Showing papers on "Morality published in 1984"

Reasons and Persons

Abstract: This book challenges, with several powerful arguments, some of our deepest beliefs about rationality, morality, and personal identity. The author claims that we have a false view of our own nature; that it is often rational to act against our own best interests; that most of us have moral views that are directly self-defeating; and that, when we consider future generations the conclusions will often be disturbing. He concludes that non-religious moral philosophy is a young subject, with a promising but unpredictable future.

Abortion and Infanticide

Abstract: This book has two main concerns. The first is to isolate the fundamental issues that must be resolved if one is able to formulate a defensible position on the question of the morality of abortion. The second is to determine the most plausible stand on those issues. The issues are intellectually difficult and many of them have been more or less ignored in public debate on abortion. Tooley argues, however, that plausible answers can be advanced, and that they support a liberal position on the morality of abortion.

Alienation, consequentialism, and the demands of morality

Abstract: INTRODUCTION Living up to the demands of morality may bring with it alienation – from one's personal commitments, from one's feelings or sentiments, from other people, or even from morality itself. In this article I will discuss several apparent instances of such alienation, and attempt a preliminary assessment of their bearing on questions about the acceptability of certain moral theories. Of special concern will be the question whether problems about alienation show consequentialist moral theories to be self-defeating. I will not attempt a full or general characterization of alienation. Indeed, at a perfectly general level alienation can be characterized only very roughly as a kind of estrangement, distancing, or separateness (not necessarily consciously attended to) resulting in some sort of loss (not necessarily consciously noticed). Rather than seek a general analysis I will rely upon examples to convey a sense of what is involved in the sorts of alienation with which I am concerned. There is nothing in a word, and the phenomena to be discussed in the following text could all be considered while avoiding the controversial term ‘alienation.’ My sense, however, is that there is some point in using this formidable term, if only to draw attention to commonalities among problems not always noticed. For example, in the final section of this article I will suggest that one important form of alienation in moral practice, the sense that morality confronts us as an alien set of demands, distant and disconnected from our actual concerns, can be mitigated by dealing with other sorts of alienation morality may induce.

Children's Conceptions of Moral and Prudential Rules

Abstract: TISAK, MARIE S., and TURIEL, ELLIOT. Children's Conceptions of Moral and Prudential Rules. CHILD DEVELOPMENT, 1984, 55, 1030-1039. Children's concepts of moral and prudential rules were assessed in this study. Moral and prudential events are similar in that they may involve consequences to persons, but also differ in that morality bears upon social relations and prudence does not. The purpose of the study was to determine whether children differentiate between the social-interactional, moral aspects of harm and the nonsocial, prudential aspects of harm. 90 subjects (ages, 6, 8, and 10 years) were administered an interview about 2 moral rules (pertaining to hitting and theft) and 1 prudential rule. 3 types of assessment were obtained: criterion judgments (evaluation, authority and rule contingency, generalizability), justifications, and attributions of importance. The findings showed that most subjects regard moral and prudential rules as useful, their violation as wrong, the validity of the actions as noncontingent on rules or authority, and as generalizable; these effects were stronger for the moral than the prudential rules, with more older children distinguishing the 2 rule types. However, the reasons given in justification of moral rules focused on both consequences and the regulation of social relations, while justification for the prudential rule was based only on consequences. Moral rules were attributed more importance than the prudential rule. The pattern of findings indicates that children differentiate between consequences and regulation of social interactions.

Medical Morality Is Not Bioethics—Medical Ethics in China and the United States

Abstract: Drawing in part on a medical sociological journey that we made to the People's Republic of China in 1981, this paper examines what the Chinese call "medical morality": the form currently taken by medical ethical interest and activity in their society. But our reason for having explored and written about medical morality is not confined to things Chinese. Another primary goal has been to obtain some cultural perspective on what we in the United States term "bioethics." Bioethics is the neologism coined in this country in the 1960s to refer to the rise of professional and public interest in moral, social, and religious issues connected with the "new biology" and medicine and to the emergence of an interdisciplinary field of inquiry and action concerned with these issues. Medical morality not only exemplifies the at-once ancient and contemporaneous "Chinese-ness" of Chinese medical ethics. Seen in a comparative

School Literacy, Reasoning, and Civility: An Anthropologist’s Perspective

Abstract: This paper takes a perspective on schools, teaching, and learning that places in the foreground the social organization and cultural patterning of people's work in everyday life. In that perspective the notion of literacy, as knowledge and skill taught and learned in school, is not separable from the concrete circumstances of its uses inside and outside school, nor is it easily separable from the situation of its acquisition in the school as a social form and as a way of life. The school can be seen as an arena of political negotiation that embodies individual and group interests and ideologies. It is reasonable to expect that various kinds of literacies might represent a variety of interests and be embedded in a variety of belief systems. We can distinguish analytically between literacy and schooling, or between the arithmetical analog "numeracy," and schooling, or between the latest manifestation, "computer literacy," and schooling. In ordinary usage, however, the distinction between formal knowledge and school is blurred. This may be for good reasons, some of which I will explore in the discussion that follows. Literally, literacy refers to knowledge of letters and of their use in reading and writing, just as the ugly word numeracy refers to knowledge and use of numbers. But to be lettered means more than this, and has done so in the West since the establishment of European schools by the monastic chapters of cathedrals in the early Middle Ages. Literacy, as being lettered, has to do with strategy and prestige. This prestige is partly due to the strategic power that comes from mastery of an information communication system. This prestige also is derived from values of aesthetics and moral virtue which mask the issue of power. Indeed, in 17th century English, to be lewd is not to be sexually unrestrained, but to be unlettered. It is only later in English usage that lewdness took on sexual connotations, which gradually became the main usage. The prestigefulness of schooling also mixes power with the justification of power in morality. One is reminded that in the West, the institution of schooling began in the medieval Church, with literacy justified as a means to specialized knowledge that could be employed in maintaining the intellectual and social structure of the Church, which was seen as a means to collective and individual salvation. The same special knowledge of letters and numbers was also employed in maintaining the rule of secular landholders, whose growth and whose systems for distribution of food enabled the existence of feudal society itself. In colonial New England the institution of public schooling was also justified on moral grounds, with knowledge of letters being the route to individual salvation through reading the Bible, and the same specialized knowledge applying in the development of small freehold agriculture, commerce, and eventually industry. In the comments that follow I do not want to reduce schooling to a set of purely utilitarian functions, nor do I want to do so with literacy. But relationships between the various utilities and moralities of

On the nature of rights

Abstract: The nature of rights is one of the perennial topics of practical philosophy One would have expected that interest in it would grow in times when rights are perceived to be central to morality or to political theory This article is motivated by an interest in the importance of rights in morality and political theory But that interest will here be kept in the background My present purpose is to offer an outline of an account of the nature of rights and to leave the examination of its moral consequences for another occasion1 The first section outlines an account of rights The others explain it Sections 2-5 are concerned with relatively technical points Sections 6-9 touch on the philosophically significant aspects of the account here offered: the capacity to have rights and the relations between rights, duties and interests

The Rejection of Consequentialism: A Philosophical Investigation of the Considerations Underlying Rival Moral Conceptions

Abstract: In contemporary philosophy, substantive moral theories are typically classified as either consequentialist or deontological Standard consequentialist theories insist, roughly, that agents must always act so as to produce the best available outcomes overall Standard deontological theories, by contrast, maintain that there are some circumstances where one is permitted but not required to produce the best overall results, and still other circumstances in which one is positively forbidden to do so Classical utilitarianism is the most familiar consequentialist view, but it is widely regarded as an inadequate account of morality Although Professor Scheffler agrees with this assessment, he also believes that consequentialism seems initially plausible, and that there is a persistent air of paradox surrounding typical deontological views In this book, therefore, he undertakes to reconsider the rejection of consequentialism He argues that it is possible to provide a rationale for the view that agents need not always produce the best possible overall outcomes, and this motivates one departure from consequentialism; but he shows that it is surprisingly difficult to provide a satisfactory rationale for the view that there are times when agents must not produce the best possible overall outcomes He goes on to argue for a hitherto neglected type of moral conception, according to which agents are always permitted, but not always required, to produce the best outcomes

Law, Morality, and the Relations of States

Abstract: The Description for this book, Law, Morality, and the Relations of States, will be forthcoming.

Ethics: Theory and Practice

Abstract: I. ETHICAL THEORY: FOUR APPROACHES TO ETHICS. 1. The Nature of Ethics. The Classical View of Ethics: Plato, Crito. A Contemporary View of Ethics: Edward Wastemarck, "Ethical Relativity," A Second Contemporary View of Ethics: A.J. Ayer, "Emotivism." A Contemporary Version of The Classical View: James Rachels, "Can Ethics Provide Answers?" 2. Natural Law Ethics. The Classical Version of Natural Law Ethic: Saint Thomas Aquinas, Treatise on Law and Justice. A Contemporary Version of Natural Law Ethics: Germain Grisez, "Ethical Arguments." 3. Kantian Ethics. The Classical Version of Kantian Ethics: Immanuel Kant, Foundations of the Metaphysics of Morals. A Contemporary Version of Kantian Ethics: R.M. Hare, "Moral Reasoning." 4. Utilitarian Ethics. The Classical Version of Utilitarian Ethics: J.S. Mill, Utilitarianism. A Contemporary Version of Utilitarian Ethics: Richard B. Brandt, "Toward a Credible Form of Utilitarianism." 5. Social Contract Ethics. The Classical Version of Social Contract Ethics: thomas Hobbes, Leviathan. A Contemporary Version of Social Contract Ethics: John Rawls: A Theory of Justice. II. ETHICS IN PRACTICE: CONTEMPORARY MORAL ISSUES. 6. Applying Moral Theory: The Issue of Torture. Michael Levin, "The Case for Torture." Henry Shue, "Torture." 7. The Ethics of Nuclear War. John R. Connery, "Morality of Nuclear Armament." John C. Ford, "The Hydrogen Bombing of Cities." Manuel Velasquez, "The Morality of Using Nuclear Weapons." Douglas Lackey, "Ethics and Nuclear Deterrence." Christopher W. Morris, "The Ethics of Nuclear Deterrence: A Contractarian Account." 8. The Ethics of Suicide. Germain Grisez and Joseph M. Boyle, Jr., "Suicide and Causing One's Own Death." Alan Donagan, "Duties of Human Beings to Themselves." Richard B. Brandt, "The Morality and Rationality of Suicide." 9. Ethical Issues in Abortion. Michael Tooley, "Abortion and Infantcide." Mary Anne Warren, "On the Moral and Legal Status of Abortion." Richard Werner, "Abortion: The Moral Status of the Unborn." Judith Jarvis Thomson, "A Defense of Abortion." John Finnis, "The Rights and Wrongs of Abortion." R.M. Hare, "Abortion and the Golden Rule." 10. The Ethics of Euthanasia. James Rachels, "Active and Passive Euthanasia." Tom L. Beauchamp, "A Reply to Rachels on Active and Passive Euthanasia." J. Gay-Williams, "The Wrongfulness of Euthanasia." Bertram and Elsie Bandman, "Rights, Justice, and Euthanasia." 11. Sexual Ethics. Thomas Nagel, "Sexual Perversion." Robert Solomon, "Sex and Perversion." Alan H. Golman, "Plain Sex." Donald Levy, "Perversion and the Unnatural as Moral Categories." John M. Finnis, "Natural Law and Unnatural Acts." Burton M. Leiser, "Homosexuality and the Unnaturalness Argument." Raymond A. Belliotti, "A Philosophical Analysis of Sexual Ethics." 12. Aid for the Needy. Peter Singer, "Famine, Affluence, and Morality." Garrett Hardin, "Carrying Capacity as an Ethical Concept." Alan Gewirth, "Starvation and Human Rights." James P. Sterba, "Human Rights: A Social Contract Perspective." Joseph M. Boyle, "The Concept of Health and the Right to Health Care." 13. Racism and Sexism. Thomas E. Hill, Jr., "Servility and Self-Respect." Joyce Trebilcot, "Sex Roles: The Argument from Nature." James W. Nickel, "Preferential Policies in Hiring and Admissions: A Jurisprudential Approach." George Sher, "Justifying Reverse Discrimination in Employment." 14. Capital Punishment. Steven Goldberg, "Does Capital Punishment Deter?" David A. Conway, "Capital Punishment and Deterrence: Some Considerations in Dialogue Form." Jeffie G. Murphy, "Marxism and Retribution." Richard B. Brandt, "A Utilitarian Theory of Criminal Punishment." 15. Ethics and the Environment. William T. Blackstone, "Ethics and Ecology." Ronald M. Green, "Intergenerational Distributive Justice and Environmental Responsibility." Joel Feinberg, "The Rights of Animals and Unborn Generations." Peter Singer, "Not for Humans Only: The Place of Nonhumans and Environmental Issues." Martin Benjamin, "Ethics and Animal Consciousness."

The Moral Philosophers: An Introduction to Ethics

Abstract: Adopting a historical approach, this introducion discusses in chronological sequence the theories of some of the major ethical philosophers. Norman redraws the traditional boundaries of the philosophical tradition to include not only Plato, Aristotle, Hume, Kant, and Mill, but also Hegelian ethics and the contributions of Marx and Freud to our understanding of the nature and limits of morality. Students and general readers will find this book an exceptionally clear survey of this important field of philosophical inquiry.

The Alleged Moral Repugnance of Acting from Duty

Abstract: Critique de l'idee selon laquelle une personne parfaitement morale desire et agit sans aucune idee que c'est ainsi qu'elle devrait agir.

Respect for Life, Sexual Morality, and Opposition to Abortion

Abstract: matter, which concerns specific rights which people may or may not hold, and indeed concerns the very identity of persons bearing rights. It does not necessarily follow that the understanding of the abortion issue characteristic of political, academic, or religious elites will be replicated at the level of the laity or mass public. Indeed, one would expect that, as one shifts attention to people whose psychological involvement in political or theological matters is less than intense, rationales for opposition to legalized abortion might become cruder, less articulate, and less sophisticated (Converse, 1964:229). Specifically, notions of "right to life," with their attendant theological or moral overtones, might seem rather abstract and remote from the experience of most people. Opposition to abortion may not be conceived in such "ideological" terms by members of the lay public, but might instead be based upon other considerations which seem more immediate and direct. While it is possible to conceive of a number of alternative rationales, a particular set of reasons for opposing abortion appears quite promising. For many people, opposition to abortion may be based on a fairly traditional attitude regarding sexual morality. For most Christian denominations, sex outside of marriage is regarded as inappropriate or sinful behavior. Opposition to abortion may quite legitimately be based on the notion that easily available abortions encourage sexual promiscuity, by removing some of the more serious consequences of premarital or extramarital sex. That is, absent the option of abortion, it is very likely that some people are deterred from sexual activity by the prospect of an unwanted pregnancy. To the extent that this prospect is rendered less serious by the easy availability of an abortion, the potential costs (psychological, structural, or financial) might be greatly reduced. If one regards sex outside of marriage as undesirable or immoral on other grounds, he or she might well conclude that abortion should be prohibited, without ever taking the "humanity" of the fetus into account. The purpose of this study is to assess, in a very preliminary and exploratory way, the relative impact of "right to life" and sexual moralty considerations on mass attitudes toward abortion. In general terms, it is hypothesized that certain groups in the population are very likely to oppose abortion (if they do) on "right to life" grounds, while others are more likely to invoke considerations of sexual morality. More specifically, three different hypotheses will be examined: First, Catholics are more likely to oppose abortion because of considerations of human life than are Protestants. The expectation here is that the Roman Catholic Church is a uniquely effective religious organization in terms of transmitting religious doctrines to the laity. Due to the pyramidal organization of the Church, as well as the existence of an "official" position regarding abortion (McIntosh, 1979:196; Blake, 1971) it might be anticipated that Catholic religious communications will be more homogenous and less ambiguous than those received by a practicing Protestant. The extent of Catholic religious training, as well as the explicitness of moral guidelines for Catholics (Lenski, 1963:301-303; McIntosh, 1979:196) might well be contributing factors in this regard. The organizational structure (broadly conceived) of the Church simply makes it more likely that lay attitudes toward abortion will be more consonant with official Church doctrine than will be the case among Protestants. Second, the importance of "right to life" considerations will vary directly with educational attainment. The precise moment at which human life begins is a highly complex, highly abstract problem. It is to be expected that the relative importance This content downloaded from 157.55.39.53 on Fri, 16 Dec 2016 07:41:28 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms

Economics and the Law: A Critical Review of the Foundations of the Economic Approach to Law

Abstract: Over the last several decades economists and lawyers trained in or enamored of economics have sought to explore the extent to which virtually all areas of the law could be understood as the institutional embodiment of the principle of economic efficiency. This research program has come to be thought of as a separate academic discipline: namely, law and economics. The work in law and economics has had both analytic and normative dimensions. The analytic work has been devoted to demonstrating that large areas of law can be explained or made intelligible by seeing them as concerned not so much with matters ofjustice or morality as with the efficient allocation of resources. The normative work in the field is concerned to give legislators and judges a framework for legislating and adjudicating cases so as to promote further the goal of efficiency.1

Good and Evil

Abstract: The discussion of good and evil must not be confined to the sterile lecture halls of academics but related instead to ordinary human feelings, needs, and desires, says noted philosopher Richard Taylor. Efforts to understand morality by exploring human reason will always fail because we are creatures of desire as well. All morality arises from our intense and inescapable longing. The distinction between good and evil is always clouded by rationalists who convert the real problems of ethics into complex philosophical puzzles. In the first part of Good and Evil, Taylor looks for a more meaningful conception by reexamining and rejecting the whole rationalistic tradition that dominates philosophical ethics. The second part provides an empirical explanation of good and evil, noting that one does not have to look too far to find prime examples of the failure of fixed moral rules. Including important commentary on Joseph Fletcher's groundbreaking situation ethics, and Aristotle's virtues (e.g., magnanimity and pride), Taylor rounds out the book by developing a philosophy of aspiration--personal worth as an ethical ideal--to replace the morality of duty. He offers a modified form of situation ethics to fit the contemporary problems we face.

Moral skepticism and international relations

Abstract: This chapter examines the extreme form of moral skepticism about international relations, first in its realist, and then in its Hobbesian, form. Hobbesian skepticism about international relations rests on an inadequate view of morality. Realist writings display many serious misunderstandings of the nature of morality and these misunderstandings contribute to the realists' skepticism about the role of morality in international affairs. To an alarming degree the history of international relations is a history of selfishness and brutality. The realists argue that international relations must be viewed under the category of power and that the conduct of nations is, and should be, guided and judged exclusively by the amoral requirements of the national interest. International relations occupies an autonomous realm of power politics exempt from moral judgment and immune to moral restraint. Thomas Hobbes's doctrines are open to many interpretations, and every major interpretation has had its influence on the theory of international relations.

Cognitive Morality and Cheating Behavior in Religious and Secular School Children

Abstract: Sixth-grade pupils from secular public (V = 68) and religious public (V = 57) schools were compared with regard to cognitive morality and actual moral behavior. The results show that the re...

Health care and the prospective Pareto principle.

Abstract: "Morality is made for man, not man for morality."' I interpret this aphorism as suggesting that questions of morality can most fundamentally be addressed by considering human benefits and human harms -those benefits and harms to which our accepting various alternative moral principles would tend to lead. This formula is vague, but I shall be concerned in this paper with one attempt to state clearly at least a part of what is involved. I shall be examining issues of social justice in access to health care. Does justice, I shall ask, require that everyone be assured access to every kind of health care that can be expected to benefit him? If not, does it at least demand that everyone have equal access to health care, without regard to income or place of residence? Or does justice rather demand no more, and no less, than that everyone be assured a "decent minimum" of access to health care -and if that is so, how is it to be judged what constitutes that "decent minimum"? In many realms of life, no doubt, satisfactory ethical judgments can be made without careful analyses of the fundamental bases of these judgments. That is unlikely to be the case, however, with questions of health policy. When applied to those questions, whatever "moral good sense" we may develop in the ordinary course of life is likely to be inadequate. The effects of health policy are immensely complex, and so we cannot simply take in the nature and the effects of a set of policies at a glance and focus our moral good sense on them. It is, of course, difficult and often impossible to establish reliably what the effects of a proposed policy will be, but even when we can, it remains to be said which features of the policy and its effects are desirable, which are undesirable, and how the desirable and undesirable aspects balance from an ethical point of view. The effects of a policy will involve many people

Law, psychiatry, and morality: Essays and analysis

Abstract: Preface. Acknowledgements. Political misuse of psychiatry: a tale of two generals. Psychiatry and violence. The ethics of forensic psychiatry: a view from the ivory tower. The trial of John Hinckley. Psychiatry and the Supreme Court. Psychiatric abuse and legal reform: two ways to make a bad situation worse. The Tarasoff case and some of its progeny: suing psychotherapists to safeguard society. Sexual exploitation of patients in psychotherapy. Psychiatry and morality: three criticisms. Psychiatry as morality. Morality for psychiatry. Index.

The Philosophy of Vegetarianism

Abstract: Examines the opinions of Plato, Socrates, Pythagoras, and other ancient Greek philosophers concerning the morality of eating meat.