Theft And Lying Flashcards
General problem with lying
-Seen as a dishonest act.
-A person can no longer take pleasure in their property.
-In some cases devastating effects. E.g. in a poor country: a local farmer steals from another local farmer.
-This may jeopardise the livelihood of the farmer and his family.
-Disorders society. Society is effectively contractual. “ I will not steal from you because you will not steal from me”. If this rule is not upheld chaos could ensue.
NML primary precepts
W – orship God
O – rdered society
R – eproduction
L – advancement of knowledge (learn)
D – preserve life (defend the innocent)
NML ordered society
-Theft will contribute to disorder in society.
-Secondary precept would be ‘not to steal’.
-Theft generally goes against the morals of a virtuous society,, so stealing breaks cardinal virtue of justice.
NML worship god
8th commandment says “thou shall not steal” so we would be disobedient to God if we stole.
Aquinas on theft being okay in certain situation
“then it is lawful for a man to succor his own need by means of another’s property, by taking it either openly or secretly”
Proportionalism
-We can see from Aquinas’ quotation that he is adopting a proportionalist view.
-Whilst Aquinas advocates a deontological position he does take account of various extreme circumstance.
-This is not necessarily fatal to his position. We might say that NML gives us very good guidance on a variety of moral issues, but in extreme cases there may need to take a sensible proportionalist view.
-man is adhering to the principle of preserving life; namely his own. This outweighs the injustice of stealing bread.
-The man’s intention is to “save his own life” not “dispossess someone of their property” and so this may be an unintended consequence of his actions.
Fletcher on theft
-Means: theft.
-Likelihood is you’ll get away with it and achieve your end (as opposed to detection and punishment. It is therefore pragmatic.
-Puts you before the law (personalism)
-or all these positives there is one thing Fletcher would not agree with: your action is self motivated. You should be willing the neighbour’s good not your own. You may deprive other students, in exactly the same situation as you of the book.
VE - theft
-With VE the focus is not so much on what to do in particular situations but on the development of a person’s character over a lifetime.
-Aristotle emphasises experience and reason.
Habituation is key.
-This allows flexibility, taking into account certain situations.
Theft - based action VE
-Theft, then, is always a base action, and just as there is no way one can commit adultery well or not well, or with a woman/man one ought, there is no way one can steal well or not well, with the victim one ought
-It is always wrong.
Virtue of justice - VE
-Aristotle spoke about the virtue of justice in 2 senses:
1. First in the broad sense (whole system of law)
2.Second in a narrower sense (fairness - restoring the distribution of gain and loss where a loss has occured through theft).
-It is perhaps this kind of theft Aristotle is considering when he says theft is always a base action.
-There is clearly a difference between someone who steals for purely personal profit and stealing in order to save someone’s life (e.g. starving man), thus showing virtues of compassion.
-We can therefore argue that Aristotle may have allowed theft in certain situations of life and death.
Lying - theft
-Seen as a dishonest act.
-Creates distrust.
-Has a bad impact on relationships. Fruitful relationships tend to work on the fundamental principle of trust.
-Disorders society. A dishonest society is one that will malfunction.
Ordered society NML
-Lying will contribute to disorder in society. E.g. if people lied in business arrangements no property would ever be safe. E.g. if husbands and wives lie to each other then the family unit would break down.
-Secondary precept would be ‘not to lie’.
-Honesty is an important virtue needed for a virtuous society to thrive. Thus, lying breaks cardinal virtues of practical wisdom, courage and justice.
Worship god - NML
9th commandment says “Do not bear false witness” so we would be disobedient to God if we lie.
Aquinas quote
“it is lawful to hide the truth prudently, by keeping it back…”
Aquinas - “non malicious lie”
-Aquinas argues some lies are non-malicious and not immoral.
-In Exodus it tells us that the midwives of Egypt lied to Pharaoh and said all the Israelite first borns had been killed when they hadn’t.
-God rewarded the midwives and God “does not reward sin”.
