An Introduction to Political Philosophy: critical
contemplation in the run up to the election.
David Carpenter
University Ethics Adviser
Principal Lecturer in Social and
Political Philosophy
Morality and politics: the
greatest good for the greatest
number: policy and unintended
consequences
Session 2 April 15th 2015
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uqnc5EHZ80o
House of Bishops' Pastoral Letter on the 2015 General Election
17 February 2015
The House of Bishops of the Church of England have
today expressed the hope for political parties to discern
"a fresh moral vision of the kind of country we want
to be" ahead of the General Election in May of this year.
In a pastoral letter from the House of Bishops to the
people and parishes of the Church of England, the
Bishops urge Christians to consider the question how
can we "build the kind of society which many people
say they want but which is not yet being expressed
in the vision of any of the parties?"
What should we be looking for?
• Evidence of moral conduct (accountability)
• Evidence of moral policies
– Aiming for the greatest good – outcome
based – the intended action and its
consequences – Bentham, Mill, Singer
– Doing as you would be done by – act based –
the good will – Kant, Rawls
– Promoting human flourishing / perfectibility –
Eudaimonia – Aristotle, Kant, Communitarians
Moral Conduct
•
•
•
•
Should our politicians be moral?
Amoral
Immoral
Moral
– Nolan Standards
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/the-7-principles-of-public-life/the-7-principles-of-public-life--2
– Promise keeping
– Respect for each other
Plato’s Philosopher Kings
• Ideal ruler
Ideal society
Just city
• Virtue and knowledge – synonymous – good reasons
for justice
• Wisdom should rule the individual soul – so it must
also rule the state
• Lover of truth
• Knows good from bad
• 50 years training!
• They will have to be forced to rule – no natural
inclination
• Unpaid
https://philosophynow.org/issues/101/Platos_Ideal_Ruler_Today
Aristotle
• Doctrine of the mean
– Look at the spheres of action on the next
slide!
Aristotles virtues - summary
SPHERE OF ACTION OR
FEELING
EXCESS
MEAN
DEFICIENCY
Anger
Irascibility
Patience/Good temper
Lack of spirit/unirascibility
Self-expression
Boastfulness
Truthfulness
Understatement/mock modesty
Conversation
Buffoonery
Wittiness
Boorishness
Social Conduct
Obsequiousness
Friendliness
Cantankerousness
Shame
Shyness
Modesty
Shamelessness
Indignation
Envy
Righteous indignation
Malicious
enjoyment/Spitefulness
Machiavelli - reputation
• 1469-1527
• cunning, deceptive, unscrupulous
• spin doctor, political opportunism
• 5 initial key points:
– The Prince – a leader
– Advice book – genre (style of writing or book)
– Apparent brutality of the book
– ‘Realism’
– The ‘Discourses’ (republicanism)
Traditional advice to Princes
• Based on Cicero (106-43 BC) and Seneca (4BC-65 AD)
• Deal honestly and keep faith with people
• Be magnanimous, generous, liberal
• Always behave virtuously
• It is always rational to be moral
• Should be moral even when it’s inexpedient
Machiavelli’s advice to Princes
‘…anyone who would act up to a perfect standard
of goodness in everything, must be ruined
among so many who are not good. It is
essential, therefore, for a Prince who desires to
maintain his position, to have learned how to be
other than good, and to use or not to use his
goodness, as necessity requires’.
The Prince
Chapter 15
Machiavelli’s advice to Princes
• Kill members of the old ruling family around
whom opposition could coalesce
• Ignore your supporters
• Reward those suspicious of you
• But better to encourage fear rather than
love
• Convince the people that you are especially
blessed by fortune
What should we be looking for?
• Evidence of moral conduct (accountability)
• Evidence of moral policies
– Aiming for the greatest good – outcome based –
the intended action and its consequences –
Bentham, Mill, Singer
– Doing as you would be done by – act based – the
good will – Kant, Rawls
– Promoting the common good /human flourishing /
perfectibility – Eudaimonia – Aristotle, Rousseau,
Kant, Marx,Communitarians
Naïve Utilitarianism
RIGHT ACTION IS THE ONE WHICH BRINGS ABOUT THE GREATEST
AMOUNT OF PLEASURE OR THE LEAST AMOUNT OF PAIN
•
•
•
•
BRINGS ABOUT
GREATEST AMOUNT
PLEASURE
PAIN
Session 4
Ethics and Society – Dave
Carpenter
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kBdfcR-8hEY
The Essence of Kant’s Political Thought
• Rational man with finite knowledge
• Political obligation based on duty
• Reconciliation of justice and individual
freedom
• Cosmopolitanism
• Right to legitimate political resistance
Kant – Moral Philosophy
• Central to his political thought
• Explores the creativity of human reason
• Duty is indispensable to practical
reasoning about action but no
corresponding object in the world
• Conception of justice
Moral Philosophy – Key aspects
• Categorical Imperative
‘Act only on that maxim which, at the
same time you can will to be a
universal law’
• Golden Rule – Justice
• Moral self-legislation
• People as ends and never means
Thus, in the external sphere of interpersonal interaction,
rational agency requires protection. But how to protect
agency from such force and fraud in an effective and
broadly based manner? Kant’s answer is a public,
universal system of positive law and order which can
employ coercion on behalf of rational agency against
those rogue parties that threaten it. Justice is thus, for
Kant, the authorization to use coercion in defence of
anyone’s, indeed everyone’s, free rational agency.
Kant’s universal principle of Recht, or justice (UPJ), is
thus: ‘Act externally in such a way that the free use of
your will is compatible with the freedom of everyone
according to a universal law.’
(Orend, 2000, p21).
1. Each person to enjoy maximum liberty
compatible with all enjoying similar systems
2. Social and
economic inequalities should
Combined
be arranged
so that
effect
is to they are
maximise the
position of the
least well off –
‘maximin’
b) Attached to offices and positions open to
all
This is what
Rawls calls the
difference
principle
a) To the greatest benefit of the least
advantaged
This means
equality of
opportunity
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FN_a2u6aItU
Key Labour party promises in the manifesto include:
A promise to cut the deficit every year and every policy
pledge funded by cuts or tax rises elsewhere
A freeze on train fares for a year, to ease the pressure on
commuters and rail passengers
25 hours free childcare for three and four-year-olds, and
guaranteed care from 8am to 6pm for primary age pupils
Minimum wage to rise to £8 by 2019, a year earlier than
planned, and working tax credits to increase for 4.5million
people in line with inflation
Key new pledges announced by the Conservatives today
include:
Free childcare for three and four-year-olds to be doubled from
15 to 30 hours a week for families where both parents work,
saving up to £5,000-a-year
A guarantee that workers on the minimum wage will pay no
income tax, based on working 30 hours-a-week
Right to Buy to be extended to 1.3million families living in
housing association homes, with discounts of up to £100,000
on buying their home