Philosophical Perspectives
Philosophy and Human Values, Ian Barbour
Utilitarianism
Basic Idea:
 The morally best action is the one that
produces the greatest good for the greatest
number.
o Good undefined. Leading candidates
are:
 Pleasure (Bentham)
 Happiness (Mill)
o Other properties commonly noted:
 consequentialist
 anthropocentric
 Peter Singer
 not-egoistic
 Basic problems of utilitarianism:
o quantifying the good
o distribution
o ignores deontological aspect of ethics
 duty, rights, regardless of utility.
 Utilitarianism and Economics
o Cost-benefit-risk analysis tends to
subsume the utilitarian framework.
Justice
Basic idea: Equality of individual persons.
 Utilitarianism incorporates equality in that it
is normally understood to count the good of
individuals as being of equal merit;
o i.e., my happiness does not count more
than yours.
 Utilitarianism is normally understood to
violate justice in that it permits people or
goods to be sacrificed for the greater good.
Rawls theory of justice:
Original Position argument.
Rawls principles (p.116)
1. Each person is to have an equal right to the
most extensive total system of equal basic
liberties compatible with a similar system of
liberty for all.
2. Social and economic inequalities must be:
 to the greatest benefit of the least
advantaged.
 attached to positions open to everyone.
Properties:
Principle 1 is consistent with a utilitarian outlook,
but principle 2 rejects utilitarianism.
Standard Criticisms:
 Assumes too high a degree of risk aversion.
 Places too much/too little emphasis on
economic equality.
Freedom
Negative and positive aspects
 Negative: Freedom from interference,
absence of external restraints.
 Positive: Freedom to pursue ones goals,
presence of opportunities.
Forms of freedom:
1. Free participation in the marketplace.
 Problems: leads to significant economic
inequality.
2. Participation in the political process:
 Problems: leads to significant inequality with
respect to political influence.
3. Participation in work-related decisions:
 Problems: Unions can protect vested
workers but harm hiring, innovation and
improvement.
Technology and Responsibility, Hans Jonas
Basic Idea: The ethical systems of pre-20th
century humans all tended to assume that:
 knowledge of right and wrong is available to
everyone;
 moral relationships are mostly local;
 humans have a minimal and morally
insignificant impact on the non human
environment.
Jonas thinks that modern technology has
changed all this:
Nature is now vulnerable to human activity.
Examples of environmental damage:
 Pollution
 Deforestation
 Global climate change
 Elimination of biodiversity.
Issues:
 Nature of moral relationship to nature:
o Are these issues all ultimately about
human thriving?
 Nature of epistemic and practical
relationship:
o Predictive knowledge of impact of
technology lags behind technical
knowledge (techne) of how to create
technology.
Kant’s Categorical Imperative
Kant believed that moral knowledge was a
matter of just making sense. The CI counsel us
to:
Act so that you can will that the maxim of our
action be made the principle of a universal law.
The basic idea here is just that if we reflect on
the principle that we are using to justify our
action and imagine it in it’s most general form,
as applied to everyone, we can determine it’s
moral significance.
When your mother asks:
How would you like it if someone did that to
you?
she had a mixture of Kantian and egoistic
concerns going. Kant doesn’t really care how
you would like it; rather, he asks whether it is
possible to conceive or to will a world based on
that principle. If not, then the action is wrong.
Jonas’ point regarding Kant
Jonas’ point is just that it is no longer plausible
to think that the moral significance of an action
can be determined simply by reflection.
There are too many fundamentally empirical
issues at stake, issues that often remain well
beyond the ken of science itself.
Examples:
 Should we be spending more money on
AIDS research?
 Should the U.S. attempt to establish
democracies in non-democratic countries?
 Should there be a law against talking while
driving on the cell phone?
 Should file sharing of purchased music be
illegal?
The answers to these questions all depend on
fundamentally empirical matters, i.e., the
ultimate effects of engaging in these actions.
Important distinction to always bear in mind:
Empirical claims:
 These simply describe the state of the world.
o E.g., The average temperature of the
earth is rising due to increasing green
house emissions.
Normative claims:
 Concern the value of states of the world.
o Global warming is bad.
Jonas point can be most easily summarized as
pointing out that the answers to most moral
issues raised by technology lie in the answer to
empirical questions, not normative questions.
Technology and Social Justice, Freeman Dyson
Video
Technological Subversion, David Strong
The argument proposed in this article is much
simpler than it appears:
1. The primary purpose of technology is to
relieve us of burdens, i.e., to make life
easier.
2. Some or our burdens are what make life
meaningful.
3. Hence, technology has the effect of making
life less meaningful.
Articulation:
Distinction between “things” and “devices”.
Our things require involvement and work, and,
as such, become the focus of a great deal of
social cooperation.
Devices require only the flipping of switches.
Their ease of use eliminates the social benefits.
Examples:
 Hearth vs. central heating
 Musical instruments vs. ipods
 Internet vs. bus
Ironic Consequences
 Disburdening people of inconveniences
make them less socially engaged, more
isolated from each other.
 Disburdening people of inconveniences
makes them more likely to do less
productive things, viz., watch TV.
Basic idea: People actually place greater value
on experiences that require a great deal of
effort, but people are generally lazy, and will
usually opt for an activity that requires less of
them if given a choice.
Question:
 Are these claims generally true?
 If so, are they significant objections to the
creation of technology, or are there
technological fixes for problems like these?