractualism vs. Contractarianism
Contractualism- premised upon a rejection of rational egoism
- grounded in an ideal of mutual justification linked to reasonable rejection
A proposed moral principle is acceptable only if no one can reasonably reject the principle
Contractarianism- embraces a complex variety of rational egoism
- grounded in an ideal of mutual advantage rooted in maximizing conception of individual rationality
Appropriate moral principles are ones that rational self-interested agents can agree to in order to facilitate mutual advantage
Kants objectives in the Groundwork
- Seek out supreme principle of morality
- Establish/prove the supreme principle of morality
Extra:
Show that the categorical imperative is an a priori principle
Good Will and its Value
The good will is unconditionally valuable, the only thing that is good without limitation
Rules out, talents of the mind, self control (qualities of temperament), gifts of fortune as all these things combined with a bad will lead to evil
Moral worth of actions
Only actions performed for the sake of duty have true moral worth
Note: moral worth is not equivalent to moral rightness
Objections to Kants doctrine of moral worth
- Perversity objection
- Austerity objection
- Denigration of sentiment objection
Perversity objection
Isn’t it perverse to suppose that morally worthy actions must be performed contrary to a persons inclinations
Barons reply: objection relies on a misinterpretation of Kant, inclinations of pleasure to do ones duty can be present but they cannot ground action with moral worth
Austerity objection
Kants view seems to deny that taking pleasure in doing ones duty contributes something of value. It seems needlessly austere.
Barons response: deflect force of objection by noting that Kant holds that a sense of satisfaction should accompany the performance of dutiful action
Denigration of Sentiment Objection
Kants doctrine seems to denigrate the value of natural sentiments that align with moral demands
Barons reply: Kants doctrine is plausible since grounding moral action in mere sentiment is not as attractive as it might initially seem
Barons Reply to denigration objection
Reflective commitment
- persons are deliberative agents for whom deciding how to act is a matter of reflection on ones reasons for action
Unreliability of sentiments
- natural sentiments are not always reliably connected with right action
Perfect duties
Perfect duties are those that moral agents always have to perform, regardless of external circumstances. An example is honesty; dishonest behavior is never permissible un- der any circumstances.
Imperfect duties
imperfect duties are prescriptions of general ends, and fulfilling them is praiseworthy.
Imperfect duties are requirements for attitudes and associated actions that fulfill some moral maxim, but that have practical limitations.
Duties to self
includes attention to personal health, safety, and well-being, preserving one’s wholeness of character and integrity, maintaining competence, and continuing personal and professional growth
Duties to others
together with the distinction between perfect and imperfect duties, Kant recognized four categories of duties: perfect duties toward ourselves, perfect duties toward others, imperfect duties toward ourselves and imperfect duties toward others
Different formulations of the categorical imperative
Formula of Universal Law
Formula of Humanity
Formula of Autonomy
Formula of Universal Law
Act only in accordance with that maxim through which you can at the same time will that it become universal law
Formula of humanity
Act in such a way that you treat humanity whether in your own person or in the person of another always at the same time as an end and never simply as a means
Formula of Autonomy
The idea of the will of every rational being as a will that legislates universal law
- rational beings are the source of moral law
-moral law is not externally imposed and yet it is the same for all rational beings
Correspondence thesis
Perfect duties correspond to contradiction of conception
Imperfect duties correspond to contradiction of will
Contradiction in conception
Violations associated with violations of perfect duties either to oneself or others
Contradiction in will
These failures are associated with violations of imperfect duties either to oneself or others
Distinction between dignity and price
- Price- something that has a price may be exchanged for something else of equal or greater value; value is relative
- Dignity- beyond all price; may not be exchanged or sacrificed for anything else
Possible difficulties with the CI
Rigorism
False negatives
False positives
Rigorism
Does a Kantian conception of morality yield an unduly strict and inflexible understanding of moral duties?
False Positives
Application of FUL to some maxims suggests that some plainly immoral behaviour is morally permissible
Maxim of making a false promise to a specific person
False Negatives
Application to FUL to some maxims suggests that some plainly morally permissible behaviour is wrong
In order to avoid crowded tennis courts I will play Sunday mornings
Action fails practical interpretation of FUL
Hypothetical Imperative
A directive of reason that link ends with means by describing the best strategy/means for achieving a given end
If you want this desired end you OUGHT to do this
Problematic -directives of reason grounded on a contingent end that a rational agent can have
Assertoric -directives of reason given an end that can be attributed to all rational agents
Categorical Imperative
A directive of practical reason that guides the will not in relation to contingent ends of an agent but by constraining the will unconditionally
Sets constraints on the pursuit of ends and these constraints have authority for agents
Applies to all rational agents
A command, must be followed
Issue concerning subject matter of morality
What account of the subject matter of morality adequately explains its objectivity in a way compatible with its epistemically and motivational elements?
A philosophical account of morality’s basic subject matter is not identical to a normative theory of morality
Normative Utilitarianism
Morality is best understood as concerned with the maximization of aggregate well-being
Philosophical Utilitarianism
Subject matter of morality concerns individual well-being
-objective
-epistemically sensible
-motivationally power
The Losers example
Suppose there is one way rational way to live and that would be A
Does it follow that no one could reject A?
Suppose the people who’s situation is rlly bad under A are losers
There is an alternative E where no ones situation would be as bad
Losers have a reasonable complaint against A
Losers relation to normative utilitarianism and Contractualism
Utilitarianism holds that significant sacrifices of some individuals can be morally justified if such sacrifices are conducive to the maximization of aggregate well-being.
Contractualism account of the subject matter of morality does not lend supposer to normative utilitarianism
Challenges to Contractualism associated with aggregation
Contractualism can offer an intuitively attractive analysis of what is wrong about some cases in which maximizing aggregate well-being seems wrong
It is not clear whether the Contractualist approach to capturing the significance of the numbers is successful or illuminating
Boat and island example
Sex vs gender
Sex is a biological distinction between males and females
Gender is a socially constructed phenomenon in which various traits and capacities are attributed to biological males and females and often represented as deep facts about the essential difference between men and women
False consciousness
A complex set of beliefs held by a person about their interests, obligations or rights which are distorted in the that the beliefs do not accurately represent the persons true interests, actual obligations or actual rights.
Feminist conclusion requirement
Achieve a theoretical understanding of womens oppression with the purpose of finding a route to ending womens oppression
Womens experience requirement
Develop an account of morality which is based upon womens moral experiences
Rights Debate
Background
Struggle for rights since the dawn of time
Male stream accounts of rights do not capture woman’s interests or perspectives
AGAINST
- concept of rights rest on an excessively individualistic conception of the self as independent, rational, autonomous
-rights discourse gives an unduly narrow and rigid account of the responsibilities people have to one another
FOR
- rights can illuminate and protect the distinct claims/interests of vulnerable persons in oppressive relationships
-rights can be used to structure mutually respectful relationships between people
-discourse of rights need not be corrosive to affective ties between persons
Ubuntu
Roughly means humanness
A person is a person through other persons
Favoured interpretation
An action is right just insofar as it produces harmony and reduces discord, an act is wrong to the extent that it fails to develop community
Reflective equilibrium
A compelling interpretation must
- fit with the paradigmatic reflective judgements that people make
-provide an articulation of the core ethical principle that gives content to Ubuntu without generating obviously problematic results
