Great Ideas of Philosophy

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B. Kant suggests that the moral law is a categorical imperative, an imperative that applies come what may.Kant expresses the categorical imperative in several ways, one of them forbidding the use of another moralbeing merely as a tool, but always and only as an end in himself.C. Kant’s moral philosophy bases morality on reason and, thus, reserves the moral domain to creatures whoare rational. This still leaves open the problem of moral relativism, in that human rationality routinely leadsto different conclusions on matters of moral consequence.VI. To gain greater clarity, we might consider the realist–anti-realist positions.A. The realist takes the laws of science as really operating in the world, not as shorthand for perceptualregularities or abstractions based on an idealized world that has never been.B. The anti-realist regards the laws as having great usefulness to aid our predictions and descriptions, but astools of investigation, not as discoveries about reality itself.C. Just as the scientific realist regards the properties of the physical world to be mind-independent, so, too,does the moral realist regard the moral properties of reality to be independent of human reason, passion, orperception.1. The moral realist—at least a radical one—is prepared to argue that the cosmos itself includes relationalfeatures and requirements constitutive of a moral order.2. Human perception and judgment might pick this up faintly and incompletely, though progressively.3. If beauty has a comparable independence, a set of properties waiting for the prepared mind torecognize them, then perhaps Socrates was on the right track after all in contending that truth, beauty,and justice were not only real but, finally, the same.Recommended Reading:Hare, R. M. Moral Thinking. Oxford, 1981.Mackie, J. L. Ethics: Inventing Right and Wrong. Penguin, 1977.Robinson, D. N. Praise and Blame: Moral Realism and Its Application. Princeton, 2002.Questions to Consider:1. What is a “moral” sentiment?2. Is there any fact that could entail a moral “ought”?3. How does Kant’s conception of a “duty to the law” work when the law itself is immoral?22©2004 The Teaching Company Limited Partnership
Lecture Fifty-SixMedicine and the Value of LifeScope: The arena in which moral theories vie for credibility is that of real life, where the stakes are high and theproblems seldom simple. This is especially the case in medicine, where life-and-death decisions are madedaily and where often it is the lesser of two evils that exhausts the choices. What guidance does moralphilosophy provide in this domain? Illustrative cases can be examined as they would be informed byutilitarianism or by deontological moral theories. It becomes clear that neither of these dominant moralperspectives easily disposes of the actual cases confronted by physicians. Distinctions between killing andletting die, between letting die and assisting in suicides, between doing good with evil nonetheless foreseenand doing evil are examined. It becomes clear that there is no reliable unit of value with which todetermine the value to be set on life. Nor are there easy answers to questions about which lives are to besaved and which forfeited under realistic conditions. In the end, moral philosophy is not really developedto the point of settling such matters, its proper function being the identification of the principles that seemto be at work as decisions are made.OutlineI. There are three dominant schools of moral philosophy.A. One of these, beginning as a theory of the moral sentiments, Hume’s moral theory, lays the foundation forutilitarianism based on the goal of optimizing pleasure and minimizing pain.B. Aristotelian “perfectionist” theories absorb the moral domain into that of character itself, where thedecisive factor is the manner in which one’s actions accord with the dictates of reason.C. On Kantian deontological grounds, morality arises from the autonomy of a rational being free to decide, toobserve, or to defy the moral law. Kantian moral theory focuses on the intentions of the actor, not theconsequences of the action.D. General theories of this sort are “abstract” in that they do not offer long lists of the actions required orforbidden by the terms of the theory. They do provide a framework within which to weigh significantactions for their moral worth.II. All moral theories place a premium on actions capable of causing great harm to the innocent; thus, one of therichest arenas in which to test the applications and implications of competing theories is medicine. Ourwillingness to favor a given moral theory depends partly on whether, in concrete cases, it calls for actions thatappear to be sound and justified, if not obligatory, or whether it seems to allow actions many would reasonablyregard as unacceptable.III. From a moral point of view, there are a variety of questions surrounding the taking of a life, including how onelife may be valued as worth more or less than another, in different situations.A. With suicide, there is no complication arising from proxy decisions, nor is the judgment of the value of thelife in question reserved to any party except the person whose life it is.1. Kant argues that suicide is a moral wrong because the grounds on which such an act would bechosen—to create or change a state of feeling—entails using a rational being (oneself, in this case) asan instrument to bring about some desired state of affairs.2. On the other hand, the ancient Roman Stoic Seneca says in his essay On Fear that a debilitatingdisease, for instance, would rob a person of the very dignity Kant accords rational beings.3. Hume contends that God presumably gave human beings the power of free choice in order to promotetheir happiness and well-being and that both of these objectives may be best met by ending a life ofmisery and torment.4. In his libertarian and utilitarian philosophy, John Stuart Mill places the freedom of the individual as ahigher value than the paternalistic concerns of those who would thwart individual efforts and aims.Accordingly, the morality of suicide is to be weighted according to the utilities associated withcontinuing or ending a life of pain and misery.B. Great controversy has surrounded the question of physician-assisted suicide.©2004 The Teaching Company Limited Partnership 23
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Daniel N. Robinson, Ph.D.Philosophy
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Lecture OneFrom the Upanishads to H
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E. The Upanishads would merge us wi
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2. Despite their oracles, priests,
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4. Looking at geometry, we are told
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E. The contribution of pre-Socratic
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of the mystery of earth itself impe
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Lecture SixHerodotus and the Lamp o
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Lecture SevenSocrates on the Examin
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Xenophon. Memorabilia. Cornell Univ
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II. A philosopher is engaged in the
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Lecture NineCan Virtue Be Taught?Sc
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Lecture TenPlato’s Republic⎯Man
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Annas, J. “Classical Greek Philos
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III. The dominant school of Greek m
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1. Epistemonikon is a special featu
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Timeline800-600 B.C.E. ............
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1705...............................
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1873...............................
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Functionalism: The view that consci
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Tabula rasa: A blank slate. In the
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progress in one of its most summoni
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John Locke (1632-1704): Physician a
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The Great Ideas ofPhilosophy, 2 nd
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Table of ContentsThe Great Ideas of
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Lecture ThirteenAristotle on Friend
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C. Aristotle is recovering the Home
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III. The problem of conduct is then
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C. The Stoic account relies on the
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Lecture SixteenThe Stoic Bridge to
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Recommended Reading:Bede. A History
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III. Roman law successfully permitt
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Lecture EighteenThe Light Within⎯
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B. Augustine approaches the problem
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B. Very early, the Islamic commitme
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Lecture TwentySecular Knowledge⎯T
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IV. The third great institutional c
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1. Scholasticism was an attempt to
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Lecture Twenty-TwoScholasticism and
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E. Further, to the intellectual vir
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historical volumes tell Florentines
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Lecture Twenty-FourLet Us Burn the
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1. First, the courts required a doc
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650-850 C.E. ......................
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1794...............................
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Apatheia: Freedom from pathos and s
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ut cannot know what it is. Ultimate
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Biographical NotesAeschylus (525-45
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Claude Adrien Helvetius (1715-1771)
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Socrates (c. 469-399 B.C.): Greek p
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Scope:The Great Ideas of Philosophy
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B. This expansion, however, does no
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1. This standard essentially rules
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Lecture Twenty-SevenNewton⎯The Sa
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Lecture Twenty-EightHobbes and the
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Recommended Reading:Hobbes, T. Levi
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B. Other things can be known to be
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Lecture ThirtyNo Matter? The Challe
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Lecture Thirty-OneHume and the Purs
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Lecture Thirty-TwoThomas Reid and t
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efore him were not always faithful
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2. His Letters on the English makes
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Lecture Thirty-FourThe Federalist P
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VI. The Federalist Papers and the g
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III. Kant argues that there is some
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Lecture Thirty-SixMoral Science and
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Questions to Consider:1. A hypothet
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650-850 C.E. ......................
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1794...............................
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Apatheia: Freedom from pathos and s
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ut cannot know what it is. Ultimate
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Biographical NotesAeschylus (525-45
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Claude Adrien Helvetius (1715-1771)
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Socrates (c. 469-399 B.C.): Greek p
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Scope:The Great Ideas of Philosophy
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C. Though his system would be mocke
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1. There is nothing in the physics
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F. To include Hegel within the trad
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Lecture FortyThe Aesthetic Movement
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insisted that our very character is
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III. Nietzsche was an admirer and o
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B. In the final state, we’re all
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Lecture Forty-ThreeDarwin and Natur
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2. There is room for altruism but o
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1. He is a Hegelian who stands Hege
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Page 214 and 215: Lecture Forty-NineAlan Turing in th
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