Jonathan Dancy on Moral Particularism

I mentioned a podcast in class called "Philosophy Bites", which contains an interview with an eminent (usually British, because the philosophers producing it are British) philosopher. The podcasts address different topics in contemporary philosophy (usually Analytic philosophy).

The link for the podcast's website is http://philosophybites.com/, but I have also included a link directly to the podcast that I mentioned in class. That was a short interview with Jonathan Dancy, who was speaking about "Moral Particularism".  This topic would be of interest to you specifically because it presents an objection to the basic premise behind deontology--namely, that morality is expressed by the rules that govern our actions.

FYI: these podcasts are all free.

The Role of Love and Respect in Friendship

Conclusion: It is impossible to have both love and respect in a friendship.

Premises:

1. Perfect friendship is ideal, but unattainable.

     a. Perfect friendship is when two people are connected with equal mutual love

     and respect (46/470)

     b. It is a person’s moral duty, a duty of love, to tell a friend his/her faults (46/470)

     c. Telling a friend his/her faults lead to lack of respect (46/470)

2. It is difficult to distinguish between feeling for duty and feeling for the other person (46/470)

     a. Feeling for duty=feeling of benevolence (general love of mankind, 27/451)

     b. Feeling for other person=respect (duty of virtue, 25/450)

     c. If one person loves the other more, it is not possible to have both equal mutual      

     love and respect (i)

3. Friendship cannot be maintained when one person benefits from the other (i)

     a. There is still equality in love (46/471)

     b. However, there is no equality in respect, because the person who benefitted

     simply sees himself/herself as not yet unable to return the gesture (46/471)

4. Friend of mankind in general is taking a general interest in the well-being of everyone (47/473)

     a. Based on obligation (47/473)

     b. Relationship of protector and of one being protected is a relationship of mutual

     love, but cannot be friendship because respect is not equal

5. Moral friendship exists, but is based only in respect (47/472)

     a. Moral friendship is when the two persons feel confident about sharing and

     being open with their ideas toward each other (47/472)

     b. This openness is based on respect, but not necessarily on mutual love (i)

The Morality of Benevolence

Conclusion: The duty of benevolence is still moral under universal law.

1. Morality contains the principles of both mutual love and respect (24/449).

a. Mutual love occurs when a person is directed towards another person (24/449).

b. Respect occurs when two people are directed to keep themselves at a distance (24/449).

c. (i) An act is moral if it contains a balance of mutual love and respect.

2. Immorality results in a lack of either mutual love or respect (24/449).

a. (i) An act is immoral if it contains an imbalance of  mutual love and respect.  

3. (i) A morally-practical relationship is based on universal legislation.

a. Every morally-practical relationship between oneself and another person is representative of pure reason (27/451).

b. Pure reason includes free actions based on maxims in which universal legislation is appropriate (27/451).

4. Benevolence is a general love of mankind (28/452).

5. (i) Benevolence contains the principle of mutual love.

a. Love is the maxim of benevolence (25/449).

b. Benevolence is a practical love (27/451).

c. Mutual love is a practical love (25/449).  

d. Benevolence is a duty of all people towards one another (27/451). 

6. (i) Benevolence contains the principle of respect.

a. Respect is the maxim that limits one’s self esteem within the relationships between other people (25/449).

b. Respect directs one to compare the worth of oneself to the worth of another person (25/449).

c. Legislative reason includes oneself among every person (27/451).

1c. The duty of mutual benevolence is universally legislated (27/451).

2c. Actions appropriate for universal legislation cannot be selfish (27/451).

d. (i) Under universal law and the principle of respect, one can be benevolent to oneself and to other people.   

Virtue in Relation to Duty and Strength

Conclusion: Virtue is a human being’s ability to overcome obstacles and obey his/her duty.

                       

Premises:

1.      Obeying the moral law is a human’s duty.

a.       Duty is the concept of self-constraint of free choice (36/379).

b.      Man is most free when he cannot oppose duty (39/382).

c.       Duty is to estimate the worth of one’s actions not merely according to their legality, but also according to their morality, because the law does not command internal action, only the maxim of the action (51/393).

2.      A duty of virtue is an end and, at the same time, a duty (40/383).

a.       An end is an object of free choice and every action has an end (42/385).

b.      To have some end of action is an act of freedom (42/385).

c.       The act is a categorical imperative of pure practical reason and combines the concept of duty to the concept of an end (42/385).

d.      Duties of virtue are declared by pure reason (55/395).

3.      Cultivation of the will to the purest virtuous disposition is one’s duty (45/387).

a.       By raising oneself from the crudity of his nature to humanity, he can set ends for himself, supply instruction to what is lacking in his knowledge, and fix mistakes in order to be worthy of the humanity within him (45/387).

b.      It makes the law coincide with the incentive of one’s actions, creating an inner moral practical perfection (45/387).

c.       It is not happiness, but the preservation of the integrity of one’s morality, that is the end and at the same time a duty (46/388).

d.      The greatest moral perfection to achieve is to make the law not only a maxim, but also an incentive (51/392).

4.      Inclinations and feelings are obstacles to duty.

a.       Strength is the capacity and resolved purpose to resist a strong but unjust opponent; strength of moral disposition is called virtue (37/380).

b.      Impulses of nature are unjust opponents of moral disposition that man must overcome to obey the law (36/379).

c.       All strength is known only by the obstacles it can overcome (53/394).

d.      Man conquers these inclinations through reason (37/380).

e.       Doctrine of Virtue is an autocracy of practical reason, meaning that there is a consciousness (from the categorical imperative) of the power to become master of one’s inclinations that oppose the law (41/383).

f.       Vices, or unlawful dispositions, are hindrances created by inclinations (65/405).

Virtue and Strength

Conclusion: Virtue for Kant, means moral strength.

Premise 1: Virtue Is A Duty And To Obey Duty Is To Be Virtuous

A. Imperfect duties are duties of virtue (pg 48 390)

B. The fulfillment of them is a merit. (pg 48 390)

C. The greatest moral perfection of man is to do his duty (pg 51 393)

D.Virtue is the strength of a man’s maxim in obeying his duty (pg 53 395)
E.The transgression of fulfilling duties is not an offense, but merely moral unworth (pg 48 390)
F. (i) To be morally unworthy is the inability to be virtuous

Premise 2: Law Leaves Obedience For Free Choice (pg 48 390)

A. Duties of virtue rest on free self-constraint alone, not external (pg 40 383)

B.The categorical imperative “ought” announces this constraint, and apples to men as rational natural beings (not to rational beings in general) (pg 36 379)

C. Rational natural beings are unholy enough to be influenced by pleasure to transgress the moral law (pg 36 380)

D. Ethics contain duties which one cannot be (physically) forced by others to observe (pg 38 381)

E.(i) Men (natural rational beings) can choose to act in any way, and therefore must exercise self-constraint in their decisions to act out of duty.

Premise 3: Inclinations Are Obstacles

A.Vices (or inclinations) are the monsters which man has to combat (pg 65 406)

B. Feelings play the master over man (pg 68 408)

C. Man must bring his inclinations under his authority (pg 67 408)

D. Man should not let himself be governed by feelings or inclinations (pg 68 408)

E. Adversity, pain, and want are great temptations to transgress ones duties (pg 46 387)

Premise 4: Fulfilling Duties is the Ability to Overcome Said Obstacles

A.The impulses of nature contain resisting forces and hindrances to duty’s fulfillment in the mind of man. (pg 37 381)

B.Man must judge himself capable of combating these (hindrances) and conquering them by means of reason (37 381)

Questions on freedom in Kant

Kant's view of freedom seems so alien to our own notion of freedom, namely, that freedom is commensurate with the extension of the field of possibilities. Whereas Kant thinks freedom is making choices that are determined by a law, which seems like the constraining of a field of possibilities.

Is that an accurate description of Kant's views? If so, why does he think that?

FYI: Wallace Stevens. America's greatest modernist poet

I'm not forgetting about Robert Frost.

"Idea of Order at Key West"

Autonomy vs. Heteronomy: Limitation and Freedom of Good Will

Conclusion:

Autonomy explains the inner rational determination of the will, whereas heteronomy is dependent on external factors.

Premises:

1.  Good will is absolutely good and cannot be evil (44/443-444)

a.     Rational nature has an end, which would be the matter of good will.

b.     Good will is good without any qualifying condition for attaining the end.

c.     The end of happiness must exist independently.

2.  Autonomy is the property that the will has to be a law to itself, or independent of any property.

a.     The will is the driving force through which the maxim or the rule of a certain action can become the universal law.

b.     Autonomy reveals the freedom of the will.

c.     The acceptable principle of morality produces the autonomy of the will.

  3. The heteronomy is the limitation of the will to follow a law other than itself when seeking a purpose in an object. (45/444-446)

a.     The object will give the will the law through its relation.

b.     This relation will only admit hypothetical imperatives such as “I ought to do something because I will something else.”

c.     Heteronomy of the will produces spurious principles of morality.

4.   Principles of morality are either empirical or rational. (46/442)

a.     Empirical principles serve as the foundation of right action.

b.     These principles are based on the depending facts of human nature and the liable circumstances.

c.     Rational principles rise from reason instead of feeling and provide a natural concept of perfection.

d.     These principles of perfection are those of one’s happiness of the will.

e.     Good will must have principles that are independent universal laws.

f.      Therefore if morality is a categorical imperative, or a ethical law, autonomy of the will is true and necessary.