What is a Good Life?
Not too long after your China trip, you have a series of
dreams about the laboratory where your friend says
you were kept as a brain in a jar. After each dream,
you remember a small monkey with big brown eyes,
his fingers wrapped around the bars of his cage .
“They’re going to cut his brain out and
put it in a jar”, you say to your best
friend. “I’ve got to go back and save
him!”
“That would get you a nice jail sentence”, she replies.
“The laboratory has a legal right to experiment on
monkeys. Besides, they treat the lab animals
humanely. They use anesthetics, and they don’t allow
animals to suffer unnecessarily. ”
“Laws are just human inventions,” you say. “There
have been lots of unjust laws. We can’t guide our
actions just by the laws that exist. Otherwise we
wouldn’t have any way of deciding what new laws
need to be made, or what old laws should be
discarded.”
“But shouldn’t you obey the laws that exist, until they
have been changed?”, your friend asks. “What would
be the point of having laws, if everyone who
disagreed with them could disobey them?”
“So if it were legal to kick people with tattoos, you
would let me kick you – until the law was changed?”
Your friend covers up her new tattoo. “Nobody would
ever create a law that stupid!”, she says, glaring at
you.
An example Ethical question:
Are there laws which should be disobeyed? How
can we distinguish them from laws which should
be obeyed?
Do we have moral duties which should be honored,
regardless of the consequences?
Or is it the consequences of our actions, in terms of the
happiness or pain they create, which justify or condemn our
actions?
How would we apply these ideas to the question about
which laws should be obeyed, and which disobeyed?
Our actions are good if they are consistent with
moral rules.
The source of the moral
rules you should follow is
some moral authority you
recognize as greater than
yourself – like your Dad,
your Boss, Ms. Cauley, or
God.
There is some rational
basis for moral rules. For
example, a moral rule
should be universalizable.
It should make sense for
everyone to be able to
follow it.
Our actions are good if they are consistent with
moral rules.
We should follow whatever
rules are dictated by our
supreme moral authority.
Laws consistent with these
rules should be obeyed,
regardless of
consequences.
One may adopt any
system of rules which is
universalizable. Laws
consistent with these rules
should then be obeyed
regardless of
consequences.
A healthy mind can directly intuit the difference between
a good action and a bad one. The good presents itself
as good.
We could directly intuit the difference between good
laws which we should obey, and bad laws which we
should not.
It is the goals of our actions which make them
good or bad.
The goal of our actions
should be to reduce
suffering and increase
happiness.
The goal of your actions
should be to fulfill your
potential as a human being,
and to help others do the
same.
It is the goals of our actions which make them
good or bad.
Laws which increase the
net total amount of
happiness over suffering
should be obeyed. Those
which do not should not be
obeyed.
Laws which help people
realize their full potential as
human beings should be
followed. Those which do
not should not be obeyed.
Assignments
ZMM PDF