Ruling Passions A Theory of Practical Reasoning SIMON BLACKBURN CLARENDON PRESS - OXFORDgxronp cess ae cco aig ‘argro Shen Bares BE Rote teak band Tach Sausage had etre Hoaercy Ml "it Pt Sn Fo Sang Supper Tpe eye Tr War vw oRtESRE RE onclessse cert Saal sesame wen a gpeceetaractar ian tegen wth parce naa oa ag nla a re te cp tte sed et te Rp Bie, Santee caste hte caur ba {ing pssios a theory of procs easing Sno Rackbum. Originally publi usa re Ox New York mete i ieee ect nde notion aden" cose? Tse oto-sni-a ab) Satecisanmae-ag) nance poet sesh dad Rg yn PREFACE Thisbook defends particular view of practical reasoning Since prac: tical reasoning s characteristic of usa living human beings acing in ‘the worl, i defends a particular view of human beings. The Beitish :moral philosopher Elizabeth Anscombe once sad, gh tha There ‘could be no plulosophy of ethics that was not founded on a proper philosophy of mind I do not say that this book provides the founda tions she was looking fr, bu itis an atempy to clear some of the feound involved in doing this. es only when we have human nature Under some contol tht human ethical nature comes under conta, "The oun ofthe investigation sas allows, ln the st chapter [set the scene, describing some of the emotional and practical fetures of ethical thought and assessing from ths standpoint the psition of lesa ethics. Chapter 2 describes some of the ways in which we mor- lize: the features of situations that set us off, and the priorities Philosophers have attempted to give thm. The thied chapter presents [iy expressivst or prjectivist way of understanding moral thought Here as well we explore a naturalistic account of what i i 0 value and thence what we ae expressing when We voice ou ‘Values. The fourth chapter tens to other theories ofthe moral propo- Stor the focus of our thoughts as we wonder what todo, or what i Isright odo or best odo. lake sue with various attempts to under stand this proposition. Chapters 5 and 6 pursue the theory of motivation, fst via an ‘extended treatment ofthe ide that we ether reo ought tobe, sl interested’ and second via an investigation of rational agency a tis construed in decison theory and game theory. argue against the sp posed ‘rational’ or normative implications OF these theories, seeing them instead in terms of an interpretative grid fom which wee read back the subject's ral cancers or preferences. The folowing two chapters contrast broadly ‘sentimental with brosdly “Kantian” models of decisionmaking, arguing the superiority of the tradition ‘derived from David Hume adda Sith in the inal chapter turn to some of the staple problems ofthe theory of ethics: the bogeys of subjctivm and atv, andthe way to counter them inthe Hight ‘of what has gone before. Ths chapter completes the amination ofw Pre strategies for ‘placing’ ethics in the natural world and for demystify ing the very concept of ethical trth and knowledge. It may be sur- Dusing toind these topics comingso late, but consider that they need {resetting to be appreciated propery “Thebook defends certain bind of theory of ethics ina tradition that includes Astle, Hume, and Adam Sith Tspend some time deny ing that certain alerative traditions, whose heroes might be Kant or Ross, or even Pato or Leiba or Descartes, deliver the benefits they promise. This is unfashionable, even in some eyes almost indecent. In fy years of eaclng and discussing these issues find that the post tion Tam supposed to represent i thought of as sceptical, oF reativis tie orsoinehow slighty ls than fully respectful ofthe aval majesty ‘of ethical thought Many people think in thee hears that the ‘quasi teas’ I defend smells of sulphur. This book is my answer tb that ‘doubt Ido not expect to succeed in laying to rest the doubt in every render, Te contemporary acacemy isi the gelpof several contrary ‘currents, People think that only Kant (r Plato) keep their dignity a8 fattonal agents ntact, They think that any attempt to understand ethics {Sa natural naman phenomenon somehow tits and that any such ‘explanation ribs thebloom off the Hower Tdorot hink these fears can tetautomatialy dispelled by argument even when Think that they ‘ought tobe infact suspect that people ge the theory of ethics thats true of them, and if they cannot respect human sentiments including ‘Sch sentiments as Benevolence, or respect for conventions and cor teats then they cannot be brought to accept theory that puts them at the foundations of ethics If hey aze disgusted at human nature they till want to keep the good and the right fre of I they feo in them ‘elves that people would be apt to behave badly it were not for the {ictaes of God of Reason, or tome other independent authority, then they mil ot believe tat ethics cam be given secure foundations with ‘out such bricks, This no more surprising than a politician whose faning comes from tobacco companies being impervious to arg nent that nicotine shart Is just an example, although an intr ‘Sting ene, of an emotional slate swaying what ought to be an intellectual matter. hope that here there are some consieratins that ‘sway some people the other way, and for good reason. “The book e388 Jong me inthe making, ane hat benefited from innumerable discussions. began the projects a Fellow ofthe Institute for the Arts and Humanities at the University of Neeth Carolina in 13541 wrote the fst raft and talked about iat length while enjoy: ing the hospitality of the Research School of Socal Sciences at the ‘Adstralian National Univesity in 2995-1 am grateful to Geoffrey Price vi Brenan for my Adjunct Professorship a that idl inition and to the University of North Carona forthe Kenan Fellowship that fsubled wet spend the tine there owe thank to Prank Jackson, Philip Germs, David. Brddor Michel, Richard. Holon, Rac Langton, Philip Petit and Huw Price for conversation on these {hte A that ne to profited from an ination to take part na Centenary conference in Gago n honour of Lew Carls paper ‘What the Torn Sito Acie’ one thank to Nick Zango end Pat haw for ot opportunity. Since then Thave exposed the mater tetera in Chapel lon beefite om he deed tention of Colleagues and stent Jay Rosenberg and Tom Hil i oerre that Rant was given du respect Geol Sayre McCord, Dorit arOn, eitStmmonsand many stinlents ls helped enormous Margaret Wialkerhas boon seni and sympathetic commenttr on several ‘haplrs: Michal Seth as Boon particule clove cllabortor and ri ofthis rk, both in Astana Amer, an I ea hat the ‘Seton in which dasent rom hi sppoach do scant tice oti. in the summer of 997 I gave a National Endowment for the Humanities Sommer Seminar for college teacher and erved yet Suter audience of outstanding mer | probably leaned mote from ic Cave, Mavdemarie Clarks Eve Daler, Seven Dane, Justin ‘Arm, cha Galvin, jnine Grenberg Bennet Hel, Amy Han Daniel jaccbson, Mark Lovay Andrew Val it Wellman, Chis Wilim snd Patrick ison tan they id fom me Towe tanks to {0 Chratine Korsgaad and Alsdair Macintyre for Seng wing 10 st ths seminar and brave my Hlumean sepisem about thi own Spproaches to these matters Iwill abit anybody reading hs ‘ook how much i shares wi the work of Allan Gitta. From the time we fist discovered the paral between cur work, and the sem ina we gave logether in Ovtondin he ate ngs, thas bee con Stan pleasure tome to compare my work with hi, nd have profited pea by doings0: Amonginy ownstudents [would portal the {Shank Sean cKeever ond Valerie Tiberian, both for seach asi- tence and for considerable plosophicl help an challengeCONTENTS 1 ORGANIZING PRACTICE: THE ELEMENTS Oremnics 1 Afac Sat 3 Elona acer {Gale Shae andthe Recon Ee 5 Yonago ep 2 THINGS THAT CONCERN US 5 bay Fis 4 planation and ian 5. Clacquntalnn Fat Oo Tong TF? [NATURALIZING NORMS Inte Beng was the Deed Pret Nome and Fancons Ses Min San an Otto ‘Te Ec ropeston and Pees Abs Representation snd Minas 4. THE ETHICAL PROPOSITION: WHAT IT IS NOT 2 Concept a and Forms of ile 5 Rapin any Poy ot Min tokine. LOOKING OUT FOR YOURSELF Emotions and Dios Gught ie Tosca? sear= Contents 6. GAME THEORY AND RATIONAL CHOICE Liles, Perens, and aicee Baron peter ‘THE GOOD, THE RIGHT, AND THE COMMON. POINT OF VIEW ‘Viva in Symp: Hae and Sth Dred dog ints Dram ae Veron Theknsve Apa SELF-CONTROL, REASON, AND FREEDOM ‘SekConia Hue rely Reason ‘Te fararncl Mis bout Deliberation ‘Slstepasnon, Pat! deity nd the Nematve Question eso Ras, Contat at Liber RELATIVISM, SUBJECTIVISM, KNOWLEDGE Relais in Fit Onder Bic Pontos Rabe amy taser Reivimang Atbesty owdgs Objet Tath ‘Apert: Common Questions Big Inder me Organizing Practice: The Elements of Ethics We the pic; ae easy ltl fended, We have come 1 thisk of aking offence as fuametal igh We value very ite mere highly ‘han eur age, hich vs ou opin, the ocl gh ground From this igh ground we can shot down a our ener ne nist ‘ea fatalities. We ake pride nour shor ses Our anger elevates, traneends| Salman Ruse, Atthe Actin of he Raby Sper et st 1. A PRACTICAL SUBJECT this is about how we live inthe world. Ie separates the things we will do gladly fom those we will not do, or not do without discom- fort It classifies the situations we am for, and those we sek to ave. Its displayed in our attitudes t ourselves, sich as pride, o ela [sfacton, or gull or shame. I is also displayed in our attitudes to ‘others: whether they behaved wel, oF went the exza mile, oF di thelr bi card their burdens, ved or ded in ways we admire, Our ethics Is shown i the things we forbid, or tolerate, or equie. Tis shown in the rections we have as we think ofthe characters of people, o the ‘events they cause or the nature ofthe societies they frm. To develop fn ethical personality Isto become sensitive to diferent aspects af things, and tobe disposed to use them to influence or determine st- tudes, emotions, and choices. Ethics ia practical subject, matfestet sn our reactions to things and the motivations we fel. thes puts pressure on our choices and we use ethical considerations to guide {he chokes of others. The practical role of ethics what defines it This ‘is what etic ior If ther sucha thing as ethical knowledge, tsa matter of knowing how t at when to withdraw, whom #0 admit, ‘more than knowing that anything is thease. A conversation drawn by Jane Austen of George Eliot can reveal volumes about the characters2 ‘Onginzing Practice The Elements of thes ‘etic, although no overtly moral languageis used and no moral opin fons are delivered, This means that our ethics s manifested in our practical reaction to things Its not sly a matter ofthe stations we Sed outslvesin, ‘but of how we respond to dhe. We are born into a socal world of ‘alues and duties, hat, world of haman norms and pressures and ‘ways to behave which we lear, very quickly to absorb. We take them In ith our mother tongue. Perhaps isin principle open tous not to beinterested in what we ate taught Atthe limit sucha distance might ‘Become inhuman: a child might observe the entire word of vale, femotions, norms, ina totally allenated spin. Autistic children are ‘en described as being ike that. But nomallyvalus are contagious. ‘We giow up absorbing them. Some peopl later rebel in some ways ‘But even thoroughgoing rebels need some way of voicing what they fre concemmed about and what they find important and demand fom themacives and others. Then these other concerns show what the ‘thes ell is Ourethics is shownby the things that mater tous, and the things that donot. Tis shown, fo, by the way things mater and the practical stances we take up. In this sense, Hee mo geting ond tags Te comesunbiden, It comes with ving ‘Sil, tical commitments have tei speciic nature. They fe dt ferent from men’ desires or preferences. Tosome they havea pecllar majesty, a sovereignty over Our other desis. But as the quotation at the hend of this chapter suggests, to others they present a darker appearance, Ethics has its detractors. Moral certainties, andthe causes tha crusades mounted in hei name, are dangerous things. The his tory of human moralizing ia grey and dismal patchy and stained as ny other part of human history. Perhaps iis even more so, forthe ‘moral clk conceals ovr crimes even from ourselves. People find it {asp to man the Gulag o the guillotine while intoning about justice, ‘quality and liberty and they seldom teat eachother asad as they dlo when they fe thay haves right oe preferably a duty to behave as they dor We aze alo right to mistrast being told what todo, People who moralize too readily arouse our suspicions. To be able to give some: body aad conscience is to havea holdover ther, and people ike tis power, They may claim quite spurious authority rom sare Tons or convenient paces of text n holy books or hay constitutions, “me cemacion oily ete by Habe Seay, The Bd it Pa New vor Cd Une an sto Organizing Practice: The Element of Ethics 3 cor from inner voices. They may be hypocrites, oF they may be just ‘Stupid, blind wo the weal completes of situations people Bnd them selves in, and perhaps they are gh with jutifeations for their own doings And in response other people often claim that they have ‘enough todo, wrapped up in pursuing thelr on personal concer, Without worrying. about teling others what to" do, or becoming ‘bsesse with impractical’ issues of conscience. People individuals, tnd perhaps more espedally companies and nations, dsike oeaslons ‘when ethics intrudes upon their decision-making, and thee is & "trong temptation to eject it voice as can ineubstanal or irelevan, foal for dreamers. “Moral jucgementisindee used to coerce, an exo, ant judge ‘whenitisintemalized, ts victims may walk around under aburden of full and anguish, People who talk much of obligation approach prac tal ife witha certain kind of armoury, and one that may make ther Insensitive, cue, inhospitable to understanding and excuses. We might heae them say, fr example, that people who live in the inner {tes are under an obligation to respect the principles f property and the laws against drugs or vagrancy. And we know what this means We are entitled fwe age, coerce, to use force to turn ourbackson orgooders,on social workers, on liberals or on attempts to under ‘and or improve the environment and soon lnstend, peoples alure tolive upto ther obligations Henses our anger resentment, pnish- ‘ments, and violence. History shows plenty af examples where moral {sing brings nothing but disaster. The Chesian Church's history of| sing mental illness terms of witehraft and devil's work isnot ‘Unusual In this respect. During the Cold Wa regarding commmunismn sev was a handy substitate fr any thought about the intolerable ‘Socal structures that lec to good men seving ita their ony hope. I ‘iscouraged any such thoughts as akin to teacher, just as on the ‘other sie, secing captalinm as evil often prevented any attempt to Understand the liberal optimiom that leads reasonable people 0 =u. pose that markets work. A contemporary example would be the hy tercal certainty that heroin (or even mariana) is evil dat leads overnments and doctors to deny them to terminally il patients inter ible pain. At the time of waiting moral aitudes in Islamic counties, Chia, and much of central Europe have prevented governments fom making hallway adequate provision for education in ways to avetd ‘AIDS. Moral eusades strangle thought, and the atitudes of those ‘who promote them ae frequently repulsive Hence we find the insecurity about the authority of ethical thought that infuses the Western tradition. Thrasymachus in the Republic‘ Organizing Pasties The Elements of Ethics splendidly maintains that etic is merely a device ofthe powerful for frthering their own interest” Pat's spokesman for relativism, Protagora, sms to think ethics simply a matter of conformity #0 local eustomn Callices, by contrast in the Gorgas is supremely con- temptuous ofthe whole subject It is these attudes that Pato or Socrates ses out fo oppose, but they ive on at least as vigorously 28 the arguments mustered against them. The theme of ethics a the fg lea for power recurs in the writings of Mars and Engels2 Nietzsche s ‘the phlosopher who most famously takes on the tsk of outright ‘opposition fo morality although the picture here is Blurred at est, SIhce Nietesche is atleast ae often ring agaist what he garded as the soggy, seltabasing side of Christian morality in favour ofa proper aristocratic pride, rather than railing against ethics sel. Wanting to Stbstute something more pagan foran entrenched Christianity isnot ‘belling against ethics, bat making a move within "Tbalance the pletarea litle one thing we might remarkatthe out sets that it isnot obviouly the defender of ethics who is impracial fn unwordy. To imagine « human world without ethic, but in ‘Which life goes wel, it necessary to suppose a gokden age: # work ‘without competition or eausesof tf, o cashing deste, o envy or Inalice. Certainly we would not need to campaign for humane prisons iFabody commited crimes and got nto pason in the ist place. We ‘would not need conventions on the treatment of prisoners of war if there were no wate But given the tendencies of human beings as We know them, we do need these things Soi not the proposent of ‘ics, but the detracor who seams to be the more ut of touch with ‘what is needed to sustain human socety Is no accident that the exit [sof morality already mentioned Marx, Engels, Netzsche—go on fairly unashamedly to moralize themselves. They have thelr Views about what makes fle admirable oe tolerable 2 INPUTS AND OUTPUTS ow isethis tobe thought about? Ou atitudes and practices risen responce to features of the world around us. We represent the work ‘round us in one way of another, and because ofthat we end up “fp sr tre RSS peeve coma tron Organizing Practice: The Elements of Ethics 7 behaving one way oe another So We can usefully compare the ethical agent toa device whose fancton iso take certain inputs and deliver eran outputs. The inp to the system Is a representation, for Instance ofan action ofa situation or a character, as being of certain type, as having certain properties. The culpa, we are saying Is cer tain attitude, ora presrure on titudes, or 2 favouring of polices, ‘hoices and actions Such a device is a function fom input o outpat. snethical sensibility. ‘Analogously a skilled sportsman, for example, i sensitive to fea tures ofthe delivery and fight ofa bal, and foreach way the Ells ‘delivered, makes the appropriate response. Ales good player either ‘oties the wrong features, or als to notice the right ones, o, even i hedoesso, makes aless effective response. The player needed tearing to lear to separate the important features from the noise” or useless lnformation that meets the eye. Similarly the good person has learned to select some features of situations as demanding some responses, fnd to ignore others as unimportant. The question how to analyse {his organization of input and output Speaking in terms of input and output wil prove useful, but itis right to reper tro warnings. First doesnot peje the question ‘of how much thought or how much asonality may be involved inthe transition Its not intends to imply a simple chute or conveyor bet whereby we mechanically or automatically find somethings Renera ing some responses The response can indeed be automatic as when ‘without thinking’ we find some behaviour repellent, o the reverse ‘But there may be nothing mechanical or automatic about. On the ‘contrary it may take the most delicate exercise of observation and Imagination to represent a situation to ourseves in way’ that even Suggest a particular reaction or verdict and even then, we may draw back from giving demanding further knowledge, oF further thought: Sometimes we may scarcely know what to look for, oF what to ind relevant Selecting certain features ofa situation as theehically salient ones is a proces that we practice and that will change with ‘education and experince. It may surprise wis that some tings mater inthe way they doo other people, end we may lear to emulate them for to oppose them Itis a process that we discuss and sometimes crit ‘eae All thatthe input/output terminology insists upon i that we secogrize the distinctness of the tarting-pomtin the features of siti Shon that we believe tobe present, a the upabot of taking them as Salient whichis the output of practical policy, attitude or emotion. ‘The socond waming is that talk of an input/outpt funetion may Imply foo much ofa ane way steet, whereas the tat i more com6 ‘Onguizing Practice The Eloments of Ethics plex. Attitudes and emotions determine the features of things and People that we notice, They organize our experince, determining Row we construe situations, Loving or hating someone 3 highlight perhaps unconsciously, features that make them lovable or hateful $Enmetines even inventing ones fr the purpose and suppressing what {oes not fit In the ight of emotion things which we would otherwise See become invisible, while others thrust themselves onto our aten- thon Just efter Anna Karenina has met and fallen in love with Vonsky, ‘She meets her husband: |Assoon asthe rin stopp at Petersburg and she ot ct he st eran to ‘nthe tention was er haband. "Codes, why archers he that? ‘hetoughlookng at his cld, dtngsishe gure ard especaly tthe ea “ges hs ars posing op against De imo sound hat Some pilsophes sugges that we should not ven separate inp from op Tia en tht al we auld fn te ne ried frontal ac judging asus in moral terms or eine situaon “onanding income specific way, Sah plosopers ke think {Rterme of aun, tk rule or concept asl ripe o orga: tation tat none movement determines oth how we ce he it ‘hon and sees nuded in that, determines our reaction tt “Ty ten ease to dings at Gp fom vale tps). They ‘hik the dino t due toa simpli dea of thee being ‘fc alue' gap The osucherets debt and shall have much more tosay bout lc propor of hi fypetcughout the bok Bata ‘reliinary remark onder Someone may lal jst se’ te Tfominvaladen eae From tense avers there ist that tnermovement of tend ans adgement comes out in valueaden {Stns the action was hey the oy ea ner the man na ad the ‘Nuke stthery thong Eh word tht ot 9 feting En become aiden wrmugt back othe zee of sere, he the Soty of center words, forthe agent heres jst he one SRoveent ofthe mind ae thought ov iter nes ke pot scams just vious that the boy a nero he snake ithe) brio ste et tht the bai or he nse ero at ths doe ot dstoy are rete ew wich Sxs¥ry vl that in deploying thee terms the subject exercng ah Tnput/oaput faction She fac aking some fers of 9 it ‘Noto Wena in moe eu way, el hel ight sot A Hin ie Nap ew i Ongnizing Practice: The Elements of Ethics 7 ‘entering into a practical state admiration forthe bravery of whatever Seed was dane contempt othe person who enjoys mathematis and ‘Computes condemnation ofthe an whose sctlons were nat tho of {Tgetleman, or digas and fer atthe mode of motion a the stake Tes only by thus sphiting’ the Input and the outpt thatthe reaction can be ace slice cleany for what iis And this important becuse only then can the reaction ele inlignty die ‘Sse, and pethap 38 na lest wo ofthese ase seen 38 Highly Susttnsble” The epliting may lake some analysis and cate thought because the moral andemotonal lens is ot eal visto {he person who ses situations trough ‘Corsider how in ust the same way the sportsan‘s only thought right tat the coming ball ees schrand-ch treat Ye ‘hs sponses nappropiat, we eed fo factor out what twas abot the delivery tat ade hn hin Ha and then perhaps gt im to Practice diferent rescton tails tt Kind The sect may even Eo sce htincaling boy nerd he reacting unfavourably ton intrest in mathematics ad Seno nd hat this in ar function disturbing soca arrangements, themlves cemented in pce and ‘xpressed partly hy the very exitnce ofthe term with current flavour) But this is what he s doing, and fon refection he can be “ought ose tha this 0, hen perhaps improvements possible Refusing to spi? begins 0 sound like 9 tefl fo think, perhaps symptoms ofa complacent belie that the emotionl and marl Inte tough which we ce deserve no rita anton themsaves ecause hiss esentialy practical ere aies query about the ‘extent to whch we might be nthe domain of reason koe. or ‘Sgntion, ad tuth or laliehood For most philosophers one leg cer tail his domains the part in which ve eprset the weld 10 furseives in seme way, beeving some fetus fo sharcterze the Siteation to which we ate eating But since Une oer eg stands the Sloman of practice there seems ways t bea arto the function wich sot socleziy under the conta of eon nd cognition. This isthe active or dynamic prt hat translates whats ognized appre ened see nto motivation or rel prose om action. “issn uc evenl we haves very gneross conception f what is truly apprehended For example in he phlosophy of Kant people Aresupposed tobe able o apprehend when something fcontrary 4 ‘moral aw whose credentis are hose of reason Sait. But even ith ich a ighly changed input ess we espe! he law, hi apprchen Son cou remain nero mores part ou practi! ive than the prking regulations ae part ofthe racial ives of those who more a8 Ongoing Practice: The Elements of Ethics ese secs ake no notice of them. Respet sere the dynamic ‘ier that trasates Knowledge nto pace” Mar) ghlonphers, perhaps Provera wedded fo the sover: cipny af eso, have ed tig the woe pres under he can el analy Thy do ot wan acknowl ry cet of “Shangency ot happestanc, oof slurs raptor emo- ‘onal ators in he ep tat has fo be made fom the represeniative tothe prc Ths book intended fo make tat ackoedgement comiorable without denying that neds tbe made 5: EMOTIONAL ASCENT Thies does not concer the whole of human choice and action, thought structures suprisingly large amount oft We react bay to the fast of something and teow it away, or eat well to the rice ff some commodity and buy it instead of 2 competing brand, but in ‘hese cases at st blush etles snot involved. We ct rom deste and Certainly without even thinking ofthe rghts or wrongs of what we are {Going Pethaps we ae just diggsted, or atacted. But, ofcourse, it tay be that ethics lurks in the Background: the food may taste dis fustng because of cultrally embeded association of foods of that Kind with prohibitions (does snot or earweax actually taste disgust ing?—-but what could be more loathsome than tating i), or the com teat appeals ous nthe first place because ofits association with ‘Status ant an implicit demand on the admiration of others. What, then, distinguishes the obvious territory of ethics? ‘We could approach this question by discussing the kinds of thing, ‘hat set us off Gelvering judgements of value o that prompt us to invoke obligations, duties, and the rest, But Iam going to postpone _lscusion ofthat forthe following chapter in favour of thinking first shout the output side eis hard totnagine a haman fe going on all without an implicit awareness of some values ofsome kinds If weare net llowedtocom- pore whether uncer one regime ife goes better than under another, then how is cholee and action possible at all? The Shakespearean char teters Hamlet, and Jacques in AS You Like It, are each examples of oe Satna tt ee a ae ok Se re (Sth Blan aa Las White Beck Rew ok Nala 95, 73°7. Tae chane Organizing Practice: The Element of thes ° ‘people who have lost their values. The world for them sas "weary, ‘Sale, flat and unprofitable’ As a resul there Is nothing let fr them ‘but melancholy listlessness, and incapacity for action. Conversely i wears condemn toact inthe human world, then by the same token ‘we are compelled to rank tuations and actions as beter or worse. At the very leat, we must prefer some things to others. In Chapter 31 shall locate our values in effect 3° our stable cancers, and living requires that we have stable concerns ‘at there more tothe output side. What kind of thought or fel: ing i volved when see have a moral reaction to some conduct oF ‘some station? Centrally, a moral tansgresion & something thats ‘other peoples’ business, something thats agains the mores or norms, Its some hind of uespass. As such itis of legitimate concer to others. “This snot a strict definition, since self nvolves eal terms (ve tre tlking of when i is proper or allowable for others to be con- ‘cerned, and his to make an ethical judgement) Butt points tothe ‘ight area, "We should think in terms of a tarcaseof practical and emotional ascent. Atthe bottom are simple preferences, kes, and dsikes, More insistent isa basic hostility to some kind of action or character or star ation primitive aversion tito a disposition to be disgusted by it fort hold it in contempt oo be angered by oF to avoid it Wecan then ascend to reactions to sch reactions. Suppose You become angry at someone's behaviour T may become angry at you for being angry, nai may expres this by saying itis none of your business. Perhaps ‘Wasa private mater At any Tate, itis nota moral issue, Suppose, er {he other hand, Tshare your anger o# feat one with you for so eact ing, Itmay stop there but may also feel strongly dispose to encour fge others to shate the same anger. By then Lam cleary treating the ‘matter as one of public concem, something ike a moral issue. have ‘ome to regard the sentiment a legitimate, Going up another te, the Sentiment may even become compulsory in my eyes, meaning that | become prepared o express hewtiity to these who do not themselves share it Gotng up another level, may also think that this hott is compulory, and be prepared to come into conflict with thore who, ‘while themesives concerned at what was dane oleate those who do fot cae about it I shall be regarding disent as beyond the pale, ‘Uwhinkable This should alle seen as an ascending saicase a spiral of emotional idenistions and demands The staircase gives usa sale between pure preference, on the one Janda ates with al the flavour ofthis! commitment, on the other The scale isnt only emotional, in the sense tht iis measured0 ‘Onganizing Practice: The Elms of Ethics by srg of elng although we might noice tha this sa nats ‘hough phrase to use, Buin this see strength ing sao 2 frlter ofthe degre to which tha capre ou afeton our degree ‘engagement end our teadinesf deploy prsureson other People {oconform orto change. ‘Rte btiom end we lcd gensine oyna ies and di likes, such, pape asthe Bate, gven facts about our nares hat Tend us prefer sme tastes or sts oclours to thers. someone as sgh diferent preeences, or i ind my awn preferences “hangover time, then tat jst hove ts There nota ise fo {ie ought over hee. We need have na engagement with such prefer es De gis no distaste ae ot tobe ispted. Bat theveare Stal surprisingly fe cae of pure preference hat vite to fudgement. Even simple pleasures ofthe plate ean give se 10 ‘oral and scl udgement rent only that societies are ute srt ‘Tout which foods are pennisible, as wells which ones woul! hor uror dishonoura gust forename Itisaso that ifsomeone dl trae chooses wh is dagusting then they become the tet of ‘oral eats In hs recent book Wiliam lan Mller described the ‘evolng ese ofS atherine of Sea who mortified her sho the ‘Extent of dking the suppuratins of one fhe paterts® No su frsingly. tne deconered everyone Icading the patent who Came to bhve That whenever the oly maid was ou of her Sight that she was about tome foul ac of leshlypleaure We ean ene Stand the patent belong that you wil do Pa yu wll do a thing. and ls recognizing that she hell the paint, bas been tregted to being a ete oxeasion or St Catherine's own Peto trance aprop in er pays llr escrbes Catherine nas nt ilps taste one hopes. Pehaps in our cultre we cant mraz elingy about el taste a preference Torsweet rude wineovee more finely balanced wine fr rstance Bat Ics not escape diensons of citcam alogeter One would nat ‘expat lo much in some distons, of omne withthe ist at ‘Ohe would wonder what caused them never t0 ler. Laziness? Pararbm? Pid in vulgasy? Some might think of such ste as ovenly akin fo sloverins in des orsearines. Those ae co tay quale that invite moral estore though how far up the Stace of otal scent we then clin is ao subject pute. + yan an Mer, The Aon of gut Cambie Mose: Hara Une sy on | Orgoizing Practice: The Elements of Ethics a ‘The pute gourmet or aesthete who climbs to quickly i nse the diet of cerain Kinds of sor, ncudingamusenen. "owever itis with the plat only ite beyond lis aesthetic taste But here duputation fe more evidently in order We eter the domain of judgement, and havea srr conception ofa» ens bility that prefers what is worse fo what beter A pero who fo bind oth Beuty of poem or the harmony’ of sme mui mise ing something If they prefer the cheap, orgy or sentiment, then {his in tum skin fo amoral fal Ir something we could wa to gage Or for instance they ar esotly ln fo the interest fat from oes clare, we might suspect hat his ikstates a Winker ‘stom, parochial, or even an ieipient rac. We might Want to ‘csi them out of 8 I ther sett ase goes on oa sch things asa velsh for violence, or depictions of groups in humiliating brother lights, then our engagement becomes over mora we want {Scdhange hen, and we may deploy varioussanctons odo so, mob Indi cocl pressures, and event even soling for leg powers Inorder expres disapproval or bring about reform As an aside, we may notice ha the interplay Between aesthetics and mote overtly ethic snes complex and interesting tas 3 topic of major concem inthe eightenth and nineteenth centri. Ie nota topic of sguicantconcem In contemporary philosophy and this reflects ou tetwenitrcentury Western nab to arcuate Sesthtc deals ar genuinely Binding and obligatory not fo mention tur ars inablty fo ge expression to human or moral themes ‘his sone of those peculiar of ourstation that seems so natal {hat ts inva ut tat nevertheless plays» par defining the Alstint thal tector of or be In general the often a penety Proper question whether some lapse o taste uel to De tought of Ein approprnte ange! for moral or etc vation, or wheter Should imply be let alone, passed by wth sale rater than 2 frown, Thus se may night sks ew that nly moral ganesh takes a person beat tere are cetily canes where aesthetic {nd mars values ntrpenetrat.t may be hat to say fr istance, ‘nether an lection frame wy’ off, sich a that of he vilags, oF ‘onary, or amy i more see oF moral Consider well sch problems as expressing enn respect for the wildernenes of the word or for the sven fling spesie, ‘cept in unconvincing lems about how uf they are for example St source of medicine: Here we need f0 finda tral forse Bend teapeet for the independence oF gander or sublime nature of the wrldemess although we fn i acl to do 30 without soundinga Organizing Practice: The Elements of Ethics sentimental or romantic But tke the acta casein which an avert ing concer hed the plan of puting ik nto space about the {parent slr ofthe non, on wich advertising slogans and iages vteald be generated, there Becoming compulsory and Permanent Sights in hs rights Tes hardin conventional ters to show that ‘one is harmed” By such x projector why should tbe mare ‘aff to fook atthe Coca-Cola bg tan Yo look atthe moor? — indeed if the product advertised is Benefl,pethaps some ‘good trot dane And doubles same peopl would ei eit not Trerdelicate wee he proposals: dsgurting a visaton,asymptom Of bein he ie ween hay ad ih coum a ge Spur the dignity ofthe tual odor of hings Indeed (cling ‘Eirase) I would ay that itis barbaric tose otherwise. One would fel contaminated, polluted, by belonging to culture in which sucha thing could be thought of Aesthetic revulsion hee blends seme {nto toralrevulion Tis natural he actons of othe peopl that concer us the mos But ehcs doesnot only concer actions Wwe may tink that some cumstances people ought ot various ways, We go sme W2Y UP the saree when we morale about moods for stance resenting ‘Sincone who fst fol teditative garing st the ight shy, of Sted by ameuntain andscape, or tangully Weak. Again tere felevesoazent hea with he sett sgn moral ques thn is how fr up te stains, how quick, i appropriate © go, People who cto uch giv sour igts and fost and are touch of nuisances the lkewarm, who scarcely ever ot of the ound "A the top end of the emotions sale ae cases of harm and ex where tent not eat think its rong out cen for inca here heels nothing lett gustins nn dpe you io ot thunk this then Lam gait yo fo, and my opposition tay Sow its in any numberof ways fom avoiding Your company 1 “Svig others to doso, to seeking to change yon toconsaiing you ‘Sean or deploying soci and legal presse o al kinds agaist >The reactions we have identified | may seem surprising foundations for tne high aed pure subj of ets. When some People think of ‘this they higigt the lofty conscience, fe sense of ighousness Sr duty tha tates god people and incapable of motivating acts ‘rnobiy and hese ave sated with ings of disgust cone tempt ange or cling of shame and gui, topeter with a staircase Uatades sch as dopot at those who senor guste, FANE at Org ng Pcie The Elements of Ethics, » those who remain calm. At present {shall just remark that these are {quite sullicent to give us the heartland of everyday ethics, Consider ow the Go of the OL Testament defines his morality mainly by 2 ‘Series of commands, coupled with a resdy disposition to unleash his [anger on anyone disobeying them. That is what his morality consists in-A moralistic society ison in which large variety of things arouse the anger and censure of ates tolerant or tanqullsccey sone ‘which only certain behaviour does. Webs observe the morality of ‘ socety By noticing such pattems and observing when hostity ets public acceptance and expression hati, when such anger notte {he subject fa hostile rection on the part of significant rmbers). To _moralize, we might say, to msiston emotional responses But in say ing this ve must not fonget that aswell as emotions such as anger there are the reverse. Encouragement and admiration are also impor tant. When people go beyond what car be required of them—that i, they go the extra mile well beyond any baseline below which anger ‘would have been appropeate—they deserve and sometimes receive ‘our admiration. And this earrot i frequently more effective than any sic ‘While I think theres 0 doubt about the central ethical role fis ust, anger, and contempt, it easy to oversimplily the reactions Evolved: Ethics i not always emotional a prohibition or permission can be issued in a perfectly clinical frame of mind. Its clearly not "imply a matter of likes or disikes or preferences, a those ar usually “understood, fr ethics olen opposes our likes and our preferences the name of principle although the issue hee is deliat, and turns In Chapter 4) Rather ethics involves the fll dynamic range of out practical natures. netic may be shown in perfect calm. Lmay not be angry at someone eho seas my goods, nor even hod im in con- tempt, But nevertheless think he ought not to do it, and here the ‘output & expressed In terms of my preparedness fo encourage: restraints and boundaries within which people should be forced to 2358 As Gilbert Ryle putt ethics involves the tempers, habits, dispar ‘tions, moods, inclinations, pulses, sentiments elngs affections, ‘ought, reflections, opinions, principles, prejudices, imaginations fd fancies’® A plture tt leaves out any ofthese sto that extent Impovershed| “Analytical philosophers demand definitions, but donot think itis + iter ye Jone Aten nd the Mos. Th Oxides ih 6 Rent Fah Lua tes Pay og Use Geng4 ‘Ongoing Practice The Elements of Ethics profitable © seek a strict definition of ‘the’ moral attitude here Practica life comes in many favours, and there sno one place on the aca that identifies precise point before which we are notin the [Sphoreol theethical and after eich we ae We ind things important in itlerent ways, and different reactions, emoSonaly and practically, ‘may equaly qual as expressions of our ethics. An ethiemay charac {erutialy express lf dindain of those wo do not measure up, Father than anger at them, or in colourless administrative contols on Conduct rather than emotional public demonstrations. Bu this di uly of definition aries not becuse the subjects mysterious, or espe~ ally ‘su generis, o resistant to understanding in any terms that ‘Cable us to understand the rest of our emotional and motivational ‘atures, I arses because ofthe polymorphous nature of our emo- tonal and motivational natures themselves, 4. GUILT, SHAME, AND THE REJECTION OF ETHICS Cites of ethics sometimes express themselves by saying thai ‘all ‘Satter of wordy of depends on what you mean by various ethical tems Wecon now se that tis cannot be right Ethical disagreement {s essentially practical, It concerns who ges approval, and who gets the reverse, ad the words with which itis conducted ae nt simple {Counters that we ean use as we ike without dispute, This simple point {n'be buttresed by a number of argument, of which the most famous s the "open question’ argument propounded by G. E. ‘Moore Tham it ight naively be thought that etal terms are given their meaning entirely by those features that we select as good o ba. “These Features determine the application of ethical verdicts to things Sov for instance, may care about whether somthing creates hap fess in onder fo decide whether is good. You, on the other hand, ‘right care more about whether it show's respect fr nature. oes this trea that we just talk past each other if for instance, 1 describe ‘Contraception as good, and you deny iW? fs our disagreement ‘merely toe abet words? Not tal This isnot a standard cae of one person {ing a word fo mean one thing, and someone else using it mean nother Our dispute cannot be sted by the method appropriate to ‘eb disagroement, namely head-counting o ther purely linguistic Investigation into usage Even fi tumed out larly that most people 6B Mo, nn he (Cambedg: Camb vest Pes 3 Ongonizng Practice: The Elements of Ethie 5 sed he word as you do, emans open to me simply to say tha you seal wrong You have Inappropriate andar according 1 re ‘Sppving the tem tothe witng things, you approve ofthe wrong Actos snd forbid the wrong actions: You no doubt wil rere te Same tome. Our dapat se over he kindof etre ta ug to dktermine our verdict anti not a purely verbal pute ea ‘spate about how to react diferent festures of things, ed how to Stand choose In eet Moore pointed otto ti aways an open ‘question, something that can be sss and denied, whether te five feature of thngs is the ting that determines whether hey are Eitishand sees dgrement ver whch standard sore than vr ts betas he bot fen on te ee fot tary pace hat mays tbe psy veil ae at bat al Words ae conned case they Ute ates ad have other ensure andthe an ghee cone Many ens thalangungeconbine a despiesndcvlutve samen an tas ‘opinion cots as ate of shu. The mow flare ‘HEst and sei pie, fut a anybody wh haw ted tind “Teta mology tdci nye x poli aterm, ‘tia chads sn lors clings ney all the words deerbng Stl fan he choles of on Senn or roe bem pat ‘es etic, Worss ypalymge people, wih moe os Sty wars aude the ngs they pean ecg Scceptng he atten hen pice nan lot we, Sn Mau seven atthe erory endo nga wher po? Bers mighthave neces purey dept empcal vecbulary Bitforitanc, es probaly oe ny ese eo tune of thing ta a dgating to he touch. Sim, eos fey avalheviy endl won "ean now tn othe spon th oe inthe its on Wecan incre thea sr suggesting hat tole te svlont hae eens to auch ns a oscil coriated anger ‘he tendony tach ats pat fe dtc way oe Te idea that he eal vocals ply ted fo Cement and sre rate oa ss dag nc ‘Surnging hous perusing ns Gato at may a bottom be an exploitative social ford Z if Nora we have isi encourages cordon and fe Son, and sich nds cart employment The question wb sitet tudo with whch ene acted pon ch ‘crc ede count as an abel tention ort ntl pt6 Organizing Practice: The Element of Ethics day ws fi fhe nie, then we may es ous saying. for {rnp tht tet are no obligations hereby whinge cleanse cat calves te atta at po slong with ange, Sete ‘Eidusion punt an o foster stad synth, aceptance inclusion and perhaps a lately fata eguscence may atoll anienatons “Tose it might gone can se fora moment on a concept sha ha net dea fs popular ht fin Sin deploys he meting inthe servi os pars Knd fic: Te si ser ol ori, and ho rh sae» stench Tey ar ath hme te HG th pn wert question of he ser ‘ing contempt Cod could look the tes ey bt ones ated Sak doguc wheres oe no acd with contempt Sinn © ‘ppc tbeing with te pret pin of cede he snner i Ror only ba Et uncean The sine ought net fo el gully Tut cup to late hncll ong hide Snel rom the ht of others ad the sight of Cod Now tot very feito hink hat these emotions canbe ver done an were undubtel piel ovens nthe Christin cen ‘heer a do aey wit then, Bu ie lar fo stp tna peat Cults the most eis next candidate for rca. Guts the badge of amoral syle that poe he ager of thers where Sin puts th dst We el gully fen we knw ha he ange of rhs would befusie. That ely has am mpena manner eke stg of tay make me inow'srvarte he word sna 0 Ine my on le or pe he prt mtd even sl projets that le would low me ing ae diy i soak only et them do so" Gui is guy inne ogo Bd ecring obsesive andrea “Once more thee i also» get del of foc n this tue A auclly emcee it would Sen be 2 goed thing i mowing Secured Toe and were koe unpleasant when it it cewr Many fools ant to demonize and cltalize hve tht they dont ike Tn dont undotan,Parents net te emotions o ir rowing “hiker wh moras antago, snd amie and pple ae Stayed bythe habit People are dsroyed ty eure an bse Sie misplaced guts well an he fing of having le themselves Sree! down when nosuch ings spy Soispult wally bad others more sa, here ae the °- Thi apes of uit the Hears ins iu the marty ye oS Esa if Pay ed enon 8) Organizing Patz: The Elements of Ethics ” broad possibilities, We may resent her ertcsm, thinking twas none ‘oftheir business or that dhe standards they are applying are inappo- priate, and we wl either eter thei hostility op at est chr Wt as the reaction of people who are best ignored. Or we may engage with ‘hom, and seek to justify our action Finally, we may scognize that they are right: that ie se our own behaviour as they do, and Out selves feo guilty. Guilt isthe emotion that arises when we feel we could not defend curselves against the anger of others. We have “iteralied! the voices of others, and recognize that we have no defence against thelr ‘action (tis the very reaction we would have to them, had they done ‘what we dd) Gul co-ordinates the hostility of others with prepare ‘ness to undergo ton the part of the subject Pap it would be bet tert downplay it lke sin If we get rid of sn and guilt however we arestil eft with hint moral syle, Shame is similar to guilt but us ally described as dering by Intemalizing the contempt or disdain father than the ange of ther When we are ashamed we think that ‘we are ina position where others who witness us would oF could Sespise us Fear of shame, or shame el, motivates uso hide our Selves fom the gaze of others. We el ashamed in situations in which ‘we are not up to scatch, even when no question of ull arises “There are tvee main diferences that have been suggested betwen guilt and shame, The first and most important is that gull is assoc Sted with our own agency: we ave typically gully though having ‘done or filed to do something, By contrast shame may atfack 0 features where there is no question of ne's oven agency I may be ashamed of my unmusiel voice, but Teannot feel gully about i Ubcease I donot believe twas any doing of mine that created i, nor thatany effort of mine would have significantly improved i Tmay'be ‘shamed of my body figure, but ean only feel gully about i if think that I brought it about by for instance, fling to exercise or by ‘overeating To fee gully, it seems, mus el responsible for what ‘ever needs puting right ‘Arising from this the second difference, Shame typically mot ates us to condiment, We try to hide the failure or the aw from fthers: Gail onthe other hand, typealy motivates ws to parson, Which can include ‘setting things right, apologizing confessing, ‘vpiting and getting back onto all fours withthe others Cuil cat onde ft rings Th of et cp nr es et fe Net cat CaaS sp he '8 Ongnizing Practice: The Elements of Ethie motivate us to expose ourselves. Guilt is espedally suppose to work fever although others do not know what we Rave done ts enough {hat we have Intemaized their voces, and this means that our dis ‘comfort is ot dependent upon the aca aecusation of ethers. We ean imagine what they would say aboutus, and find it uncomfortable, tren fin act nobody was there to point the finger of ange. Shame is ‘ot quite so indifferent tothe absence ofoers. ft connect with con- ‘ele ciferently in diferent cases. There are things that we are not “shamed of doing, but where we would be ashamed to be observed, ‘Such as exereising natural bodily functions. Here, shame only arses from the actual gaze of eters. la the other Kind of ase shame is more like gut, We may be ashamed although there were no actual wit nesses, |imay be auhamed of my poor prano-playing, although I ake Cae to practice in private, or ashamed on re nealing 2 uMSY para [raph thave just written bt hat aod else has red. Because these Performances are deficient, lam glad they are hidden from others. “The third and elated tak of difference we have already me joe, This is that guilt is typically associated with the potential anger or hostity of others, whereas shame anticipates their disdain or Contempt I am ashamed of my lame performance atthe plano, 1 Sallcipte that anyone hearing if would find i egretable of mise ‘ble, but not that they might be angry at me fo (i they might bei would be because my agency I bwvelved— failed to practise a | Should have ora promised to, for instance), tis sometimes thought that guilt irational it is engendered via ements ofa situation that were bad Tuck or beyond our contol. 1 ‘engage more with this range of thoughts later. But Tear remark here that this isnot how we actually think about i Suppose I sometimes drive paying a litle too much attention to my mobile phone, and too Title to the road. donot feel guilty. But by bad luck ald uns oat land [kil then Ido, even if that extra aspect ofthe situation was {quite beyond my control. And Iam suppose to feel guilty do not feel gull having un over the chil because | was paying attention to ‘iy mobilephone, Lam key tobe regard as some kin of monster, Tour actual moral word n such a case contrition and some instinct to reparation aze compulsory: Infact, the Tink with responsibilty Should not be thought of a5 fed and prion. may permit of cal "ural variation, 20 that tis just fact about dhe West that we fypically restrict gull to ocasions for which we fel responsiblity" And even Themes epan n Ram Ha, he S Contin of he Eatin con ET Ea Organizing Practice: Te Elements of Ethics 9 in the West, we can understand the guilt of someone who fees that they have been or are part of some infamous collective process, regardless oftheir esponsibility fori We fel mult about ont being ‘omplict, People can feel guilty about their paren doings, and we ‘an fel guilty bout our generations destruction ofthe environmen, Sithough here the thought T should do or should have done some: {hing about i” may not be far away. Finally, is worth remarking that the three features we have noticed that distinguish guilt from shame—the involvement of gency, the disposition towards reparation and contrition, the internalized anger rather than disdain of others~are typically inter ‘ingle, otha itis seldom clearcut which i that we fel. eeling {shame of something is oten not realy distinguished from feling ‘ity about it Ie would be a neal for nstance to say wheter typ {tal anorexics of bulimice fel guilty about esting or ashamed of eat ing. Often this because we can become obsessed by the false iden that a deficiency must have been due Ho our own agency In Lovee church culture, for example, lessor handicap can be moralized into something about which to feel gully a punishment for some imagined tranogression. Furthermore, guilt and shame almost Inevitably go together fr another reason, which i that when we fel sity i typialy Because we have behaved as we did because of Emotions or desires or motivations of which wear ashamed. Here the {pals to cones clashes with the impulse to conceal an the result {ng conflict makes ourstate mulply unpleasant "With this much understanding of these emotions then if we also concede that societies cane #00 moralistic, too qick to react to too ‘many kinds of behaviour with anger and gui oe contempt and ‘ham, i i coberent to suggest that we would gt by beter without lan such emotions a all? The idea might be that we could stil ark {ome situations asbetter than others and ry tbr hem about and ‘we could still admire some human characterises more than others, nd try to encoarage them and imitate them Its just that we would ‘ot fel angry or ashamed or guilty atthe failzes of others and ou Selves. We would accept more, and Judge les. This might seem to be ‘Pure gin for anger and shame and gilt ae unpleasant emotions ‘There 3 way of thinking more common in popalar psychology | texts than in phiesophy or Herature, that invites us to think of gut and shame at bad felingy, ike nausea, that we ought just wish fway. They are there to be cured. Bot that too simple. Gull, or instance, eypcally involves the wish to have done otherwise, and if realy wish to have done others, L won't find that wish ota Brute20 COnganizing Proce The Elements of Ethics “uncomfortable fact about my own consciousness, one that L might in tm wish away don jast wish nj tobe re ofthat wish, My lst ‘word isnot this isa nasty state tbe in, S01 wish I could et rid of. 1 lst word is wish I ad dane otherwise’. This isthe intentional Ay or diectednese of emotional sates including desire and willbe # ‘major element in understanding desire etur oi in late chapters Misunderstanding. t prompts entire pliosophies to mistake the nature of deliberation "The cost, obviously of geting rid of gil or shame will be one of ‘motzton, Without these emotions, the motivation to act well is ‘iminehed If there is no fear of he anger of thers, or no interaliza- tion of thee potential rejection, then a central buttress of good behavi- ‘Ou has bee lost, If there ino inciation to make reparation, oF to {Undergo the hostility of others, then our responses are unco-ondinated nd socal dissolution becomes more Ukely. For how do the happy people who are innocent of guilt or shame comport themselves? It {Would be lefto other motivational tates to keep them behaving wel, Butitis not atallclear what these would 10k ike for too many ofthe rormal boundaries on action are dependent upon entrenched emo tons, Fear of discovery, for example, presupposes that discovery will benbad thing yetiftnever arouses the anger of others twill not be ‘bed thing Desire fr the admiration of others may not be so urgent {tthe admiration goes without seme Kind of ranking, where actions that are not admized eventally provoke atleast some hind of disdain, Unless am sometimes ashamed of my piano paying and sometimes fven guilty about failing to pracse, Lam not likely fo improve very fast Pre sa pleasant state nd the prospect of 2 proper pride is 4 {great motivator butt only exstatits best when the situation wascne {which a shameful oxtcome was pssible, but avoid. ‘Some philosophers, notably Berard Willams, have portrayed guilt 1s pat ofa culturally specific ‘morality system’ which we would be better off without, But doubt if tis sight Ofcourse, both gull and same can both become obsessive and neurotic But the co-ordinating function and the motivating function ofthese emotions ae enough to tive them a place in the well-tempered psychology. (Other aspects of ‘liam’ cntigue, incading the en that gut trades on an urvealis- tic fantasy of pure freedom, occupy Chapter 8) Inthe Orestelan trilogy of Aeschylus, Orestes, having killed his mother who had herself killed his father, pursued by the ‘Eumenies' inal the Furies, whose hate and fury signify the sence of gilt and shame that corrode Orestes. But when the situation fs finally resolved bythe godess Athene, the Eumenides are not b= Organizing Practice: The Elements of Ethics a Ishod. They ae not regarded as formless diseases, Thi role hasbeen petfecly honourable, and they ae given a place atthe foundation of ‘Athens, that, atthe foundations of civic Me. For what man who fears nothing at allisever righteous” The Eumendes then, sit were, row into deserving their name (the ‘wellwishers), because thelr presence under the civic oder sits necessary guarantee against ana ‘hy and wrongdoing "Ws can certainly campaign fra society to becomes less moralistic and moe forgiving, We can campaign fori to pay more a the social conditions that lel people to behave badly and Individual who is victim of those conditions And we can cera attempt, as Nietzsche does, to revalse out values in other words, 10 ‘ethink whether some conventionally accepted goods or virtues relly ‘sre 30, But none of this amounts toa wholesale rection of ethics. tis ‘sillmaking moves thor ethics: changing the key, not retusing to play {the tune. And in fact our reflections suggest thatthe ejection of etics {is not relly an option. As we already saw, there is no geting behind ethics, because the decision to live a tolerant ‘no judgemental ies self an ethical decision, and not obviously one that ean be sustained for very long or defended for very long as ky lead to wholly ood consequences, Certainly people may moralize too much and 0 {icky and about the wrong things: But people may alsa be to slow to praise good behaviour orto feel anger at behaviour that deserves cruelty ingratitude injustice of all kinds. 5: PRIVACY AND PRINCIPLE Is there anyother way of ricizng ethics as such, as opposed to rit nang the particular ates hed by some peoplet some ines? We have steady come arcs the es tht we oer do nt want ics to inte mio practical ving not becuse we el guilty about wha we ste doing but becuse lntedues one thought oo many Ina pr Sonal ratonship, for example with one's partner o cure, heast thing one wants that people te acing ethan eye to Bohaving wel tr ou sense ty. Patents ae to cherish children ot of sponta ‘ous love of hem, ot Bocuse hey fe they ugh todos, or hat {Fis what the world expect, o hat somewhere in the fate some food might come of h partner who eles tat the other meet Sng then not because hey want fy Dat out of sense dy, heey "esognies that the ations is st We donot want any ‘Sic cia ore’ a lover or parent who acs to love But2 Ovganizing Practice: The Elements of tes at the same time is always checking what ehis requires of them or is ‘mainly pleased that he or she is acting dutfully, = inadequate. The {Reged ang do, happy Indu in montonoos word een Tinugh ne knows than sobeling aie tht stats he beled Same ting Ha fs the mot nee prem owards reper tine ye des ot dese to epent nl ether does ie dene fo elec ess perly because fe nell ore tat he were 0 repent become ued opin the we proses would allover Thine ope SoSaars genuine preset sense ei and ofthe hod hes let does no oe wh rset dss st any eel though itmay align with eet acd wits that ngs might Fave teen otherwise Our vals also do not sem ue he sme a ur highest dstes Yor another easn Ts nfl to tre some gens SSepeting having the vals they doa person of answering inept insan, might sre evel wah tat he a ite tho rend shone wh et comers or en the ras ust tie Sam to be faving more fan or Being om bor ithe Word 1 eG ee aay ten Wie eas hee nh tr i a sd Se ee onl oe ee Naturaliing Norms @ Obviously, however if this wish starts to dominate his praca Me then his integrity has been compromised, and we might prefer to 9 that his values have changed atleast temporarily. TTmay desire to eat ice eam, but be quite calm contemplating a ‘future state in which would not desire i ned not resist processes that change my desies In fot, Tight welcome them. Whereas, when values are involved, we typically resist anything likely 0 ‘estbilize them, Such processes would be regarded as undermining nd threatening. So if we imagine the general fild ofan agents con- ‘ems, his or he values might be regarded as those concer that be Is Slso concerned to preserve the ones by which he stands. He would ‘ontemplat losing them only with dismay Its ecause a child or an lanimal has no such protective concems that they are thought of as “To hold value, then i typealy to have a relatively stable dspo- sition to conduct practical fe and practical discussion in a particular ‘way: its tobe disposed ors! in that way, and notably tobe set against ‘Change in his respect. This way of being sets such sto ali values ‘and motivations And, characterstialy in philosophical psychology, though his may be the paradigm, typical ease, there ae also others. ‘We are often not aware of what we value, or how much we value ‘Weemay not be all that dleposed to protect and cherish once, ut, ‘when things go wrong, lize how much itmattred Te may only be Tetrospectively that we discover that we have valued something, Here the disposition snot one of being set to foster concer, but being set to fel pain when itis threatened o Vanishes Because we are talking about the way an agent is set there fs a speed limit on change of values. Someone whe ane day professes one "tof concerns and priorities, but another day a quite diferent ses ‘ot someone who has many vale, albeit fora shor time each, but Someone whohas no real values aa, Over sufficient time, ofcourse, 8 person's cancers and interests and prionitiescan change, although itis also worth nocing that valuesone thinks onehas suppressed can bbesurprisingly resent: habits of valuing, hk habits of deterence ot ‘old superstitions, en to comeback to haunt us. ts dificult shake ‘off hee grip, and there often something of-clour about the pro fessions of convert usta there about professions to be cured of diferent emotions ‘What has been sald here concentrating upon the notion of vale, ‘hich might typically get expression By saying that something is“6 [Natwraizng Norms ood, or that some character aitsa virtue, canbe adapted quite eas- fy tothe vocabulary of night and duty rights and obligations. Here ‘we find states of rind farther up the sfareave of emotional ascent: ‘ones that prime ustoinsistences and to hostility to others, Bu the cor= ‘nection with action is obviow typical cass, and subject to the same Kinds of interpretative subtleties when normal links ae broken. "Tosumup, then toholdavalueistohavea relatively fixed attitude to some aspect of thing, an atitade with which one identifies in the sense of being set to resist change, or st to feel pain when concerns fre not met. That fixed attitude typically issues in many dispositions, Stvarious places onthe staircase of emotional ascent described inthe first chapter When things are not out of jon, vals align with mot- ‘vations, But we understand quite profound misalignments in terms of Intlligibie internal confit Tf the confit sufficient, we will not Know what fo say, just a8 we do not know when 0 say that Love co- incides with hate, or when thas ben replaced by it Wher things get ‘ut int the normal or typical expresion of he attitude canbe per- ‘Verte reactions set in, and unde sufficient stress wehave the person ‘of weak il eho knowingly succumbs to temptation, or more inter ‘stingy the Satanic igure whois knovingly attracted evil Tomeet Such an interpretation, however and not tobe put down merely as @ Inypocrte who pays ipservice to values he dees not rally hol, an agent must show a dynamic patter of change and tess. There has to be a history and an intemal conflict Not everyone who murders someone is murdering someone he loves, but ocasionaly some do, find sometimes we understand why 4 THE ETHICAL PROPOSITION AND FREGE'S ABYSS ‘So what at asi sad when we sy that something is good or right? Following Moore, we do not expect to identify the content in other terms, We can now sy, however, what is dane when we say such things. We avow a practical sate ‘Avowal here means that we ‘express thisstate,makeit publi or communicate Weintend coor sel ite Re betel tn wher panes {owen angie po tom wher ingot (Sbeclon Ruhnu das st gute mente wp anh spel oer nara fy Fig, se Nataralizing Norms © “ination with simile avovals or potential avowals from others, and this isthe point of the communication. When this coordination is achieved, an intended directions given touroint practical lives and ‘hoices Saying that something is good when we donot really value t iseither deceiving others about our sate, oF the result of sel dace. "on. But bacause we have to accommodate the flexible, many-ayered rafure of our minds, we may sincerely say that something is good ‘when we are not unhappily, motivated o purse it, provided one of the diagnoses sketched i the previous section applies 1 permit smoking in my hove, but you forbi it in yout, we do not necessarily disagree about anything Similarly some evaluations {ate happily eelatvized: the weather ie good from the farmer's point ‘of view, but bad fom the tourist's pint of view, or goad in 0 far as ithelp the crops, bad insofar ast pois the holiday But with mach ‘ethics there ino scope fr this coexistence. If Ta minded to permit ‘smoking in ourhouse, and my wife s minded to forbid it, we do ds ‘agree. Only one ofthese practical attitudes canbe implemented, and Tam for one and she forthe other When we discus ics with each ‘other we are typically talking about ‘our’ hose, or in other words practical issues on which we want fo coordinate or have to coord hate, In that cae difference ofatitude means disagreement, ast a8 Surely as diffrence of belief does. Ifthe casei ike that of separate houses we can sometimes ‘agree to differ and drop the conversation. But sometimes, even if we do not have wo coordinate our actions, we ‘cannot agree to difer fr serious enough differences cannot be toler ted. T return to this when we discuss felativism, ul mean the point remains that the ypial, default, poston is that difference in Btitude is Weated as disagreement. Ethical avowals, like decsions and verdicts, equive grounds. If grade one paper higher than another, mut be prepared to indicate Some relevant ference between them, We acknowledge the need to Point to something that grounds our judgement, in vitue of which fe setter than the other But, a we shall ee inthe next chapter, ‘discussing Corel realism, no complete theory of ethic an simpy Point to the grounding properties, nd suppose that evaluations ere ‘ven their meaning by their relationship to them We need fist Understand the evaluative stance "Expressivism claims thatthe ethical proposition is suething that we synthesize for a purpose. It ole sto ac as focus for practical Thought. So shat isi to believe that something # good, wonder ‘whether sti ood to deny that ts good, tobe undecided, or toknow {hat tis good? In basco typical cases:n Natural Norms believing that Xs good or right i roughly having an appropri- stely favourable Valuation OF; wondering whether X 8 good or right is wondering what t9 130/sehat to admire ovals denying that Xi pod or rights rejecting a favourable atitude od being undecided is not knowing what to do/what to admire, being certain that X is good or right is having a settled at tude rejecting the possiblity that improvement cou result in changer Snowing that Xs good Is knowing to choose X/admireX, ee Here the practical states on the righthand side ae voled and ds cussed in terms of attitudes to the saying or thought on the left. This Is what | mean by saying that the moral propostin is designed or lnvented or emerges aatraly as the focus for our practical transact tions. And in the previous section we established the natural ereden- {ale of the states on the right and thet inreate connections with other aitades and emotions. “The reason expressvism in ethics has tobe corrects that if we sup- posed that belie, denial, and so on were simply discussions of way fhe word is, we would stil face the open question. Even if hat beliet ‘were settled, there would still be issues of what importance to give ‘what to do,andall he rest For we have no conception oath con. ron Captivim an Rule Flowing in, Hatoman and C. Uc vig farsa Rouge 8 The Ethic! Proposin: What i Not 5 favourable evaluation of what X did, which is why we are in the ‘oman of eis. Let us say we wil understand the proposition we ‘understand wha isefered to, and understand the const of bch ved Kinly. So what ist to understand a concep? It is to master rule of pplication, rale determining to which things is coeret © apply ‘and to which things itis incorrect and to which things its indeterm- rat, there exist such cases, Witigensteln now, is taken to teach ws ‘hat mastery of such a rule effec identi with involvement in a form of ile McDowell quotes with approval» passage from Slaney Cave ° {elem and ach win cence nd hn ea ep and ‘Specter obs projet hen in arr cme Nadler SENS. pein sk pena st he paging fame ‘Siro gaping otk) tr ng feat we al ‘alot antec sane pn ten whee sa orf ig mes an ing ssh endo ‘puns of tne of wt ano a hot snr ‘Tarie vas nba wt oyhenes fen ah tren an ane Monts aspen then snp al fe df gars ‘gs noms ie’ Hamun wean arty sy com tute up ning me ut lng han Wess Sapien nd mates and ce 9 ring ‘The immediate applications that we see how “behaved kindly can be subject fo a rule. The rue will oly be applicable by those sharing “routes of interest and felin But thai tre of all ules. So t marks nothing. peculiar (nothing particularly soft ot subjective) about Tehaved kindly hat it does $0, n spite of it implying en evaluation In this way the rule-following consideration canbe taken to assii> Inte ethical acgements to every other judgement. We con no longer regard them as special ust because they are shared only by those who ‘Share routes of interest and feeling ‘So far {would claim that there s mich to admire, The ingredients with which McDowell i working are the right ones: human sent rents and routes of interest and feling rebukes, appeal, senses of fulfilment oF outrage, imagination and culture, We might agree that it ‘Bonly people wha share such things wha canbe said properly toshare an thi, and their ethie wil e voiced when they say things lke behaved kindly’ What then happens when disputes break out? Allwe can do, it seems, is appeal 10-9 “hoped-for community of human uy Col Md eto al He Sy) New ik Soroe's 18) onedinfarhebewel, Non Cog nd Ra alia ypo "The Eto! Propstion: What itis Not respon’ We deploy whatever methods wecan oy tthe other ‘Silo ee tie edo. But hs snot han we need, Deca we fever get moe than this in any aren, even i aeas where We are inlined talk abst proot for example ‘Actual thsi conesable Wigeetin imply contrast this and ther sabject at resigns § 2: Disputes do not break out {Gong mathematicians, sy) over the question wheter a ule has teen cbeyed or not People dont come tbows over for example Hee the oars ll hil the sme way and indeed paps they Fhe to do So tosuceed in engaging in mathematica ll tay be tha Oigerteln tins tht ts fice to round a pace of talking about ejectiy and prot Whats more stung shat ons my als seem mcry fr oerwise we imply sees to ve oranan at act one wand nen tact anater One Sie, for inane, fins W natural and inevitable to cls very SJoung foetus a baby, andthe oer side inde grotesque, nd ls Miettasacompes of celle And sine we have abandoned ary Platonic extemal sandposn from whi one cane seen 0 Be dng, thenght hing and the fer the wrong ing any dam on behalf fe defo tcepity, cognition truth, object il at spot fing holo (ey may eam these words but hat wil ot be ther par ofthe way hey happen 0 whi} Tn her words, the teped for community of esprce te eal not fortcoming, the Sates ofthe dispute Wiigesteinin terms iat bet unceo Ts ‘Etre cramatiallyso when we hint we might hat the majo ‘opis ae whirling te wrong way on uch ste Is ot Phlocopical rth that he mujonty determine wha ight “tpn although sgt does ot ge toe heart of temat- te Self mt be Posse ant bean imme ep Ping bet fhe Witgesteiian approach aldo make oom or {tus pesaps the Witgenstemian pston canbe defended by the ‘lection that part of ur whi of organise to eet upon and troy about and sometimes yt dodge sme of he very clas “Sts sugested y Our whi of organs. ‘Amon secure Objection a this pont arias if we ask wheter the coniderations 50 farhave scully eid the ethical proposition as ‘fume cet of thought or ented ethical concepts genuine ‘hecpt or fsibed thinking of sas gency repeating. Toshow why thisemsine open lhl akensinple cose. Consider 9 ‘site n which enero fat ane a peel all igh ot Th Eis! Proposition What is Nat even desirable. Now suppose that fashions change and there are people (lim, active, lithe teenagers, perhaps) who begin tind fat [ope ingustng Suppose they riser his a characteristic ser Ing tone of voce" What s your bathe ike? "Ob, he i fa”—which shal write ase is fat’ Only people who share the disgust will ever becheard wing the term with Wat tone. Others wll noe typically eepis- ter dissent by saying” No, hei not really fat, repeating the one for ‘Batis what to say when You share disgust at fat but deny that X50. Pope who want eet the sensi wil say things ike Don'tsay that "Now, ati ter that can be use, and people who share the gost will use it similarly, Tk is associated with a rule, in the ‘Wiigenstoinian sense, and willbe applied and withheld by people in rough agreement (Wittgenstein hisel said "You might say that cer {ain words re only peg to hang intonation on). Wecan read down Cave ist andsee how theshared use ofthe term depends upon fea- turesshare by the user: heretheir capacity to detect fat and their di just. But do we have a distinctive concept her, and a distincuve [proposition capable of trath and fasty? Are those who wse the terms receptive’ toa property tats dere independently? On the face of rothing of this sort i true We would not credit the tenagers with a ‘Concept advance when they come to share this disgust. We certainly ‘would not be likely to say, for example that there isa distinctive prop- ety of ftlness, and that the teenager’ shared reactions now enable them to detect it discovering a new kin of truth. On the face of {here are just ft poople, anc the teenagers’ expression oftheir disgust atthe, “MeDowell might even agree about this for he specifically exempts isgust from what he wantstosay about the eld of ethics" Thedi= ference that ‘disgust and nausea” are se-conained psychological items, conceptvalizabe without any need 40 appeal to an) projected properties of diegustingness or nauseatingnese I should 8a at once that this ia strange concession, fora described in Chapter, disgust isanemotioncapableoftrictring a great dal of ethic and politi), 2nd is reculted todo so by notions like sin and deflemet. cultures wrth caste systems, dingust& a prime arbiter of moral status. The moral worlds of Hamlet and Kila (and even of Ondius Rex) are ‘efi and sustained by disguct. Sof, ax McDovell wants, 2 moral iri Pp nm Boy A neyo Caos* ‘The shal Proposition: What itis Not sentiment ike contempt is tobe thought of when things go right as a perception an awareness, o cognition ofthe genuinely contemptible, [tovlfbe han! tose hy justified digust doesnot show a simula per ‘epton, awareness, of cognition of the genuinely disgusting (and it Should be noticed that disgust s quite unlike nausea, in being not 2 feneralized fling of malaiee, bt an emotion with an object we are {ply disgusted st something or atthe very thought of i) Tn any event, whatever the place of dius, MeDowell wants to develop the rulefolloring considerations i oer eases to enable us toaaythattherearemoraleancepts, and moral properties discerned by ‘hove wo use them. We are tobe given something more aristocratic thon associations of description with (mere) atitude. How does this further move go? This not entiey easy to be sure, but one ky idea is that in serious ethical eases there no isentanglng’ of he factual rom the eva tive In the case of Tat and simian, surely nthe case of pejorative facial slurs, we koow ohat the response i and what are the features that prompt it Bat McDowell think that there are eases i which iis pot lke that ‘Now it seems reasonable to be sceptical. about wheter, coresponding to inyvalorconcpe ne can alvaystl a gan eto the work by ihc approsate dandar of getineness tat 2 ete hat thee an tray idependenyo nyones value experene Being 3 tito be Hat 0 “incompetent wert he concept ane be ean 5 eponding when They ase hat whch inthe world when one pees othe retin of ‘he apprpsate ate “The argument for this n tur, is that when we consider speci con perception of by those with proper afetivedispesitions = per "epton of» reason for action "action ‘The Ethcl Proposition What it is Not eS Nom coptiosm: Shapeles underying class» attitudes in howe with specific affective dispositions ~> ation Wwiere the arrows indicate some explanatory story But if that isthe lineup then we would have to ask what extra explanatory weight is ‘added by the mention ofthe shapely property atthe moral level and by the talk of perception, and thee so evident answer. Grssnens {and divinity ar playing no explanatory rolein the phenomena of fsh- ton. (To be fai agin, MeDovrell might choose to align these with the exclude! emotion af disgust, but again the question will be whether there isany principle enabling him fo ds) A very similar theory is advanced by David Wiggins, with the ‘exception that Wiggins plausibly not concerned ta claeiythe elt {ssa kind of ‘elim about ethics, buts concesive to the ie that it "represents a sophisticated subjectivism.” Talking about the hick eth fea concept of cruclty, Wiggins too gives usa story in wich we las si actions as cruel Beause they affect us in some specific way. They {o this in virtue of themarks' feral that they possess, what ri flty consists non the level of motivation intention and outcome” So far wehave familar ingredients onthe input side But hetoo wants the ‘property although he says he would have preferred to workin erm cof concept) of cet to playa ert role in the story oe show ing that tis 2"sbling’of the ouput rather han i any sense i ee suspect the best way to read what is good in this story is a6 @ not tional variant ofthe theory Thave presented fi implies more then think we should soe i as deconstactng itself inthe telling. Foe although early in his paper Wiggins, ike MeDowell, makes much of the mysterious sui getens response of those tho sensitively se the term (there wil often be na saying exactly what reaction a thing with ‘the associated property will provoke, without diet or indie al sion to the property Itself) he then goes on quite cheerfully to Sescrbe just what the right responses to crueity ar: Russell he a, ‘Should remind himselfas thoroughly and vividly ashe canofjst what itis that he ‘isthe, abhors, detest’ about it There is no hint of 3 speci reaction, finding something crlish,peshaps on the lses of finding t amvsing of sing something as yellow. An this, ofcourse, is ony common sense, for there ino special reaction, ditinet fom100 “The thal Proposition: What i Not oro, etesation an abhorrence. This sone gts not he Cvetenceofaspecal property orevenconceptiany intersting sens, Euttheenistent ofa term standingastheoeusfordscssion of which tts fo have to parca ations and their amalgams of motive, intention and upshot ‘ut pips MeDowel and Wiggins do ot intend an explanatory story eps the ment of pepo sina sense inet tthe ‘nai pont ahich isthe fate of Caton and cgeitin. To go fr then ther its wth insisting how very strange a claim the dil of the eighteenth century distinction ten another sfluental paper NicDowelltlls ofa nonvrtous person nt knowing what it meas tote sy and sesiive’ thoy do ot ec fay and entve pe SSavsncedinthe right way Buthe acknowledge that his kind of not Inowing what itmean i highly lade ince tof curse) com patible with competence by al odin fen wth he language sed {Budsribe the cireamstances ‘What this comes fo then, tht boys a a Boudin schoo! may ‘oy by all the odinay tet that a newcomer shy and sensitive they can sortout he hy snd seitive as well os anyone. But they 0 ‘nto fesse hin ut because of tht this shows hain some spec ‘Song sense they do nt know wht means they Ick the fll mal fam hich makes up the unitary poycologal sate Hat only propery split ita perception and sade ny should we believe inthis pec strong Senseo this speci amalgamated state? Anata way ofsayingtis that the boys see what the newcomer ke and that wy hey eno teasing him This that their crclty css in They dona ect what they know as ‘intuous people should But for McDowell hy simply lack unary Sate thatthe vitwous person has. ‘Now itmay sound f though anything sayabe in the one idiom is trandtablewihoutgainor os int the oes Sovse might note ery thustasti fora dete over whether to classify some disposition ot [ute ofacton ether asthe eal asingle spec perception had Enly.thvouphatectvetate a bei’ o 5 He resul of to vectors: ‘eltsabout what he stuston ke, andmotationsto done thing tranotter about hinght sound ike aguing whether northeast tre deco (las nr ght we might), the vector Rolin om two cetons, Noth and East Bat in fc Bllove the eight mh century got tight sd he proposed subsite inferior 2 McDowall Ave Moral Ruan yi gear, 2 ‘The Ethical Proposition: What it is Not wo 4: THE CUTE AND THE LEWD ‘Tis canbe seen if we consider the example of thick terms like “cute” or lewd’ Take cuteness fast Here we imagine aman happily deploy- ‘ng this term, and happily possessed ofa perceptaal/aectve ama {gam corresponding toi He and his cohort see women as cute. They Raveno trouble teaching the term, and agreeing about new cases. They have read McDowell and take themiclves to have anew, genine'y ‘cognitive sensitivity tothe cuteness of some women. I other peopl, nd especially women fends, donot sce the word that way then they fan urge them along, ryt get them to whirl the same way Sometimes they sucoed, and sometimes they do not. Often they succeed with ‘women, ho trivehard to appear cute, and blame themselves and fel ashamed ifthey are nt CCtencss our man says lcs and justifies various affective rea tions. Its hard to specify them except as perceptions of cuteness, bat perceiving cuteness in women, when al ges ight elicit and justifies Factions along the ins of admiation and arousal in men, oF envy oF ‘cdmiration, trom women. Indeed, there is hick evaluative practice, together with procedures for regulating dissent, involved. Those who talk of cuteness are all regular (vetuous) uy, but ther is toandtro lover whether some features are incompatible with cteness, such as Intelligence, age or big fet But that show itis inthis And, he may dd, comes to votes, maybe a majority of people see ike him and fis friends. For most men do, and many women too: just look at role ‘models in popular magazines. "Nowe it fs morally vl that ee proceed by sping the input from the outputin such a case. By refusing to split we fal fo open an een talspeetcallynomative dimension of eicsm. the ast word ls that these people perceive cuteness and react tt with the appropriate cuteness reaction, whereas other people do not, we have let the ana Tye tools with whic fo recognize what ls wrong with them. What is wrong with them is along these lines: they react to an infantile Untivestening appearance or sel presentation in women, of Overt Indications of wilingness tobe subservient tomen, with adiiration or desire the men) or envy and emlation (he women) Cate things are those to which we an show afecton without threst, or patronizing, for even with contempt. Chikdren and pets are quintessentially cue “Applied to women, tis, I sy, ia bad thing. Once we ean separate inp fom output enough tose that this is what i going on, the alk of whifs of organism, or single ‘hick’ rules, or a special perception valabe only fo those Who have been acclturated, simply sounds02 ‘The Ethical Propston: What iis Not hollow disguises for a conservative and ultimately self-serving com: placency. ‘ie need to say what is good about the virtuous and bad about the ‘vicious If our lst word were tobe thatthe vito see things One| ‘way. and the vicious anther, we lose the normative space that pens Up wren we say thatthe sirtuous react # dhings in the right Wa, ‘whereas the vicious donot. The boysatthe school were not locked into ‘ome barely interpretable amalgam af beste’ They sav that someone ‘wasshy and seni, and were moved fo humiliate hm, Thats what Isvwrong with them, Perhaps MeDovell an admit that, asa bare fact, when we decaim | against the lover ofthe cute a8 suggested, this may inuence him for the Better, It ean obvious fact that can, But rom the “bes” stan point mast do so by misdescebing him. It describes him By decom- posing his mental states, bu these are states that ex hypothe, resist ‘Sccomposition. So in principle, whether or note i infact embar ‘sed by the crtgue, he has a perfect defence against it The critique Stans roma misdescripton, and why should we sen tocritiquesthat Stare that way? My position, by contrast is thatthe critique starts not from a misdesription, bat from an essential insight "To return tothe navigational analogy, it could indeed be important to see north-east as a vector Suppase ass actualy the case) that itis ‘one thing to determine latitude, and another to determine longitude, tnd hence one thing to lay down a rate of travel northward, and ‘nother to lay doven a rate of travel eastward Then thre are two dis- tinct and independent orays in sehich a navigator ean go eon 0 ‘determining from the chat if he is taveling ort-esst If he isnot directed ashe should be, we have to ask which one sat fault This is bavritiswiththeboys at school othe man and his reaction to women “And, in fat, We are entirely at home with the eighteenth" But ofcourse response-dependnt theorist can introduce other responses desires or stitedes understood in ther ways, oreven taken ' Pimative forthe purpose of understanding values. So wean waive ‘his regres problem at this juncture. The responsedependence thot |stisableto plugin the best wailable acount of the respon, terms of atitudes dispositions emotions or desires Soletussuppose this is ‘done: we shall signal the place it mak just asthe [alue eacuca, We Still ave to get beyond the problem illustrated by () and (ND, "The problem suggested sbove is one of navigating between two lisaters that I call Seylla and Charybis Sella that we falsify the kind of judgement made by saying is good’, representing it as an ‘empirical sociological remark. Charybdis is that we get hisight, but Atthecost of making the same kind of judgement at some pace within the righthand side, and thereby forfeiting the claim to advance, ust sswedo if we stop with () oF (0) ‘Seva then is that we go natoralistic or empirical Charyis that \wemakean ethical judgementon the right-hand side, and thereby fal tovadvance the interesting plhlosophical project of understanding the ind of judgement itis. Contrast Xi good = Xs such as to elicit deste from us as we actualy ae, when we come across Xs good = X is such a oli desires from good people when they come across it Ree Maen fe Rape oe ce {Canberra Phiosephy Progam ‘The Ethic! Proposition: What i i Not 109 "The fist, considered as a atemp# to understand ethical jalgement, rust be deemed to fil, because it only gives us an equation with = ‘natural judgement about X, certifiable by empirical means I els us that Xi something we desire, not something thats desirable, Some biconditonas like this may be tre, but when they are truethey have an ethical status, nota metaethical one, Imight have an ec with « Simple eterion forthe good. Thus a uultaran might propose Xe good # X is such as io stil desires Which is then debatable as a plece of eis. But even i stood up “under that srutiny (which does no) itil doesnot help in the pro ject of naturalizing the ethical judgement, because itis silent over Twhatit isto see the satisfaction of desire under he healing of he ood The equation, taken like this, gives usa pice of ethics, but tells us nothing about what it isto think in ethical terms. ‘Whatever natural x se make on [PL [CL an [R] i will be quite possibleto doubt or deny that the people or circumstances or reaction fo fxed are the appropate ones. Suppose, for example, we pavilege Some group, and some conditions X fs good/ight/justifable = X tends to elicit a favourable ‘reaction from middleclass professorso divinity in conditions ‘which they have cleared their minds aed learned the fats, Fail obviously this isa treble shotat saying what he lefthand side ‘means, evenfitrefets ou actual procedures imagine a Scottish un- ‘erst i the last century). Anyone puting it frwatd shows that he for she privileges professors of divinity with cleared and informed ‘minds Butt an open question whether she is right to do so, And ‘ven if she were right, It would be purely because asa matter of fact ‘such people judge the good righty Its impossible to believe that this tes us anything about the property or concept of goodness: Weight also notice thatthe ruth condition cannot sell be the onein terms of ‘which the professors of divinity think. They have to go though an ‘serie of evaluation which snot exhaustively concerned with pre Alling or describing thei own responses Thus Soy, ‘Seyla ensnares us if onthe righvhand side we stick wit descrip tions of things and their powers to elicit responses from us or from Some group, rather than suluations of them Evaluative judgements re aed rather than hypotheses about the suspected reactions of > rtm inches10 The Ethie! Preston: What iis Not some group (even our own group) under some putative circum: Stances 1 apn asked whether the pictare was beautfl or the play interesting, | dissemble if say that twas because hypothesize that ‘most poopleinsuchand-sich ciecumstances ind its, although Ie Sonal coulda stand it Whats expected s that givemy own ver Sct "es it was fascinating’ expresses howe [found it My verdict can be challenged of course, but the challenge isnot itself a ferent hypothesis about [P} and [C] but an attempt to show that my feeling was unvvarante and that Tought not to have found i beautiful or Fascinating Notice to that iT then retzeat to say (auf ait might be) "Welle thought i was fascinating Lam not retreating to saying that my hypothesis was that was sch as to eis [R] from some ‘group [P]in some circumstance [CI am repeating my own verdict br expressing my own reaction, standing within an evaluative per pective, rather than describing one fom without We have hete lack of harmony between the reaction and the things that make tue the biconditiona elaborated upon # Te logical “pace [enter when I make my verdict is not that of an empirical hypothesis about the reactions of some identsable group of people antwas very clear about this Taking the case of aesthetic adgement, fete judgement of beauty or judgement of taste, he asserts that his doesnot postulate the agreement of everyone but imputes i, or ‘aacsit fom everyone eae as necessary’ The asterton isnot that ‘everyone il all i with ur judgement, bu that everyone cht t0 See witht ‘We have, ofcourse, already met cases where evaluative terms g0| dead and are used more a5 socologial remarks retailing the ge" rl opinion. Bat this use is parosite upon the practice of actual ‘making evaluations out of out owa mouths Kans insight i confirmed by another phenomenon that i promi- rent in these ase. Laay know empirically that Xs sch a5 elit {from [Pin [CL but because Ihave no experience of X, I cannot without misepeesentation answer the question ‘Is X beautiful/bor- ing/fascinating.? Tcan only answer that other people thinks, oF that Tam longing tose i Leannotsay fou cout that twas one or the ‘other without giving an overwhelming impression that Thave myself eet ‘The Ethical Proposition What itis Not 1 ‘been in a position to make a judgement, and have made it. This is Iighly mysterious on the hypothesis that the judgement functions as 2 siraight description ofthe reactions ofan ientited group in dent fed circumstances. I can say, categorically and in fll authority that something is poisonous, if know that its mach a to poison normal ‘people normal circumstances, without having mse taken it Interestingly Wittgenstein makes the identical point even about colour judgements {i someone aks te: What colo is ths Book and reply“ ree — ‘gi we ave piven the answer The generality of English-speaking people that "gre"? ‘ight he ot ak 'And what do you cl Fre want tp ny {As swe have seen with (0) and (M), 2 normative element can be overtly included on the righthand side: (0) Xisq= Xissuch that [P] in [C ought give IR) ‘And typically this is right enough a far as it goes. A thing is boring = people ought to be bored by st But now Charybts threatens. The Fighthandsie itself» straightforward evaluation, soall weave is fn equation between ta similar ingistic forms for doing the same thing The right-hand side another example ofthe kind of udge- ‘ment we might have been hoping to understand. For Kant, concerned ‘with the judgement of taste, the salient problem was how there coud Zesuch judgement, when aesthetics had to do more with felt pleas tre than with applying a concept according to a rue. And Kant’s problem resurfaces inte moder word of ethics, fr there are people feo deny thatthe reactions associated with evaluation can withstand the kind of understanding that a HTumean, or equally a response ddspendent theory brings them. They are wrong, but thei wrong: ‘ets shown by contemplating ths hind of ‘trth conto’ If tve bear Kans standard in nd, proposals ike (0), o (oF (M) il Dt enchant for long ‘What i dane in these proposals i to equate one ethical judgement swith another: fakes not obeervatin bt ethical fadgement to dete thine whether somethings suchas eit desires from good people, ‘Since you have fo judge who are the good people. Ofcourse, In prin: ‘Sle an advance sin ethics could come about eis way, since it Lagi Rete oe he oa of atne ‘The Ethical Propston: What ti Not might be somehow easier to judge who are the good people than it [ppents to be to jadge X's. But ths wil not be an advance in our hvderstanding of ethical judgement perse-Ttwould bea stil local [advance in frs-order moral theory. "The mot ingenious attempt krown to me to steer between Seyla and Charlie calle the Canberra plan advocated by Philip Petit ‘Michael Smith, and Frank Jackson in a number of papers The Canberra plan hopes to navigate between Soya and Charybdis by Tistng the commonplaces or plattades' associated with an evaluat- ive term: platitudes being expressions of posal tacit inferential or fther dispositions thet would be expected of everyone competent ‘vith the form. In thie sence, what goes in onthe right i intended to berasociated a prion with the se ofthe evaluation, in that ican be ‘ead ofl fom the behaviour of those competent with it. And forthe ‘Canberra planner quite alot can be so read of. Considering the judge rent that an arangement sf for example, Jackson and Pett sy: means that conditions ofthe Kind reistered in we commonplaces are fullled™and they then 1. Commonplace about aplication (here we would find paradigm fair procedures and arrangements, such as arrangements tha informed rational contractors could agree upon): 2. about rath conditions (here the main listing tha he fl ines f an arrangement supervenes upon ater descriptions of 5s about jusifation (sims in an arrangement justifies pre {erring itor selecting eter things being equal) 4 sssaloutjustifeatory power (heres elled the place of faimess in| ‘ialder et considerations, whereitisimportant, but no always ‘verwhelming) 5. about motivation (anyone who believes ene option only tobe ini wil prefer other things being equal), 46, about motivational pote (the place ofthis motivation ina ide of considerations itis strong, but can be overiden; 7. about the connection of alms to virtue. The act that some thing i fairs key tobe more salen tothe virtuous. thom work acrylate 2 ator ty by the arc Bre Gti ‘nthe coy Se Franson Ph et Maral Poncnaon Suga boyd Qati s) " ‘The Ebi Proposition: What itis Not a ‘Obviously, the collection is quite heterogeneous. For example, some fof the commonplaces are supposed to pertain dizetly to the content ‘of what i judged. Others are more metatheortcl talking about the raturl or likely consequences of making the judgement. That is, the Commonplace that judgement of fainess motivates apparently a ‘remark about what the jadgement does, rather than an attack on the problem of what ists content that t manages to doit. Remember ‘Kans problem, again: by Kant’ standards, or indeed those of ny oncopnitvist an approach to the judgement of beauty tht said "belng beautiful sth trath about an obec (or, Beauty stat prop ty of objects) such that to apprehend itmakes you motivated t0 pur ‘Sueit would simpy slide by the major ptlosephical problem, which {sow there could be such a truth or such a property ‘What in the light ofall the platitdes, does if mean to say that something is fair? The term on this account gots its meaning holst ‘lly Thre isa network of moral terms (fit just virtuous...) and tach member ofthe network i given its meaning psely By HS con fectons with others. Jackson and Pettit make a number of claims bout this in the first paragraph of theirintroduction. The ists that “the mora erm ae specified by ther role in ceived moral theory — folkmoral theory” Second, folk mora theory has ‘purely deseptive ‘conten’ Hence, apparently ‘moral terms ae reducible to descriptive terme, atlas in principe, but the reduction involved s holistic, aot stomistic, The contentof any one claim fed only so far asthe co tents of others ae Sed simultaneously “There seem to be feo rather different concerns here. Oe i with ‘sablshing «holism, The others with establishing a ind of descrip- tivism, which involves bringing moral jadgements or concepts down tocar by identitying them with natural o descriptive judgements or ‘concepts, there ofcoure,sking the wrath of Sella Buthhow dothe ‘concerns for holism and naturalism relate? Its nota al eae To fx four thoughts shall begin by isting four kinds of problem thataleady seem prominent (4) As already remarked, remembering Kant the patitue that moral jucigements motivates «dangerous clement in theory that aims at ‘showing that thei content purely descriptive For Kant the points that itis ot an acident that the judgement of taste connects with Pleasure, and no more that ethical judgements motivate ehics, as | fave already explained sesentily practical But then the problem ism4 ‘The Ethical Propeston: What Not how there can bea purely descriptive content shit is at the same time ‘cently pracicl—one that cannot a5 we might say, be appre bended in general just with asheug (this sth problem MeDorvell ‘properly face, and heoialy met by the denial elghtenth-century paychology) If they just happened’ to motivate wn the same way that diseovery tha the Bedzoom sell might just happen to motiv= ate someone to change this would be fine, but that snot the way (2) Inany case dothe commonplaces encourage us tobliee that folk theory has a purely descriptive content’ or identifies a purely deserip- five content fran ethical term? At last thre ofthe families of pat- tudes (and 7) are ory morals in tone: they describe fairness in ters of wha i jstifis of whether good people notice Others, ‘while not overtly morals, wil only be accepted by people whe have 2 certain protic stance: these are the commonplaces of application. ‘Giving boys and gil identical educations in my view, aparadigen instanceof aims. Butt wasn (and, unfortunatly st) always 89 regarded. According to the authors of the Calvinist Westminster CConfesion of 169, others dd He appoint fr eternal condemnation, [according toe mos fe, just and Holy Wi Ths strikes the authors {fing but seme to many of us 98a paradigm of injustice. Coming to hold that one thing or another I far involves a moral change, and in so far asthe commonplaces are in His way evaluative, they fave it ‘most obscure hy flk theory canbe sid to havea purely descriptive conten (6) Following on fom this, we must ase the question of how many ‘ofthe plait are really good candidate fora priority In acksom land Pats work thie is extemely important. For Canberra planners, the work divides ike this: philosophers can workout the a prin com imitments ofa certain concept But den tis up to the word, and its Investigators to determine which properties fil the roe specified by the content. The part we areengaged upon is the analysis of thejudge- ‘ment that somethings fair There may bea Further chapter tobe wnt {en about what properties ‘realize’ tat roe Tt is as if we write ob description, and then other things determine who best satisties Wf anyone dows, ‘Consider for instance thoughts sboutthe place offaimess on ad dlr of justification. Falmess is important, but not too important ‘etter to be unlair than allow someone innocent to pens, for ‘eample Wel Thold that and T expect mast people do to, But some ‘The Ethical Proposition What tis Not ns people don’ fi justin et raat cast (ot justice be done though the Feavens fal), they say desperately caring that they never com Injustice or unfatnes, and resignediy putting up with the thought that they may thereby be about to allow innocent peopl to pecsh With other thick’ terms the point would be more obvious, tis leary ‘moray contentious whether or nstance, the ft that an action ind cated courage justifies us im admiring i, jUst as itis morally con tentious whether the fact thal an action i lewd justifies ust condemning it Th fact, if you stip out the commitments that sem indstive ofa ‘moral point of view, [think you ate left only with the motivational ‘metatheoretical plated, that perception of faimess tends to motivate ‘people. Which think is true. But itis nota way of shoving how the Judgement has a content or tuth-cndton tha self magnetic [AL Fst sight, points like the one ust made—the extent to which the platitudes ave shot dheough vith moral claims~scem to stand in the Way of "redcton to descriptive terms” But perhaps olism gal- ops in othe rescue. The obstacle seem daunting because ether the platitudes contain terms lke ‘should motivate’ of uses, or even Von that aot tse they are only acceptable to those of 2 cesta ‘oral persuasion. But goes the promise epeat the exercise round the ticle and eventually we are in a position locate “descriptive prop- fete’ associated withthe role of ech moral term Jackson and Petit talkin their next paragraph of “the descriptive property associated with the rghtness ole) My fourth query, therefore, (4) Whether this promise can ever be made good Fo very few terms are needed to generate all the ethics we need. Pethaps right’ and ‘good! are need owe might ty to getby with the cae term such as “a reason fr’ o's justia Xs good means that there ie rencon for doing X or promoting X or admiring X, or hat these hings re us tifnble;X sight or cbligatory means that there i reason fr doing X and no reason for doing anything else or that nothing other than Xie Justfable; X's impermissible menns tha itis righ to forbid X; and 0 fn. Examples like fal’ get treated as (roughly) ‘aconding to proce ‘ures that can be aged to from a common point of view nd on that account justifiable’ ‘courageous means more able to face dificult ot “danger than it would be ustiabeto require and soon. Whats eval "uatvely interesting about these thick’ terms gets thrown Back on the ‘general moral role of jastifabl. Not that sch an account predicts the phenomenon thatthere may bena telling to what we apply the spe ‘ie 'thick terms, for anyone who cannot share or atleast understand16 ‘The Ethical Proposition: What itis Not ‘or simulate, our attitudes of the boundaries we find important Because they won't know what the justifiable way is. On such an ‘sccount thee simply dacent exist arch tangle of thick’ terms, with ‘nvidia! tentacles steetching ot towards the natural or descriptive, that serve to fx the content of justifiable’ in descriptive terms, “The Scylla/Charybis problem applied to response-dependent| approaches fo the content of evaluative remarks is this. I judging X to be fair saying that t does elicit some response fom us?—but that way les Sole saying that justifies such a response?—but that ‘ray lies Charybis, Jackson and Petit ingeniously negotiate the tap by providing ot ofboth some statements about what responses are sliited by he judgement (the metatheoretial side in which the judgements typical effects are noted), others about what arrange- nents justly description as fair So we ae, sit were, tossed rom side to side ofthe strait guarded by Sey and Charybeis. But that isnot the same ae a straight passage through “Theresa elated way in which esponse-dependent theories canbe developed, bes illstated in the work of Michacl Senith. Smith's ‘sccount works with desi’ asthe response in question, and hopes to {ell us when i appropriate to use this response as certifying true ‘ales, ust as selection of what counts as ‘normal or standard in these of colour should els when sewing something as red sa cee ticaion that sis indeed ze. Its 0 when its normal people in Sandard circumstances who see things as eed. South applies his ‘ecount to the judgement that ti desirable for an agent to petoan Incircumatances ‘ing in Cis desirable = if we were fully rational, we would desire teeinc™ “This abbreviates a sighly longer account i tems of what our fly rational selves would have our everyday selves (with their given freight ofinerests and desires) do. But theabbreviation is harmless for present purposes, and T discuss the fll account in Chapter 8. Like ther Canberra planers, Sth takesit thatthe task ofan analysis ike this sto make explicit what we otherwise kaew at best only implic- ily in vet of beng master of evalutive concepts’. The mention of ‘oly ational’ the analysis thus serves to label or summarize pro- ues whersby we sift desires into these that ae, and those that are ol taken tbe indicative, or indeed in sense constitutive of what is >this frmaaton is fom Michal Saih, Repoee Depends wit adap feo Ppa The Ethie! Proposition: What Not 7 esirable. Smith belioves that when enough apron plaitudes' about processes of iting desires into the good and the bad ae ade he an ‘scape the dilemma of Sella and Charybis. Having seen the difical ties that beset Jackson and Petit, we wil ear to noticing whether this lai is made good asinlyby lurching from one side ofthe straits to the other. Or more immediately, whether iis made good by the time-honoured nautial device of hoisting misleading colours, which Inthscase isthe norm of rationality. \ We certainly talk about rising to our beter selves, And there are already good words for the imapined end of that procers: ideal” of ‘pertect’s Why ist the desirable that whic, if we were perfect, we |B stould desire to door a) had it that which ur ideal eves would haves do? Certainly there were lure of harmony between hat ‘our ideal elves would have us do, and what our fll atonal selves ‘would have us do, one would tink ethics would see ogo withthe |; idea. And this seems tobe areal threat. Sappose, for example, fully ‘atonal selves maintain serenity by having no desires all: they have {chieved Stoic serenity or Buddhist Nirvan, and leaned the folly of | afhuman strug. Then theres nothing they would have us do or ‘they would have no preference for whether we do one thing oF another But that (I would say) justshows that thie isnot the standpoint from which things are tobe assessed as desiabe or no “Fully rational in Smith's work sa very slippery fs. I scems to facein at least hee diferent directions : (0) Itsjustavaslant of ial or ‘perfect ee af any aw or defect Bymostmoral standards Stoic and Buddhists would not count, ‘because they are unsulficlentlyUni-and: that inoue ym pathetic, or concemed, or caring, for example {2 Iisa description in natural terms for pychologies of specie ‘ind Smithoten provides tis descrip ofthe anal elt is uly formed snd has a axially raid and cere desires (shall psyehologies of which this tues MUCK. having deste set of Minimally Unie and Coherent Kind), (6) Heinsinuates a diferent set of norms fom moval norms, namely those of atonal, whichcante used to underpin moral norms “The firs option falls of course straight into Charybs, Certainly when I espond to something as desirable Tean expres thatby saying {hat from an idea point of view It would be desed, or hat my ideal self vould desire it This is ast an ethical paraphrase ‘Option (2 looks a ite more promising But how dos it void the aza8 ‘The Ethical Proposition: What tis Not jaws of Sela? Theres sucha thing the strug fr “uty and ‘Gherence in deste the stopp to tain what Raw called rele theequiibum’ Although scully dere salsa acountrcaren we ‘in well understand, and perhaps even sient sympathize with the Sent wh ovate fo be fly married bt to several ferent ‘Nomen * Bt then svt Sith ast presenting something ss Valuable, lng nelinesof Xisood =X mavimies happiest’ except there {tir Kis good =X indented by those who deste aheie MUCK selves tbvie of ish?” And then, even if we cn on MUCK 38 descr thn tha applies fo some peycholgies an aot oder (which by no treans vous), would sem thot Moore's pen question argument Salk Tt one thing to allow tht somthing would be recom Tenby aMUCK ovescer and another vale it snot to clear ‘thats ood about MUCK. er bad about aitionson Afterall or {Hive know, Sts and Buddhists have MUCK psychologist in thy eyes tat disqualifies them from giving advice o anyone Looking the human rac, one might have 8 nasty suspicion tat he MUCK. vice might be ogo ump ina ake, whatever we happen to want. Tlscus option in chapters and in connetion ith Kantian approaches pact est. For the moment we can eae th herman, One might thnk Seth could void tection fom Buddhism oe Sciam by pointing tat in fot weal start somewhere Iwestart with cual ereandow desis the proces of obtaining ‘Gullirum shoul not beseen even potently or proces f emo ‘igesies nthe intrest ony of coherence an unt hing obtained thore cna the low yo wa} But not hs path seo pen to im Forhe nis tht al atonal selves coincide Actua human ifr frecsaretbeached out by the processes that ead ode rational I ‘Ses ot mater where you str fom the fly atonal you et ‘wil other fly atonal eves So here jst he uly ational Silos swe might etter ptt theene rational tandpeint Ard then itis eel thet whether anything a alls ecommended fom hi Sandpoint What Goes on agent occupying are about—and should trecare about the, whatever it at well? The rational standpoint Tike the view trom nowhere, the God'ye pointe View And we ‘now that God's nature sites nd Rees one Sense, 0 pete haps iin the othe Responce dependent accounts of value ems can ake many forms, sre sn hyo a ki td rape nek wh ‘The Eucal Proposition: What i Not a9 and given the sie ofthe ota sailing hugh the sats it may be ‘plist for me to think that Seva and Chars wil Gaim al of ‘hem Bat lieve thi chapter has established tht they hare nat ‘alin. can best be susimed up by saying hat they conte speaking om witins moval perspective, ad exebng ath about those who speak fom win And tht is changing the set (Gola) ulesofcouretisevaluating Nespeakersorinober words doing more ofthe same bid of hing we were ying to understand bein with (Chany 6, CORNELL REALISM ‘The final approach I shall mention here is loosely described as ‘eal ism’ and often thought fas opposed, therefor, ant-elism’ oto ‘no ‘Sbultis and pehaps she dos not know whether hey il pat oat ‘lor badly. Petfope she only hnows thatthe consideration fas increnad the taken te fears ts going tt ot very Well or ery seo sess Looking Out fr Yousif ‘aly but han ide which This maybe why shes dtd. Even sehen she tae the she may not Know hers ee {teh acquis, or bectoe hin or he Ad even wher oe now the diets conataton we ay nat eo ie stg orsekttis pes ue nada Sein we Pie curses, ard tof nly etopec, when» cou toa hint down, hat wecan hit upon sory about whats indening coring to which our eventual dave ae beroe! We oursessmsines have ty conte reaper Sion seppoe what mt have ben baring ime wast These estons have en ravely api That the the usin af how on oan tis fs suntan, and the the gues Mon of hove importa the fess of ae fot with ena Seton sen a he upto the estes at Sh ote an he dees of importance ty hav, Te rule hatte soge ocr "is epee apie of sk aceing simply mene twee {ret the considerations that do fact wt a tone that a ie $tongest Bat teenies om cpl stad hat eanbe sed toampliy th trey beggin atest ut {mete lyin decision-making In fasting say he mat Scenist Antonio Damasio ese he sacar ofthe dy a Bram tht subserve decison making and the sing conseuencs ‘when hey go wrong" Damasio present patients whos cacti fr enon how ingen meory, also held sere hinge inn at oc, sacl lle orl sein inerenal Ingle bien and agg ae ge ntact yet whine apo 0 lvethilves many sete way sta soe Wharhacben ost isthe application of sch knowlege herman of emotional ‘et. a thence dec akg So such cuban ch oftwoaltemstvers beter what th consyuene of oe oa ‘ould andcan setae et (bly tow spc fat 2on hat pope count as impotent cnet Buta i as torte son Such pats ohavelnhopetly inappropriate ways: They il w exci snp tn they pet sdctaced hey Cause scl hae and are inca of emery npn the own lien The must famous example of the Spe es the rineteentenry tay worker Pines Cage, whole frbrin vas penetrated by anim nando! whee. Thea fends damage fo the nt ofthe ai he vette en + Anan Damas, Dest Ear New Sek Pat, 94)16 Looking Out or Yourself ‘the prefrontal cortices) lft Gage, in the words of his contemporary physician fit ireveret, indulging a tines in he grosses profanity which was not previously is castom, matsting but ie deference or slows impo [cyt ersn or adie when cons ith desis, at Himes pertie ‘ously stint, jet capecious and vaciling.deviang many plans of Fue operation which ano nooner aang thn they ate abandoned? “The eason forthe inability to function normaly—athough, ofcourse tlementsinthe pattern areshowbyalloussomeaf the time seems tobe that these patients have lst any normal associations between representing aspects ofa saan, a he stable onset of ae 0 “Ghoton Scene which woul excite positive o negative emotions in ermal people may lve such patients enily eld They do not tome cctedat the prospec gan or far atthe proxpet fos Inthese emotional lives everyhing hs ether dbappeare, oat come unstable* Damasio describes how ther presentations are ‘ot somataly marked” or in other words how things Hk unpleas Unt gu cling’ or other body expressed emetonal changes fall to ‘rau when, in nonmal people, they would When there © en Shsenct of act we ave a fs decson-making landscape’ one in ‘which no option seably generates anymore emovonally mucked Trtcton cr aoidance tn any oer In some paints there ite ‘ro etna opt. n ters, such a Cage, some sescations erwoen sarees and emotion seem tobe there, bu unstable tan nana equenty bs hie tempura act scem ob cla enough einer tionisnotsocbvious Thess that tation ssomatically marked tthen wehave pleasant or umplessnt bodily sponse sucha the Ssovnted wil fear or anger we think he stuation. AR ts ‘iar that he basic emotion f ange fear igus sadnen, nd hap ns os oy can be thought fa he up o ay speci ‘fet Drogas subsersed By the limbic yom inthe ean The systems ponte for them ae homogous with simar systems found ia ‘Ofer mamals and especialy primates Sch systems work nl +i ne mri i iti, He ae and seh eaters Soper he peli a Mee ely A Ms lara ices Laing Out for Yours wy unary. They tke as input stimalus, hich mayor may noe con Sous and elverasymdromect changes ss output including pc {ail expressinsanlchangesin he stone pervousystery sich asthe hupinghent elevated adrenalin and consed et charoc teristic feat. The operation his systm nay be passive in the pre Sie see Hat i operates witout contol BY higherarer ceca process We may be, and olen are unite of whl ts Eiough we wil be conscious ofthe resting ange o fear In tis ‘eopect we ar often opague to ourselves Ba saying tat such sys temopertes without tis highcrorder cont iat impying ht ‘Salways immune to such conta. Sometns is indeed immune. In Fame’ famous oample «man suspended ina cage over precice ‘maybe very lat althogh he kgs toe level hate ptey Sate” Thesystem does ts work egress. Bat sometimes we cancon- ‘olor fest and the pani subside “The apparent diadvantge of the automatic nar of the operation ‘sof cour outinighed By the Benet of speed Its evelutonatly ‘vantageous to be very quik at preparing for fight or feo at Svoiing noo substance, even te syst hat makes Us quick {0.doso delves a far number of ase postves* Suing that a sytem may operate elstvely independent of higher-order cognitive functioning snot denying tet he input ie ‘may develop diferent in diferent enviroments, or be teed i Ferny in diferent societies Very ew inde of cut maybe available to rigger emotional sponses in the youngest cildnen Featrcs such &s these or frown ofthe ever ay be examples B they lear byexpeiene andy station others. single experience of abarn fa shockis enough toring children o far whot burned oe shocked them, and a litle awareness of what els fear fom others infecs them i sir aversion “The passivity of other emotions, or perhaps we should say emo- tina ate ar play aimed to volve more complex yer of esgn Ths there ae emotional stats whine el pot that hey fretted os pase although plausible wo sae uncon ‘motivation inthe people who get themesives into them, and uncon Sious colaboration in those who tthe a out of cont The rales 1 Re Gate a Sigal, Deco, Aco ara of Poy, 8 (sh 7 Se Pal Gt, Wa Ein Roy Ae (Cig Unive e Chea Prermenace28 Looking Out or Yourslh alleged or imputed passivity becomes an excuse for the abnormal iehovour or the sb of consi tual scl norms a tables person to tain sepa of honour under ses and the ‘ey tm ay want stl fr ht ops even et he Sppsveny pradoxcl phenomenon of people who obviously wer iRemclvcoup ino sutton deliberately sing orastaeat which they can excietherecves shaving been overcome by emotion asi alfect programs operate rather he a ele, producing stereo typical changes int face and body They account or mesa phe Pmensogtaly salient emotions, and indeed invite the aden trade the Janes Lang theory of emotre, which that he char Sens feo of emotions consis ha ereption ofthe aor ios siats of arosal or deprenion Dut bse fet programs ser ft socenaltogher cognitive emoonsch as ere or lousy ct Tong-term syrromes of emotion sch a cold caculsted ange, oF ‘Sten grieving or bringin love In hs eer book, Paul Gath ug fsthat ths die rom Damasio’s primary emetionsin four npr Eni vrays" Fis they are more lxble gm he nput ie, ot eed tyr any esc Kinds of onto stators, the wa hat fears tctedby apprehended danger orange by bstaces and challenges ‘Stcond, they ae stained ough te, unlike te muscular ‘hyena elec ofthe act pograms Td they donot have Ttconpia outputs, suchas dione facil expressions or tats Pysloipcal anal And, Sally ey are itgrted with other one fesse dana gem plat rahe an triggering lek esponses, This lads Crtths to propose a ive Son the folk concept of motion pals together to eniely ferent Spates, hich the sno reason for cog since to eta ay dot unity Cait suggests tht te est account the higher cop five emotions should simply eat hem ab "iupive motivations Snes’ sates "whch interfere with the smooth unfolding of plans ‘designe to scire our longterm gol There may be good game hoor reason for ust Re sabjet to such states, but they remain intiona nthe clas economie sense, Cage theory, howe‘ should ind no single natural nd common to both the penaryemo- ons ofthe alec program and these more complex stats. igen See oe meetin ERIS noreeaciminoe aking Out for Yours 235 My objection to this is patly conceptual and partly empirical ‘Conceptually, the picture of higher emotions as simply disruptive motivational states ignores the extent to which our attachment to our “longterm goals’ iste an emotional stat, The person whohas dr. ving concer for his fore financial satus o future health not ie ferent fom the person who Wants todo dovin his neigh in that the later semotionaland he isnot. He has difeent concerns, but hey esualy engage his emotion. lis even ily, and according to some theorists inevitable, that those concer wil themselves involve overt femetios, suchas pride or vanity theorists such as Mandeville and ‘Adam Smith are ight once we are beyond abasic lve of sstenance, the reason anyone cares so deeply aout financial status tht they cae deoply about status. And even they ae not right, the concert will ineolve such things as fear of fale or anger at obstacles, Sing long-term interest as ‘unemotional, whereas other things are emo- tonal in fact mobilizing the negative connatations of emotona’ it is like Cold War warios saying that dissidents revealing the bad effects of nucleat explosions on people are arguing “emosronaly— whereas they themselves, plating the laid evil of the enemy, are rguing rationally’ Empirically, the soggeston that wesimply split the operation ofthe affect program from ‘higher cogaitive emotions seems to ignote the ‘most accnatingresultof Drnasios work whichis theextent fo which “higher-order” decision-making has fo harness the limb system ‘order to work at al The clinical evidence i that when the primitive system is disrupted, then the higher-order decision-making stem callapses with it Uniess the outcomes of action thatthe cognitive =) tem can identity come somatialy marked’ the decision-making ys- tem malfunctions. The whol pont is tha there sno dualism in Wich the one lots re of the other. And inthe ight that if we look ain at the four reasons for separating the higher-order cognitive emotions form the others then I think we cn se that they are nota all som Pelling. These points are quite compatible with seeing the long-erh, Coturlly variable sates as essentially dispositions whose manifesta ‘ons are particular patteens and blends) ot ocurrences ofthe primary emotions. Thus jelous person i prone to oecurrences of anger, fea, and sadness elicited by percevings or memories or even imaginings "oat Mundie, The fe of the Bos FB, Kaye (vk: Oot ‘sey et gh ie Adam Sth Thy Mal Ss 9. Sela tn uot Oxley em won. he Fyn he tego Lan Pe =0 Looking Out for Yourself ‘hat sepresent the val attentions ofthe beloved. But this is just what Damasio means by saying that representations of events of that kind have become somatically marked And if they hadnt, and the agent ‘ould think about, o lok with perfect equanimity on such scenes, then he or she sot eslous Its nat even cea that cases ike this the input and oxtput ae less stereotypical than the case of primitive fear or anger, cemembering the amount of leaming and development tht has foe behind a chills coming to perceive the ‘ight things as Fearful or thretening, Ofcourse, there may bea further layer of acu furaton as well on top of the stereotypieal ootpat Diferent cultures till ave diferent norms for sppropeate expressions of suc an emo= tion inckading ts suppression, but that tue also of basic anger or feat, happiness or sadness. For example, Japanese apparently show facial behaviour characteristic of negative emotions which are almost instantly suppressed inthe presence of authority figures, and replaced byapoltesmile® Acorrest English expression of git would scarcely do in the Middle East "Again a person of cold calculating anger, bent ona long-term pro= Joct of revenge, may not often bare his teeth or clench his fist inv {intr Buti itis genuinely anger, athe than dspassonate malice, Forinstance, then there willbe a deposition to those Kinds of output the ccumetances are right Learning that his enemy has escaped his pot, or scored yet another ttumph his heart pounds, he grinds his feeth, vents his spleen on his amu, and s0 on. ‘But emotional states are not simply perceptions of bodily arowsals| and changes, as, fo instance fling sick maybe thought tobe Theit ‘Soence includes drectedness unlike moods, emotions have objects “Tointegrate the directednes of emotion with the neurophysilogical facts re must suppose that our visceral arousals ae not merely er ceived” but playa pat in determining what attracts and repels us or ‘what we become inclined todo, oad epi) at if fe hugh of bi nn such responses then this is what its foe it to Bethe abject fan emo- tion, Bu this isnot quite ight I may think of you and Become ang. Burit doesnot follow that ts you Tam angry a Thinking of you may feild me ofthe party where met you, and his may make meangry eee meat eanee {fe ben Cordes Te Sct Emus (Cambs Cambie Unies ms Leaking Out fir Yourseip om for some quite diferent reson. Of thinking of you may make me So, our emotions do nt as it were, nish witha consciousness of bee and visceral sates. ted, these somatic makers funcon ‘Dasng device Eventually they Wana ilo tke ar create ot ptions about which we deliberate and fests of situnton hat we think about What tent lke Gage show is tat without such atk ers an the aol emotion oe feling to which they can ges, ‘amount of inormation (or eesoning ov infin) mor salen than any other: the decison making lnncaperemsins bonny at for none of mars We ave Back with Hamict and Jacques again Without emetion the wil sudderes So re an ste ou cogetive relation with the world our capacity to represent itasbeing one way x another as ied in parinership wih the mechanisms ol emetion and of tet that tn the input info output Our emerionaldspotions nd our representations at together tose ction, with metnr ‘ppaeny ables cv ss awit he er “The neurolgiaevdence cles ngs two spare faces or ‘modales working in prteratp, We co separate fv distin! pop tries ofan agen the way she represents tings a being. and whet ‘cs those ways have on her conduct She may preset things ih just hat vay because of somatic markers dieting her to find some features important, nd iting ert ignore others: These marhers mayinturmbavethe plac they dobcaune of previous experience and Previous pins and pleasures ut terol of memory expen, and Emotion canbe dtinguished none the les Patents such os Gage Show the pinot dramatic by sing what happens when ings ocrnaecn areata wn ng wk5 atin on fr Fer eas ates an eae ee rane fee te sce ene ay dee ee ar lo ome Sa ee 2 cance cymes Suspects Ree gees see cat elementos er Sree fim elses eter sly oe ere en cp ournmdonletas Rent cats areas Cnty nee eae mae sonnet ont ‘hur Sesgeeateny dee at tahtetel acts teagan eugene tu eam ae en SSE wae aya oe an Soe cao hep ti a ma cau pee ee a say Tacha wu i sams etn yo Perpoase ope p kops ae mre eta Ba Sy ate id Soe atemc efedona ae smote iene competed rte raed ene spent ete ca a en ee recs tnwstancagmanmestondetce wee iy ese Uae say aeons oat porate oe Upton epee ad yp ween nheritcesen cee SeRiunietn sch ysny finn ober Sin ims mi emg cc ih i SETgaTLE at hakermesy ER WikGeenchdome garea hy moaned Laoking Out or Your 3 the fecing we have when ater tran of deliberation, we just id turseives finally inclined Yo one thing or anothe'® Bt ie ot so much that he arrival oa cole the same the aril of the st “tppetit’ or characterization ofthe station se desta or undest ablein some respect When the wil is activate, our nlnations tke the form of ect acions oe a leas the formation of deine and intentions to act This snot the same asthe aval offal consi erator. isa resolution of the problem rather than another contb ton oi. With desires and concer the bow ent but with ineton and decison thearow spe. Hobbes’ poi, presumably that he direction in whit sped isthe onetowarde which ihe bw Ws bent “Toinjectsomesysten, wemay wanttointerpet the process of delib- craton as ene of aconting adding and sarang acts Some pea carecy an evel bln hive have steady sad that we wil interpret people whor we regard as at forreson tf weer they Gate do mates mea to hen thetime Wecan impose aking of unconedous cas of weighs of atfect Sometimes but ity seldom we cnsconaly perfor procs Something ike ths, going though cost benef analyse whch dee mines a solution Bu often we donot and annot and hee usualy Something absurdly arial about the procs of drawing up ost {nul eommerouratng the consierstons I ie filing ison sly ‘questonnaire—tenty ways of measuring the succes of your mat fage'—at reading an spor Book on management technique ‘Sy ater Te hapten yh jects in acta pantomime, perhaps dguiing the extent to which {he econ hs already infact ben takes We should oie ay el thatcostbenestanayas does notsupplant the emtna bassof dec Sionaking but at bes systematizest Forts only so far as same tutcomes tract ut and others do ot that eae actualy tating them al oad tei tat the wa of Das Patients, the inet exercise af entering something asa cost OF Rneftis detached om it nomel aseiation with ema fe, ana has no impact on decsion- making So compe os nota Counterpart semaine «pee payaeing. TnChapters7 and 8 werent one way n which he scenes far hasheencomplcatedy moral ptloophers Theis thrugh hee lution ofthe spurious fre tat ah al the Kantian Capt Bat syngas He Lith Csi Ot Ono Unies Fea Lacking Out for Yousif ‘nthe culture at lange, 8 opposed to professional philosophy, far the sos important attempt to ee syst nthe jumble of surface consi ‘tions derives them from some fundamental stock of motivations ‘And of thes, the most famous the dating of biologists businessmen, ‘and cynic ake, f the idea that underneath the surface les the rth ies pursuit of selinterest. Beneath the surface diversities of desire tnd emotion le he hidden selfish mechanisms Scratch anyother con Siesaion, and undereat revealed the ceaseless concern for the salt. 2, ECONOMIC MANY? ‘ere is characterization ofthe “ational ator’ of central onthodox ‘economic theory, and political and sil science: 1 Actors purse oats 2 Thee gl ft the actor's perce efinerest 5 Behl rests roms pres that involve, Furi asifitentals| 4 Theindvial the basic agent in sosity Acton have poternce tat are cost and table cir geen options actor il chose the aeratve with the highest expected ty aes 7. tors pons esterive normation on bh the avaable erates Gn th ie consequences fer ccs “The human being as painted by thie theory is homo economics or eco homie man. Economic man s supposed to conduct deliberation in a “pec way. He (rahe for hom cover both sexes) always acts with fis or er own interes in mind. In the more formal argon, his single ‘minded principles that of maxinzing his expected tity of geting the most for himel that canbe expetted by any couse of action he ‘ould fake. Economic man is usually presented as @ paradigm of Fationaity rather than a moral paradigm n fat his nature can easily Stem opposed to morality, whith would demand a a inumum some Kind of concern for ther, Indeed one ofthe classics of British moral Philosophy, Henry Sidgwick’s Meds of Es, structured around {be unsuccessful attempt to circumvent the opposition Between ego- ee ont aaa seo Looking Out for Yourself us Jism and ethics. But of course the selfinterestd rationality of homo economicus also attracts devotion ofa moral Kind. Enasiat in th rinetenth century and, asthe notorious quotation atthe head of this chapter shows, in our awn time as well have no touble panting ‘opposition tothe principle as impractical, unvwordly a mark of unl ‘es, 2 non-adaptive and sickly aberration, a stigma, Rational sel Interests deep in our image asthe goal we are to pursue td theres something reassuringly empirical nd down to arth (earlier eitcs "would have sid, English) about expected wit The principle has a ‘als ring about IE dont expect too much from people. Look for their interests, even if they are disguised by what they say they ant ‘And, afterall practical poles is largely a matter of appealing eo what people perceive tobe ther own interest. ‘Yetelementary questions about whats intended are enough to rase| doubts about the principle that ational persons always acon the prin: ciple of maximizing thie own expected tity. What does t mean? Indeed is there anything for i to mean? When we are sure what it means, are we sure that there s anything uniquely rational about i and whats the force of the word atonal’ he? Ave we dealing with ‘human universal charactnstc of simply through our specie Wide natures or witha very speci cultura seitimage: the ievlogy ‘of ‘possessive individualist’ or Western capitalism? Why ist adv able mimize or expsted wit? What arewe ke ie 30, Hwedonot? ire are thre posibilies about the status ofthe principe (2) Te thesis if rue, isan empieza uth, describing ourselves as weare Sotaken, issues in specifi predicts Since tis tue of us, will do some things and ave others had the principle not een true of us, we would have done otherwise, The thesis if rue, isa normative truth, describing ourselves as we aught to be. It doesnot isu in predictions, but in reo mendations is ral of cond, ke for example, ‘never give ‘sicker an even teak ® @ (6) The thesis if true is analytic or definitional. It is a principle or fd for imposing interpretation: 2 mathemutial strate, ‘designed to render processes of delieration mathematically teachable, whatever hase proceses are As sucht us in el ther predictions nor commendations Many peopte think the trath hes in (1) of (2), of somewhere joining ‘hem, Saying that we are to some extent lke hans eamsmus, nd BY6 king Out for Yousef authoritative citera of rationality, this show see ought to be. We Should asit ere thank God that we ave that maiational cast just Swe might thank God tat we are ngs, or whatever Equal, et ‘Brot thetheory may atack teempiral bas ors moral credential, frboth Peraps tou ange etent we arenot ie tot nd should hank ery tr Cis oma enn pepe fy a Citen suppose ta the theory insnustsa fale, patrlrchalfeal—that SSlanidel at sat least fae of women, and arguably oe cede Gn this Kind of view the ational actor el-dected selasserive, pportunnic, aggresive in pursing his intrest, independent, hearing calculating anightmare Machavelian gure prjesed over the entre oper of human relations” But then the tery Becomes tmpircaly as, for thee ae teeth not al of ws ext afte tine. Andi tecomes morally cbnowious, for these are nt tats We “hint when we ae ptng ou Best Foot forward. But before co ‘Smingthe theory so roundly should ike to consider moeecaretlly ‘what te theory sticlymearalthough tat nat nyt ese “ics were misguided in highlighting the dy vison stood forin practi may bethat the tat sin 3). ess fama option already fore shadowed inthe remarks in Chapter nthe fist section o this chap fevand that explana ester length nthe next chapter OF ours, it tempting a writers have fallen to the temptation fo want fo ypeserve soe empincal content, and sme normative bite or the TRtory while comiorably enoying the scary ofthe thi epson Detenditasa tautology but deploy as anemic insightor recom: ‘rendaton Thisnachaly combination salen eneeached n heaven fo deservea name While sting noble exceptions we might fal the economist fallacy. Piluophers however ate nt wholly ‘focent ofthe economist fallacy. Here iJon Sail “And now to dc whther thse so; whether minkind sein ‘Rpfortnalbo ha whisper thom ort hh tease pun weve cvdentysrved st gustan at and expenene, depen {anita sa ust upon dence These Bat se srs Tevidece spot clos il sre tt oring a thingen ing placinaversin toi and Sunkngo Rou pif ae phenomena © the pope cle in Man Feber ate Neon oe ep Emi Mon ii Vert Cheap es pa ase many sch eons etn Cenerentola ‘toenail beeny wana aa oking Out or Your = atl separable oar wo put af these perme thr ‘Bn of anebpetas deat anos of concept et {ink oft pean rene andthe thang andl ‘Scepinpoperion athe al his plesan app a ‘cal impossibility. pose foun Here Millstatsby eling us that he i deslng with an empirical ques tion of what people doin fact dese The thas stat they dene ‘nog or tel but that whch pleasure other Argun fst {his thesis re Ml substtes an equation beeen ing ar abject as desirable an thinking of iat pleasant. He then tarcora thi into the ths that itis physically and metaphysical impose to desi anything eceptin proportion asthe idea ots leant Bat the substution and rnsformation takes him much father than he relzes from the orginal question ‘These may bea sense whch desiring someting impli thinking oft as plssant dese the eshte nie, 1 may thnk pleasant that he inl I dire the survival ofthe whales, ink plessant at whats tre ‘ive But ths sot relevant to the npr qucstan with which Nil ars out that whether people only dei thei owt happiness ot eaure The ac tht sk the survival of the whales pleas oes nat even imply that think ilo pleasntfir me Iighepect tobe dead before the survival of the whales or the death of feel fe secured. And docs not suggest tht itis nt real he sural butonlymy own pleasure ht desire All wear fold sth ides dng such things mast be hing them in plessan or favourable light But it does ot oliow an not rue tat its my ow pes a sppiness tht thereby dente Curcusy enough, Mico has teamed toavod this mista rom a lower eke wok jst over 2 century befor him, Jneph Bullet, whose exposition we now con: 5: THE EMPIRICAL CLAIM: BUTLER ON DESIRE [AND INTEREST ‘Thetheory is that when we at, we act out of selflove, oF seiner. Sometimes, more fashionably the idea's that we ly ever act out of ‘what i inthe interests of our genes, but Thal consider the more ta sition view frst. This view goes under the heading of pycolgteal eS ML Urine8 Looking Out for Yourself «ois: thas tremendous emotional power If webeleveit,we know the world, we ace nabody's fool. We ae not taken By’ cant and Inypocrsy like conspiracy theorts, we have penetrated below the ‘surice ike Freud finding sex everywhere or Mars finding economics ‘everywhere, we se the real face of human beings behind the mask, itis tre thatthe view not very popular among philosophers, but everyone scknovredges thot i sone of those hardy perennials that never die, however thoroughly philosophers believe they have dug up their root, The standard attempt to dig them up is due to Bishop Butler, and has been accepted and repeated in various forms by Bradley, Sdgweick, Broad, and many others, Butler begins with a ppowerfula pon point even fthereis aprincipleofselfantees thas fo be true that aswell as acting om itn the abstract, we aim at particu Iacextemal things. We want, on occasions drink, food, warmth, exer ‘stad 30 on. These, the peychologeal egos ays are desired as @ means to ourhappinessor ease or contents in hisinterest hat these particular desires are met, and it isbecausetisin his interests that the {ese exit But at ny rate, say Bute, ‘hata paral petites and pssons ar twas hing hoses, “lstne tte ae stg oth mse om hn hee ‘ould nob he pacure wee nor at por stables betwen the ‘Sect andthe pain tee could be eyment or eight rom one thing tue tan ante om eating food more than fom swaowing aon Tere wore otan section raped one hing mae han ater “The point being that we have to admit that we have dese fr the water or food or whatever since were i not so, there would be no ‘pleasure’ arising from satisfaction ofthe deste. The desire for Water (efor Butler als «particular affction, an his Rist point sto d+ tinguish having such» prticulae affection from having am interest in the pleasure arising’ rom it alent ‘What Btler x doing forcing the dstintion between (4) The object of my “particular” desi, which might equally be for water food or the happines of my neighbour (or foe anything ‘es the continuation ofthe whales, ofthe destruction of my tnemy,oF he triumph ofthe Party or the death ofthe infil) = epee Ste el rt 2 er pie es eee ae cree een oer ee aerccimeremo ok Looking Out for Yousef 39 fon the one hand, and (2) The pleas esi hat will accrue to me upon the satisfaction ofthat “onthe other hand Inevitably the pleasure mentioned in(2) my ples: lure, Because its my desie that wwe ae talking about But Butler langves, we should not conelude fom that fact alone tha the prince ff my action is aleays sel dove: Ana I because every parla afin ca man’s ow, and the plesure ‘hing rom ts ratieationhisonn plssu peta thimsls ech pa "ula afection mustbe called clover according hs way of speaking, no {reture whatever can poasbly act bute self love tod every aon {nd every afin whatever tobe resolved up int hs oe rine But ‘hen thot the ange of mankin, of Hit were, we shoud want wonds tocxpresthefleene tence he prin nso, pred oh {eoleursdeation hat willbe to my own advantage an enact suppose ‘frevnge ora frendship by which man cure uponceran rain iocoevl tr good tw anaher™™ ‘This isan exposure of Mul’ fallacy. That isthe tautology that dhe pleasure mentioned in (2) ie my pleasure doesnot all ental that my Actions have any such state as their abject. The fallacy tums on amb Bult in English constructions with the word ‘peasant. I a co fered forthe survival ofthe whales, we might say that I find their ‘survival pleasant to contemplate, and by canfson we might go onto Suppose that this identifies please forthe sake of which lam ea algning. This was Mil’s mistake ‘Why is this confusion? We may enter small complication, before returning to expand Butler’ main point Not al desires seem to bring ‘pleasure’ upon being gratified. I may want¥o go fora ran, not because TThind it enjoyable o expect to be pleasant, but because Ieleve tis good for my heith and Iwan to be healthy. Or, might have a sud ‘den craving fr some special food, even though I dont much ike its taste, and’ don expect to get mach pleasure from eating Paychologists sometimes talk of satisfaction of desie in terme of release of tension rather an onset of pleasure. The idea i that being inthestateofdesieisatherike being under pressure and the change in the self that comes with gratifying the desire isthe release of the Pressure, I not clear that thsi even trae empirically: i 1 pass 4 hevesvendor and decide wants paper [dom tiselunder pressure, and Teon't feel a release from pressure when Ihave bought i Stl ess, Bate Fite Sr Sermon M180 Looking Out fr Yourself when Ihave bought it, am 1 likely to fel rapturous, or exalted, or ‘uporics am not likely fo savour the moment, o revel in the good feding Isimply wanted paper and got. ratified a particoar pas ‘sho, and tats al ‘Sl the thors may sy, whathappened was that here as apres sure and now its gone, We may speak ke thi if we wish, but notice {hat ts quite wrong to infer that what I wanted was release from the pressure 'T wanta paper andT want tobe rleased fom the pressure Ur wanting a paper are two quite diferent things. It isnt jst that ‘wanting the poper may be unaware of anything that deserves calling {Tprenne But more importa, even bgan to recognize the pres ‘re tis fil fue that in wanting a paper Tony want to be released from the pressure in one specific way-—namely, by obtaining a papee IT aomeode hurled me ones couch and psychoanalysed me out of my ‘este and thereby release me from the pressure, [would not have got ‘what | wanted tht paper Tight be stisted ith his way ofemoving the desire, but only if at some level I dot really dently” with the desire I felt that ‘a an obvesion, or Kind of extemal impsiion, might be happy to have it removed surgically as t were, So, for example, @ person fright want release from sex] desite, and if that could be procured toy aking bromine or some pacifying hormone, then that would suit them fine, But most people subject to sexual desse woul! not ata ‘want that way fo peace, They want the natural expression of sextal desire which Sse "Fora further example, imagine someone bent upan revenge. She wants to destoy her enemy. Suppose someone redescrbes her a8 ‘Wanting release from the pressure of desiring evenge. Here ae ways Df doing that give her ap tha wipes out memory of her wrongs. Or [Biveher false report that her enemy hasbeen destroyed. These ways [Eve her peace of mind, But do they gether what she wants? Suppose Sowa ner henchasan, and she orders you to destroy the enemy. You ome back and slip her the pill, or manufacture the false report. Imagine the deception comes Out: could you defend yourself by say~ ing Lon gotyou wat you wanted? Hardly fT want the destruction ‘tiny ene othe heath an happiness of my lee, Idont want to ive ina fos paradise in wich I believe wrongly that my enemy fsteen destroyed or my children ivi health art happiness. ant = ingen tion a Spinel denn Lukin Out for Yury - these things tobe rly so. My own states of mind ar incidental, Of ors normaly I aeoa also ke to know that my enemy is dkstroyed, or that my cide tev. But comes ocho, the Combination of In enemy bing detoyed; my nat knowing about ‘vor my len tevin my not knowing stout Dest my ena ‘oti destoyed my falsely Beleving that eas en oe nyc ‘remot thrvig,my bleving that they ae The peace of nd is Incidental tismetthat which order my henchmen tobring abot and tena what I noemaly want “There ae cers special cases in which my own tate of min i ‘what aim at bt these are interesting precisely beense they ar di Tere Suppose sone gives some money ta 8 shanty, apparent rating to elp the children ofthe Third World. Suppose hen cones Dt thatthe money al goes 0 compe administrator of the hart {he person is rated not so much tthe administatrs ut rather at the reporter who breaks the sory, we could suspect tat realy they {id care bout he chen but about tion vite ortho own Seitsatistacton. Such a person may shoot the messenger’, geting Sshnoyed atthe exstnce of repors hat dentro thei peace of mind ‘ses whee they dit mind living ns fool's parade Dt such cases Se empircaly diferent. They ar interesting Besse they go along wrth detectable and often eather embarrassing syndromes of beh “our They are cases where our teal motvstins te revealed, tr discredit have been se lrious than we presented ther beng But because they ave spec they cannot be tnd it 9 wnivers ‘hor hua are. gave money to help my children hv, trovls certinly want to Be tl if the money sve reached ther, ‘would want to shoot he pos ofc, nt the mesenger rho fl me {hat he pote led oliver Toi righty noses that there i subjective change: change froma state of deste tone of flfiment. Thies the change cccorang when the subject has a des gli. Then the preset gpeton of theeposts thot this change ehether we desert in terms of pleas re orrelease of pseu orn some other wae aways the toe ‘bjt of desire: But Butler's prin point shat this cannot psally betruc For ths change fom having desire tohaving no desire’ can ‘only el bea poms abet of deni te change tt presupposes a preceding desre—what Baler calls the particule appetite ops Sion, such the dsr forthe paper othe well being cf ny chien In these examples” that ried or goer away The desire tbe Someone who is his sires gone ea second onder esr it pres pores other The gost simply cat pretend thatthe seconconderrs Looking Out for Yousif Paced erent Ee Te Silos Sitar rancid less ee So we must distinguish between these other spec desires and cement ray tessa tice Seater neers ae Foe aatonameon enact es epreeanveote cr ieacnga a peered Eoeapavomaini tensor te very paniclarfeton, ever the love four rigour as rely oon ‘Misuse lowe andthe pleasure ring fo artim mach ny own posure a the plsse self love woul ave rm owing sell ‘Roald be happy some tne hence, would be my own lasure™* once ory righ’ init at—acon n me coed omy ow intrest han resentment or ambition. or concern ‘animate objectors pot-maybe someone who will! be euly Ippy unless my nego is soa wel in which case my ow sll intrest ould requ me to work for my aelgbour's happiness Tree mpl remarhs tat nding» diet oppeston Been pi ‘Spleofslfloveand-a principle of alts eves om inking of ‘ih tancaction ity neighbou pts the none, do mt i gest he Looking Out for Yourself a dows not, and I may have to choose ane outcome over the other ‘Obviously we dohave bargaining relationships like this aed peshaps too much of our socal fe s perceived in terms of therm. But nots relationships ae 'ze0 sum’ soi i, you Tose, and vice versa) A person might share goods within a group even when the goods Involved are scarce thelr perception of the teal use and advantage ‘may be s thoroughly idenied with that of those who bear the Kt ‘hip relation to them. Whether people are like that contingent fact ‘some are more benevolent or chatable, or locked into sharing ea tionships, than others. Inthe abstract Bate’s point is undeniable: there is no more competition between benevolence and self-interest ‘thar in those who are malicious, ther is competition between malice and selfnterest, rin thse who are ambitious, competition between “ambition and sefantrest Any such concern may be one of the par ticular (Gest oder concerns whose satisfaction goes fo making up our ‘vin seinteres. Ie this no competition thes thai the lynch pin ‘of any coret understanding of motivation at this point. In our generation there has been a peemanent condition of pes simism about human interpretation, in two ways. First, behind the “apparent wants and desires that people seem to have, we think there lurk the dark fores ofthe unconscious Sas, wien it comes to describing what someone ally wanted, or believed, of intended, we feel wehaveno mocrngs almost anything goes Freud io cours the radig figure behind the st belie, ana in his practice he probably pies the second bali aswell, since i you can swallow Freadian interpretations of many things, there iste eason to train at others. Soltis refreshing to remind ourselves of demonstration that inthe theory of interpretation, its jst not true tht anything goes. Buller provides a paradigmatic example of one kind of ay of doing this Hobbes had proposed that pity i imagination or fiction of fire calamity to ourselves proceeding fom the sence of another man’s pre ‘sen calamity’ Buiter rebut this with the folowing points Firs if this wereso being compassionate andlbeing fearful wouldbe the same thing, buteverybody recognizes that they ate not Second, compassion ‘is regarded as a virtue. If Hobbes wete Fight how would ibe that 3 ‘compassionate man s regarded as especially deserving our Kindness, ‘ithe himself falls into distes? ‘Is fear, then, oF cowardice, 50 great 3 recommendation tothe favouroftheBulkof aking? Third, Hebeon Looking Ou fr Yourself mse gos on oak why we pity oureends in distress more han ‘ars. Bu cay Batley te guest sw we are moe fara or ‘Surelves when ese ind than oer in stesso fact may be Slut and in sy case ply at the same as the fat to be Scounted for) A fend under buss nota beter sign of our danger than anyone else under s bus Fourth ‘Suppose a person bein wal danger an by some means or eter to have ‘ere ay ting secede any Sun might rn Nm, eal he danger {0 Re remembrance and ene hs ert ts alnat oo gry de Joan, Soapeate that sound accident as anbjet of compan ahd et, ‘Revenge Me Hite car greatest frend n dn sno more ows ‘Mette bet of compassion or of any aeons the ne or thas ras ay emotion sv rind, bt only he hog fo anes toca an ter fond bth equally dots tis hard toimagine a more complete refutation of psychological stab inthe datk, Yet Hobbes view is no more implausible, at first sight, than many other such suggestions and Butler's destruction of tshows ‘sow fo dc them. Tats mek whether the epi predic tions you would expect fon the suggestion are infact bore out. the cast of strained reintrpretations, taking us far from the surface appearance, they frequently are not 4. THE SELF AND BIOLOGY { mentioned tthe outset the appeal of psychological egos to those va pide themselves as realists Have they an answer to Butler? The leading recent source for such approaches has been the synthesis of {evolutionary theory and social theory known as sociology. The quo- {ation atthe head ofthis chapter more florid than most but not di ferent inspire. Ever ince Darwin there has been stron tendency to interpret the theory of evolution in terms ofa ruthless slishbathe for Survival Inthe ninetenth century, inferior’ or ‘primitive races and ‘hsses were interpreted as being the lasers in this inevitable struggle, Sha thisin tr usted the winners continuing the struggle as aggres ‘Svely as they could. Capitalists like Rockeeler and Camepie could regard any proposal t limit the operations ofthe fee market as kind ‘hfantsticl attempt interfere with the very processes history and ature The chosen people no longer have the mark of God on them, Semen pon Compas’ Loating On fo Yosef us bt he mark of theft So the only honest one so umask "helo for what ti and ge on with he stage “he confi heresies preelent Ms lly. Popular cor vulrsoibicigy tadesnelaing orien om evlutary {2plnation evalua inspired isc te phenomens te explained. The metaphor with which olga ote pre Sent consti thse. Fr expla histo The Ss Gene ich fr more sophisticated than mich weg i he se {see Richard Dakine wages consent bate sate tpi flonstfathistesuggest he view tatinc our penesare ales sels, 0 must human beings thanslves ee The wouble he esr that ity wish, dob a society in wh in ‘idle cooperate generously and rscfshy towards 9 common food, youcan expt its help en bogs ature So he hs ni/oughe gp and counerie etsy mah unre anaes fcase ater Win a hey ep {Ream be mre than ping inthe wind Wry to teach enero and lz if hati tom we ae born Yo can afte al teach people thang eh he ou of kin aero er using he bn o crpertve stages Dawkins ecalatesat eapm‘we have the port ey the slish ene of ur bit {Fb opin he yranny of the selich epats Batt sme than ‘Title hard to ndomtnd how scree in acodance with intractins providedby hsor her DNA can then dey Hs or her DNS “The prblen set helped by the way Dakin er totes the ‘nurture nde of the stive venus rte Gaus htm of Spoon peek dermis ge eal tor oto aly evan the determin modern an tehviour were sre unique rng animas nts espect ty the very leat slintrsing wo nguie about he ule which we haves ‘ce ecm the nce Dawkins here presents the opposition as believing that genes are “totally ieelevant' tothe determination of mederm harman Behaviout But ofcourse nobody believes that. Genetic insructions detain the kindof brain have. Thebrain at the very least puts its om the kinds of behaviour Lean choose may even thake some Kinds of desire inevitable, in the way that ack of nuttion makes hunger inevitable, (Flack of liquid, thst But iis then 3 mater of empirical social ne ieee es meteus Looking Out fir Yousef chservation (thology ntbiolgy) Yo whatextent hiss and {lrunatly the overall remus suggest massive Beaty rather han iene determination Dawns picture this point i one of rath IS sali penen hence selfth people, and ence the counsel of teachings, ut wth te stong phan tat oi eo makes Sense ony human beings can, by some transcendental mate, tan ‘postion hat mo ther ons can machin which hee pees ae ‘ally relevant tot behaviour ‘ut all ths is unmecesary Fist we shou gti the tite The Salis Gone As Dain Keowee at ot eral rates el ish They hove nosis, Tey haven way of repeating cies thenutven no way of checsng one fare oer anaes, no cogee Sctvy of any kind at al They ane no more ruthless selfish tha 9 Thnckbeny bushi self fi takes over garden ora ose is politeas {tyields up is place, A gene cannot sit and plan and evahate and howe fate outomes terme of which oes ae goo for nam fers Allitando is eplcat, and sometimes ts repeating wil sr ‘ive and sometimes fey will no All that fits of DNA have ate teen cane af Becoming eit I fet ome Spending on the diferent productive profes ofthe creatures hat ‘avethem Some wll poferste mow than oer. Butof course there iS purpose in any tha anymore han theres othe number of sunspots ext month ‘Se anes may polierate because the creates that have them are ruthesly seit. Others may do so Because the creatures that fave them ar altatc and conceened floral the members ofthe SPs oF at iy x or st clr Sine speci some hinds of genet materia get mest elccntly sed To the tre beni aoe of he creature hat poses thet reser Deve flog ng ion imp ht logy ‘ares siple meses fr understanding thesoclogy an psycho ‘hy of hanan being For overs century st hasten gt orthodox to Geri anpungect classical economist deserts te order of ature {ihstact aout Darin wes mediately noted by Mary) Ths {tras no eyebrows you pu the pure facts out probaly and tanbers in ems of competing’ ines in universal sgl’ each Timing’ at axing repro sacences and ale Tao, WD, Hoon, “The Gentil Flo of Socal Beir fal of ae tg Oh Ae elt oof a Mando: NL a Looking Out or Yourself “7 itis quite dificult to thinkooa neutral tem, such a neproductve peor fils to describe the diferent amount or proportion of genetic mar lalof any particular kind ina future generation, without invoking the language of competition and succes Tr would be extremely nave to regard tis universl athropomorphism as harmless. The metaphors ‘determine our interpretation of nature i terme of elasical ecoric ‘competition: the interpretation of nature then fees back to determine ‘ur interpretation of ourselves, Of couse, biologists would be quick to protest thatthe use of economic language's only intended iguatively, but language has away of taking over our intentions. Lt us ay that the biologist’ fallacy (again, ofcourse, there are many honourable, lear headed biologists who arenot gully) is that ofinfering the tra’ ‘psychology ofthe person from the fact that his or her genes have proved good at replicating over time. Nobody would be stupid ‘enough fo commit tis fallacy outright, wee the transition not already prepared the economic interpretation of purpesles natural events ‘But suppose forthe moment we let past the rhetoric ofthe selfish gene, Would i fllow that the creature which possesues thems bomn Selish’? Of eourse our desires and concerns ext only because of out biological natures, working themselves out in different phys, eo- omic, ad soil environments. And vse can certainly try fo uer- Stand our bislogical natures terme ofthe evolution of animale with Specific kinds of genetic mata. Buta aim i those terms not one about what we ae wally’ lke or what we really’ rat bottom desire [Nothing whatsoever follows about the nature ofthe animal posesing the gene “This point doesnot depend on the unscientific belie that "genes are “totaly irrelevant” tothe determination of modem human behav ‘our’, An animal might be born with an innate disposition to many kinds of affective response to thers Its complex os aman ts probably genetically endowed with plastic second-order deposition {form cifeent affective responses of various Kinds in various socal ‘environments, Ths by avery close analogy, we ss human beings are ‘bor witha song disposition oleam Chinese asinfants we ate su rounded by Chinese speaker, or Arabic if we are surounded by Arable speakers. Genetics isnot televant to the skill wehavein lar ing a language, But nor does it determine, independently of environ -ment, which anguage we lean: What our biologcaendowment gives 1s is a disposition to fit in with the linguistic dispositions of those around us, or in other words a second-order disposition. A harman being might similarly be bor with» disposition to form the desire to Delp othersifit finds tsefina helpfulenvironment, and wo aggression8 Looking Out for Yourself if finds itself in an agressive environment. It might be born with = {guick disposition fo tino the kinship pattems ofits group, whatever {hose might be (the comparison with language s very close here). OF, ifmight be born only witha third-order disposition form sucha sec- ‘ond-onder disposition to: mimic the social envionment unless yet ‘other interfering factors ik in. It islso worth remarking that genetic theory doesnot even init that f we are bom with such plastic disp ‘Sons, this s Becquse they wil ave been slated fr in competition ‘with different natures which have been less successful, Forno every Fear that we are boon with i an adaptation to which the theory of ‘evolution automatically applies>> ‘At the isk of sounding simplistic, we might say thatthe biologist fallacy the Inference fom: (@) 8 gene which leads to members of a species having character Ishic Vis good (orbelter than others) at eplicating tselfn suche lnd-such an environment this plausibly explains the evolution ‘Of such species in which members have such characteristic (6) Human beings ate to be interpreted as consciously or uncon sciously pursuing their genetic succes (the survival of them Selves, their hldren their relator, thei tribe o her species) ‘when they exhibit characteristic ‘may be unkind oak falc, for reputable evolutionary psyco ‘gyn ner( om (a tater poste pychaogal mech ssc theo formas predict upto adapts itr othe {@) form. Dut unfortunately, many ofthe Tocwions in use waver ‘Recon the fo and thence bate a much more confident and Uinguned inference, Consider for instance, the dea that we goto the ‘pet eter people in tess node to impress them diet and ‘Sher indcty with our dopendaity ano maize he chance ei preitbl elprocal lato ith them nthe are This ould than acres wih) fatima ppt dpsed fraps ai the dates helping behaviour provides an evion- IRentin which genes repo hsexpiain the evolution ofthe species ‘ro! groups or dividuals wth groups who ave te at Ths ~ Num uy cig tn meting ft IT oer oe “Etec Theol Repcal aan’Corery Reser Boy, Looking Out for Yourself o could bea genetic’ theory of how it comes abou that aimals or lint or people) id one anther in distress, may be ue although Specie sri ofthe kind would requir speichern {Stons,foristance postulating lng sos tribal strc wth Partcua internal and external abn But could mea, in accor $Eance with (tht anyone of ws side dress 'n order press ‘thers with ou dependability, on ther words that hs i ur cone ‘ous or uneonsciows purpose or plan. Asa sear about human pay Shology, hs seome just fase, and chown to be son eet Hy the ‘method Bur uss against Hobbes Por example i were 0 We ‘Would predic that people would got the ai of thers noe euly then thee are other people aout o be imprest Infact i ath therevers seems to be the case shouldbe ote that tis method ‘logy applies evenifthe psychology inferred issuppose tobe dep “ncoacis Foret eof he oto ofa enconcoes le ‘emotive requitessving the sobjet a acing according toa pate: Scting ‘as if they dened whatever they ae inept a ancon ‘ously desing This is where the interpretation ens ts ving But this means that tan be asesnd By loking at hepato Lehat ‘ou ad inthis ind of example thy arena the pater wed. ora more obvious example ofthe fallacy, csr the iden that homosexuality i way of helping your beter and str to alse ‘more children?” Asa emark abou the explanation of homowewtalty {a tall. ths sone thing, Homosexuaiy doce presuebly tnd 1 {Ske the ndvidal and his or her porter ut Of the productive sone it thereby has the potential to eit got relative: by ensure ing that they have fewer competitors, wheter this explains i xb ence then up fr empl debate™ Awa remark about human Conscious or unconsces pycholgy it i of couse eazy and expe. Gilly tough on thove homosoruale who might be supposed uncon Sciousythave the poet of helping tr lings an nephron cces, although infact they know they ve no soc elation “Amusing we could gett the psychology fom the genet, ten ‘we should with equal pusblty pred the feverse of omophobin, Maleeteonevuai should erpecly cherish hase who optout of the Og Mok Re ape Funan ahs ea Coon Heer? Shenson Soest abe rer Si Ein Meo ak, Ci Sefer na i So weld myst xtra sup run tn mad intros cen) Ramat mC tern Sovran hee Ragan Ba 810 Looking Out for Youre reproductive competion, bth resin or potential partes or Reeaging genet cpie win theese ane wing ee com petite fel for our wm progeny 0 gon i ut don nk that Tryone supposes that ne pedcton oreo otha the atts ees pb bipader or Senter oe ly hyp an ‘het wit there ex lero ay loving ier erage th srt tance oe allay he shat genetic ancory dh’ Hat we ales Burn ene opp eur genes. Once ort scout many peor obey ive nat deseineecllaiey for ample or dsincome: ToSlscouplswhointend ep itat nya many event you “Tihont Gse what yucen cn and the objeto sacha dese ‘Shute eal uninlighletomost fhe human ace and wa 0 SS ne nthe tenth cea In act conser about oat {hes snr aint foo nthe Pit Worl can be pede {Sige up exuding evento oar fv fon of hyrocrbons per Sum by the thoght tt our ondehrer’s anderen hve bade ime fe dont If ees te dierent one ht You {she tonaveasmanychidrenesbologealy pombe then ain ‘Shs iolee most es would Be ore thee, nds Godin printed ou against Nats in he ay need cen) the Eraterthir ceramic edn he spel enced tree 0 ytng nes herologin tmnt ntropology shoves hat enurkably late ant sate so of srs determine what Teg agape ch earing in cileret seein. The aad ‘Seogeaphecond tht the sot singe yt of marge, posal ie fy ston npn Weapon decent nema sc sclera dente season an saa on Sindee by the pris nso Inso aras secobiology depends upon predicting thatthe wats inthe Thurman phenotype (the characteristics people actually have) are an expresso abet unconscious of deep structure of concer forthe ‘eproducton of our own genetic mater ts deeply unpromising, tis possible to think that society somehow “distorts suppresses fundamental human psychology, replacing our tee Darwinian goals ‘withsocally manipelated masks that disguise them. This isthe impl- ‘alion ofthe quotation From Ghislin atthe head of his chapter. eis = Nana Siw, he Us ont Ane Bony (A iter: Mich: Unive ian Ps ap 2 Looking Out for Yousif a als the claim hat whats natura about human nature isto be Seen by imagining people a8 lone individuals ouide society. The another prt of the ieology of competitive individualism, no mee ily to be ethan the ble that human natures be exprese in people eh prow up without human bonding or pret love or per, [apseven in the wil By those standard or capa or language would be demotedas" unnatural sincet only mart sell f we ae Tbe in angie commoriy: Another test would be totam developmental psychology tose whether this confms he ctu the rules inant so hardly estened according 1 the epigraph above rom bratalzing from maiming, om amudering“isbretes, Is mate hs parent ors eh gracalyscalized no something more tlrable But a many parents know, and as psychologic falrstakingy fin, nothing setaly served encourage us oink this way. On the contary toddlers ave frequently fey, naturally sympathetic to the please or distress ofa, co-operative, and dltghftly quick with mutual help and vecproction of services It tak culture to rata them, “To repeat, thn if genetic theory ito be genuinely explanatory of human behaviour and dese, iat ot by ttn what ‘eenplined, an dsorting ts description wha istodotke expan ing by importing unjstibed psyehlogal conceptions rom he ut Onion acl ht pole av nt he an We ty ‘Various combinations nate and nurture to explain Row they get eke hat The posto ight and progress ceva tar but sos the og of misiterpretation ‘The fog makes tester fo blleve hat there are moral and political resign eid rm he hes of enc thr rec ‘logy ist et us put one weak charge agai such an enterprise ct ‘ofthe way Does such ssugestion neviasly commit the cupposed sit ‘inferngan ‘ought romani Inprinipe a Factsabot aman ‘ature area petty proper part ofthe imputtoany eth efecto and biologi constraint on hursan nature ae among thse ha We fre right fo nots. Keeping prone in the coo he dark, OF deprived of hep or fed on rotten met, abominable because of at bitlogil nocd for warm ight sep ar prope et we had rhe nature he polarbear or octaches ght nol be soba In practie however the disspine ha ut ben wo anacent The Anhropemrphizng ofthe ene and the erence to what eS ens sl Hume ty (New Yr: De atersa Looking Out for Yourself ally he, endl yada pctre of ilgili on soi n- TSsnton which prove @spriosratonat for moral and pita ‘hank, pt ay id the sete entry. Usually ofcourse, {fase oun fa conserve in pnyng he conn an uur! earings at were fst adit genet, and then ack out SH For example it were nto the ver elmingantwopologal Sete the conta, we might nee the materi of ge lc replcabon show tat people se Bound tobe more onceed {erie Hon whtone thar for snjone ce, sn tank ofthat 53 troundary on pol human soc. Buin fac thre no sch aundarfecrase people are nota thetheoystkento pri them she ‘To ake another example, there i 2 widespread bli, lest amengst men tht secioblogy shoves tural frmen be Promecuous (and perhaps aggresive) females fat (and caring Thome loving and ha ths somehow guaranteed y our bo: tal asymm roles inthe production ochre. Now shuld EStaotonce tut sory imp even neveosonry terms ‘Amore realistic sel woul eed fotake ints acount both male an female seatepes for ensuring epicaton of ho nda genes Stppoct we st of athe converse stay wishes, with a popu it of mas ined rng py ba te wate “Spemespende, and females of tess promiscuous Dent, who are Swouilbemurure Thun is easy to se how It might change Females may be tle o detect mais es concerned wih spreading 2nd more wih nurturing ad by selecting tem ss mates ensure that ines etl a mls say Deore ata toes nurturing and moe spesaing female, ar ht may eral Such ena orn the energies of males ost succesful nother “lmeraos and have this genes replat mee successfully than thar sayatome sisters. Some of tach 0% might develop who {tcee te othr about ei eal spreading or aurtring tendencies, in tic ay op ee ‘Xtcepno, ad soon There no reason stall predict tha the one SGous er uneoctous poyhology would yu started” T nd St what ata of han tang ewe ard now, we hae © Teo toihesnhrpelogc evidence Ard for humans once more the ‘aration in clturly acceptable practice shows oly the same kinds Fpl sled meron, working heme uta vary Looking Out for Yourseif 153 cf cultural settings. Ad then tis up ou to campaign for whichever rellzation ofthis plasty commends if tous Culture mates ‘None of this shouldbe interpreted in terms of undve optimism about the human animal Sltcented reinterpretation of Schalout ‘an ean ther hep: renuncitons tum out to be diven by pie, ‘pparent asm can be driven by setimprtace, meek by "entment, morality by hated. Butt sen tel ep they must be Applied to particular cases and hept on tight empiri leah: We neo se thay thee meansthe pattem of atone explained, or predicted or made sera of. Thee willbe cases and cases Pu thre ‘Sno reason expecta rand uring theory reveling one des or Kind of dene under andevery pate, When renerpreations of urcelves ae take seriously they not ‘only have power o change ou view of thr forthe worse but even mote per to change or own sedition, that we sar fo live Up totem Beeving that all wen are moval dows ot change my tance of marty But believing that ll oder directed concerns Inypocrical, oe tht all human transactions ae one of economic ‘achange or that everyone nelly treacherous or ech, wilt me ‘much er the worse. And people ae subject othe curious combination that while our desires atin is way pastime they a sfled We lareapt to take ourselves forthe le and suppose tha owever much they rots others alike uso Ine in genase that people who care shouts narow range of ojects nd ita to ethers who fate abot more witess the vl be that people who profes Tike high culture are hypocrites. = ne sae 5- SELF-REGARDING VERSUS SELF- REFERENTIAL DESIRE CCanpsychologicalegoismbe refurbished? Thebest way of trying odo soso invoke a distinction first introduced by CD. Broad Broscen- ‘erates number of desires which ‘might reasonably be called "ego- istic" in one sense or another’: desire for sellpreservaio, for one's ‘ownhappines,forbeingga person of certain kind, for sefstespect for Property for selfassertion, for the notice, respect, and love of thers Bute also notices that we have desires ehh are concerned primar ily not with ourselves, But with other things or persons nevertheless Don Fg a They Horan Matern a's Cit ye Moro B Chey aso hea Gh2 Laing Out for Yous? these desires ‘either would nt ext af all of would be very mach steer or would take» diferent fom i were not or the at hat {howe things or persons alendy stand in certain rations to oneal ‘Thee restone to curves ae what he cll ‘oie motive stimie [an is ocase own hose tat ack improvement, becuse thoy aromy chilies hat dese ther welrelng, because tm inst toon that Tove tt Nour and so on. Broad cassis dees ‘whch have hs ind of underyingese ater epading but el Teferetal ates example of the desir fo evens a eee case: ‘Phat desiree the desracton of my enemy, butte eason dst IStome eatonap he bears omysel ‘od remains agnostic whether al other regarding desires ae self refers But tspsunble to suppose tina very weak sense they Fave tbe Fist hing hast br some elabon fo an agent onder {o igure inher ecsonmaing tony because Ue infant es bee mother that she motivated fo smile athe, or only Because T have Tear ofthe plight ofthe ales hat am motte to help to save them, What we dont ge fom his however that al oer regan Ihe dees are slleferental na stronger sense, in which thi mati ‘onal power derives from some coneption ofa personal private Interest. “Am inteeting example fa theory in which all sires re sl crea inthe weak sues that ot Davi Le Levi's modal rake SS the doctrine hat there are ler words hat ae other ways ‘when we talk of a way things might have Bee, wea talking o a ‘wend whch hinge ett way lb weld causally and spe Tey ioulated tom our own The ter wer el exist ony they are not the actual wold. One objection made to this profgate dvi that t makes no sera of praca reasoning hy bother fo Sve the wae i whatever wedo the sum of whales crs th ene Universe of posible worl remains the sane? That there 3 os Sle world in uch whales continue and one which they de ut that sthe urgeny inmaking sue thatthe fist ofthese sr word {heactual wor? From tly ejective point of view (Gos point of ‘ew sit wee) the makes ro difrence at all forthe sum of gods [nlevisactorsthe totality possible worldsisjustthe same, and ean ‘otbeoer an tis Levi's response en fect hat jst because of tha there sno point in working up ‘concer’ about he tate of reality a6 a whole > Dus ei The Ply f Wd Ono Blab 989.2 Looking Out or Yourself 155 (ur concerns mast confine themselves fo whale case an prevent. tn how things ae with our world and our worldmates: Is because the surounding ae curs that we ae and shoul! be concerned with Shana onl te een ran onc oe we actual werd gut universe enought tcc, se Sle deste and practi concern has efor things Besuse fer ‘lationship with ne ‘As Broad nots, psychological egos is mach luted ifittumsiato thethesi hall dee se-eferetal nhs weak sense. For hats ompatble wih the dsr being oter- dete rom tp to tation The person whois Benton the curva of the wales bent on beet he whales ie tate inn ewe th feationship meray of telongng to the sane word or perhaps of ‘hing in causal connton wath hi) ut tis doce not ene us 0 reinterpret him ab not ely” concemed about the whales at all Indeed the weak doctrine tse on visi a aed sai Tam ‘ny avate ofthe whales in the fist pace Heause they beat se {Casa eationsip to me Ths att dctne thatthe some ‘iden concern for pleasure or power pivate experiences The ie felts o thechoice a the dcibeate mary o deep concern Sout the sata he wold after you ae ded such exhib once or the proper execution your wil area pest good fcample of eerrearding desis, You may be concerned sot themes you ae once at ce sot re Your ation aet people ana things in yur worl ut sma the Feveliton of hide, slish motivation, " “Theres room, however fora more subtle and plausible version of egoism here. Consider oan the case of revenge Ageing with et tar we are nt fal” pursing private galt and tat we do really want the death of the enemy, wen mark hat neverthces tare Something recognizably sofsh inthe motive. Te fae behind the {ton ian ego sim Here, my involvement does tft Put ‘me inan epistemological pose (1 di not know about something Toul ot be concerned ost) Rather It because some Be nel eoitc concer of mine, uch st naloring my own femout or inepgigtienome crm athe mane ey a sek is destruction Again, consider te good work patel iti fot the ate of the wale Thi il her tits tee to Sl Interest anywhere on the scene. Bat now suppose she docs ot get elected tobe seretary of the Savethe Whales set, wens eal156 Looking Out for Yourself does, And suppose that upon this, her interest inthe whales imin= [shes markedly or evaporates What seems to have happened was hat herrolein the sektygivesher something forerself—dignty respect, 1 ecling of being needed and when these are withdrawn, her overt Interest despa. And in ths cas oo we might alk of unconscious ‘lish motivation For afnal example, its cliché that romantic love iSattbottom selfish, meaning that at some level to the ove it is his or her own self-esteem or plesure or happines o stability that matters far more than the welfare ofthe Beloved. A lover may (typically even) be far less badly affected by the misfortune or death ofthe beloved than by supposing that hes too friendly with someone ese, “This undoubtedly showsa way in whicha age ange of apparenty| other raring motivation can Be seen tobe, at bottom, selish. How ‘much? The question is anciet, and the answer not obvious, The Inethodology iso ind that a change in dspostion occurs when the gent Is no longer geting something, from pursuing the apparent disinterested concer, and then this change of disposition suggests thatthe motivational fore, the'seambhind the riginal purl was snore slt-avalving than it seemed. Sometimes this infeence seers Feasonable, bu sometimes it i not. After al, pursuing most concerns Aepends upon a background of stable ifesupport IfTecome hungey, ny concern for the whales may take a Back set fo my concern to get food) but this change of disposition sarely shows thatthe original Concetn seas somehow selinvaving, If my phisial ar mental well ‘cing disturbed then my wider concer wil bento diminish, but that doesnot justify a reinterpretation according to which they were tonly superficial guises fr selcanerest im the Rt place, Pethaps the srorker was genuinely concemed for the whales, but the cancer ‘gan to wither when her personal problems became too severe. A ‘well charity will want to aake ute tha sufcentsupportsystems {rein place to sustain the concern, Furthermore, before we relapse too far into cynicism, we should refect that while a charity worker may behave as described, she also Inay not People costings to work forthe whales although the scc- ‘yas to promote them, oF cae more about the lover's misfortune ‘han about his or her ely All we get ithe prospect of extending 2 ‘Conception of egoism to cover more cases of apparently disinterested motivations butwe donot get recipe for undermining the later cl egoey entirely. fay be vseful hereto compare the case of emotional arousal by ‘representations of scenes, n plays or novels. Overty Tay be Tost in 4 play or novel and Lam not thinking of myself when I wep for ee Losing Ont or Yury 1 Ophea or become iat with Hams, Bu itis because I shaw tm haan wih em ais eat kd: Te crue way ofiterpeing that ot gotten ws Folie’, refuted above by Bulle whereby sympathy with Opa Interpreted in tors fear of sting nh positon Ths cot be sine Bate tye aoe way yh coe ego ate indirect sponse or the capa to sympatie wil Oph Tee colsbes tiie ei semotos arcane by reward and punishment sbensneo thee coner gat sheen and oa he tr hatte cl race ene ‘esponsy and ens up san adult weeping for Opel: without an thought of esl The pont emai tat ay such soy (quite apart tombang histone) edn sfc itis only explaining how people come fo be other-regarding. It is not a device forint what the cn up ke but only a ory about how they ge fe ke that Inthe same way te enon of pong, Sy, who could not brig hersl to tel eo beak» price ay Ive been indo eta ya proces sts ear Dt at doe nt undermine he fa thatch nome tak epee ‘of present sticks and carrots, ae 6. OUGHT We TO Be SELFISH? ‘The recommendations that we should always act an he principe of maximizing our own expected wind for the purpose of hk ton wwe afeLaking ths as 4 speci reliable, empirical gal Following the recommendation i a sccee tht can be achieved by some and fied by eters The suspicion that on the conta, the "ecommendation iempy isthe aubet othe next chapter fo the moment i continue interpret a Buller docs, always to flow the principle ofan acto, preceding fom col consideration that willbe tomy own vantage’ Balle sk what lowing thi ronment hast do with actully achieving happiness We ight be very concerned tat rom the principle of seltove, but quite fail to achieve happinesy ier ‘ctse we mistake ur private good, oF more nteresingy because the concer sfoats or In fat i equen ao Dicggemet abel necessary necessary 1 enoyment and a person may Mave Se tend and fd an ye upon sown itr whateva ‘mayhinderhim from atiending many gations within each, which388 Leaking Out for Yourself thershave hee minds ie ari pot... umadeatepelove does very “houl town interes and ow nach sever a paradox itmey appt te ‘Stn te that even front sale ee shoul endeavour 0 ge ove ll ‘Rorlnae ropa to and consideration of ourselves “The paradox Bate refers os sometimes called the paradox of heer ‘Be hat peal you con oly be hppy When You get sbost ‘ang concerned wit your ow happiness ot ofcourse 2 tue fatadon buts eminder tt some goods ean only be obtained indi Ex peaps youcan only ply ssh when you forget about sty, Shu yeucan obviously ony ac spontaneously when you forget about SportanetyImmoderateseltlove it here restless, permanent co Eon wih crown weling a vie never ning us water we Srewuly happy nom, or are best consuling our future ineess {Ting whatever ve are ding Uns thin vice i sometimes lence srecanot get with tan ejoy ourselves We annot mune our “Civesin our pleasure we are forever testing the waters Far fom aga sours of hapines, this vie ute destroys it ‘Baler not argu that we should always yt banish he voce cofpadence Ava god Aron he thinks theres ean: theres eto ok tour future intrest and time ommerse ourselves Sour pariclar concer timed se fove that const ts ‘SuinfeetSornetines certainly the advice thinklesof hers and iorofeus sun ava tanh esfu our porcan olcion ae re of os health or wealth, of FS Tay and mor of tomorow x sometimes sound advice, But totale Thave finaly go fe ofthe cares of work, and without thr as oa ering pl my pore cole ft the ad iceto forget my pores and ok afer mys scarcely tril I's then only byte to my porcelain that Team ok Sec mse So now easier someone advancing the principle that we should always ct onthe principe of maximizing our own expected ily 3 ‘Teoma, he second interpretation ofthe piel tha was “fre, Why should we ister fo the recmmendation? The paradox of iredonis shows that abeays isting ot snot atl plo promete Surom happiness Wile this concemengrossesus, we literally) an Sut age Gules and whe we cannot forget ourselves ie tell ‘Caper us I this a recootmendation we Would dram into our ci ‘Kent Would we reprove thir spoons sh the name of pest are? On the grounds oftheir interest? Looking Out for Yourself 10 Remembering Butler's ‘no-competition’ thesis, we can now offer ‘bo diferent kinds of case Suppose fist tata person's package of firstorder cance includes concern for the od of others Then ‘whose good is served bythe recommendation? Not the neighbour's for her good i already an object of cancer tothe agent and i ‘unlikely tobe better furthered by asking the same agent otakehiseye fffitand reflect upon hiself more. Notthe agents unless itis indeed ‘one fthosecaseswhereheissacrfinghisown good ta that of thers, And that case arta be generalized. The agent and his neighbour may best be left to pursue theie benevolent tims unencumbered. by thoughts of themselves, in which case neither Benevolence nor sl interest underwrite the recommendation, Might the recommendation be made inthe name of reason? Of ‘course if Hume's thesis that reason isthe slave othe passions taken a itshould be, this autos s spurious. But even without lying on tat shard to see what could be meant. For how fe someone ap pily immersed in particular concer —be their porcelain, or pets ot §mbiion, or the well or destruction of others—less eaeanable than Someone who stands back to survey the toll package of their own Interests? The second concer, allright in is place but destrictive of happiness when indulge immoderatly is just another concern Teas no more, nor les, tod with reason than any oer ‘Now consider the other version, in which the agent's concerns exclude the interests of others. Here it does not mate, unless ineid- ently, tothe neighbour whether the agent acts with his own concerns Inhis mind's eye or not ether way the neighbour isnot geting any attention. As forthe agent, the parsdox hovers jet as much in his case Ss in the otherhis int to lorget himself prohibits whatever ple. "res he can ony gai by losing himself m them. So he has no general reason to reran from forgetting himself on many oceasions. And finally rationality as such ia silent here an he other version, The advocate of slFinterest may now protest that he wanted all slong diferent interpretation a the principle. You have ined this ‘ity, be wil say, by insstingon Butler's ening of what intends, ‘namely always acting onthe principle ofan acon, proceeding fom ‘00! consideration that i wil be to may own advantage" But he may protest what he realy advocates i something more simple, nots fnd-oder and no selconscous His advices intended in something ike his sense limit your concerns to yourself and your family. Dont ‘concern yourself withthe wide pict, or turn yourvelt ita 'Se= ‘ant ofthe world” The advice not intended to put ‘consideration of {Your awa interest’ in competition with your frorder cance, But60 Looking Out fir Yourself nly to deli he content of those fistorder concerns oughly to ov them to thing stuatong and evens in which you youre Sw immedaly inveved. Culvae your ow gar lee other ‘ope olook oer thee “thsi advice cena, and on ocision it might be quite good advice done abunyouy ke br cae of youl. Batis ad ‘Goreitas more hanccasonally appa Sometimes we diate turcregiesby beherng too mich sbout other people Butsometines {hesuston of ers demands more generous concern Suppose, for instance tees tess or oppression that we cou do someting 0 Slevin Then n whose name the advice our aside and catvate ur own gate given? Generosity and humanity cannot ge Sel interet canot gett fora we have sen making the eterment of ‘thar ny wn concen accords ell with sellers anything fle (hetrcomptiion thes) And eons sur sen the person ‘roving or lame rei rte abo of slvery i at kaso abi asthe person who snot Thee was nothing wrong with he ‘Sood Somarian’sbend "Pe advice to limi our concen might goalng seh he happy belt inan inal hand or mechanism by which numberof ent agent eahactngon thei own arow concerns, nfo ax mse thesocal goo. otha ech dos selon beter than ih had ed wth the general interest in mind. This mechan i the reat ‘utes to fee mares ad aster fecal Unortanaty a seston sv thes an isto in wh ttad ofan nse hand Thess anvil bot ensuring tat he same agents do worse than they would under me generous fee of concer fr each oer: Soins then, we have no empl hese of payholgl egos wot hg eros and no ecommendason ete Game Theory and Rational Choice ‘Theres Lami, the obligation ofthe Teaty.butam notable osub- sente to he doctrine of tose who have el in ths Hose what pla mounts oan assert, tha he spl a fhe eine of 9 faneeisbinding on every party reapetvly logether othe pe ‘Seale potion in which muy find ul at the ne when the caer Toractg one gran res 1. UTILITIES, PREFERENCES, AND CHOICES ‘The third interpretation ofthe principle of maximizing expected util ity that clitinguished inthe last chapte said that it ws definitional: gid imposed upon the proces of interpreting others Its this that Wwe now turn to explore? What I shal do is to introduce the bones of the classical analysts due to FP Ramsy.® ‘iehave ust learned from Bishop Butler that tis at at all tue tat people act sos to maximize the intensity or duration of some state of themselves They do not even always act with their own interests in mind, where these interests are construed as tates of themselves: Nor ‘would we want them to doo. So we could conclude thatthe principle fof acting to muximize expected utility has been exploded as emp tally and normatvely Bogus. But Suppose instead we interpret ‘utility and interests diferent. We have already foreshadowed the sd on een, fa ee Resets theta geupe eaterwa Game Theory and Rational Choice Aerece.Wesaw in haps and that we iterpret peopl ash steSimeatinsome cet when that ject gure in the desan- imking. We ae here talingo Dt’ arclar peste which ‘rence toa whole vaney of tings 2 etn, and com> Siar nla ates tht oe no states of the sujet the survival Site nal ote wl of the ine or the death a he basphe stor lsths Kind of inerettat tomate Inthe appease of David Gon itis ot interes in the sa that ake onal a bj but teers ofthe sl held by onesl a sujet hat provide te basis trata ced ie a agp cance, for Jou ennot ad or nance, the ate of the ‘Shales and the death othe infidel Yet someane may Be concerned ‘Duutewshothee Sonmconcepton fan agent overt ses tbarke Bu wht ve dohaveare agent who ae concerned about var ‘barthings and who prefer varousoutomes fo others Anagent nay ‘Siemor soot eae of the whl han sot he death tein ‘Eand ts aye could show el a her hoes and actions ‘Th batten on which the tory of ronal hace rests hy) we can nao os rent the pile that atioral Sgeetvactuastomanimize silty nse eben speci pri fe uy prelr d ofgal wese uti Hl ‘esc om mathematically rable ways of handing er cone Sern, We see where people utes ie by seeing what they care Sout Tmsey sw that, gven very weak assumptions, an agent with an ondeng ot referees over eno somes of option can be repre ‘Shee hod ata messed ti thon opis? The provision of 2 sae ust ke that of providing ‘mental measures for weigh given only the result fom balance ‘Rtnlance & smply an empirical Uetersnation of when one abet ‘Aeghs test yh a another A cement has Teas rea ‘reas amir and ony the er dows not outweigh which itp te balance apa So he rel of tests for wheter one ajo nat enstan ent asanothercan be preseated numeral, th “Dil Gti Mab Aer Ono Ovo Unity Pres. 807. LE er es CAT Cas Romann an. Moet ef sn ns a i pn ra tr (SSG Semone tsa Ken Bmore Came Thy and eS SS va eat ha’ MIT Ps tu Oi Re ane Tory nd En hada Se Onn Ueto Rabe awe, ato ‘Goan cna lotta Fr Host ce oh 36 Game Theory end Rational Choice 16 the numbers representing weights ofthe objets in the set. Similarly, then We can say that fas preferred tb, and bo, a as arbitrary) ‘hee unit of uty tothe agent b has 2 and cas 1. More accurately, the value of an option is equated with its expected utility, since an ‘options actual utility to an agent may be discounted by a probability {tor Ramsey provided the asc wa’ of solving or both expectations and filites, given an agent disposed to make sufficient choices amongst options nthe standard development, or instance an agent right be ofered choices between ane outcome and only the chance of ‘nother and behaviour over a series of such choices can give 3 es Ure of how much ane outcome i preferred to another, An agent ight just prefer aso percent chance of to certaina bat alo prefer a Yo per ‘cent chance of eto certain in which eave she prefers to more than She prefers btoa. Forse umpsat even a ait chance ofc instead of, ‘whereas takes «good chance of for he to prefer the gamble to cer taina The numbers tobeattachedtoher utes fora bande will ep- resent that difference ‘So if we have preferences across choices ina set, we can represent their ulilties numerically. But what comesponds to the empirical esuls from the balance, teling us when as prefered 106? The obvi ‘us answer f that you se what an agent prefers by seing what she ‘chooses oF what she would choose under conditions designed t mi mize imerferng factors or ‘noise # True preferences are those that are revealed by decisions. Is feral a trtsm that to know what You ot anyone eke wants, se what you ge anyne ese chooses, oF would ‘choose given suitable options To know that you prefer ol to butter, Yyousce whether you choose i at east when thing further hangs on ‘he decision. Itsy hovtever, quite along road from simple choice Beha viour ait might be witnessed by a camera, to an interpretation ofan agent's preferences Weneed to know how the agent thinks ofthe sit {tion that the bles they have about what they are doing and cu ing In particular we wil ned to distinguish Between what an agent chgses nd what she fers when preference elatsto aspects Of ation beyond her control. She may prefer some upshot to others, but ‘choose differently because she dows not expect that upeot to be real laed. This distinction becomes important in strategic problems and ‘games, where an agent conforms her move to safeguard her situation In thelight of what she expects others odo, and this may be very di ferent rom aiming at the outcome she would actually eepard as Pest endear sf Eu fale ase Mose Hand Une Be 390)164 Game Tory ond Rational Choice ‘Meanwhile, puting the two foundation stones of the theory of rational choice together, we have (Uti) uty medion is detined such thatthe expected utility ‘fais at least as great as that of bi and only fais weakly pre= fevred tod ie preered ob, oratleast asmuch sb). Such Rune tHoncanbe defined over setof option preference satisies 0 Consisteney conditions forallotcomes4, either is weakly pre= {erred tob or} toa (olay) and fais weakly prefered to, and Poe theme weakly prefered oc (want) eope) Choice behaviour is primitive. IF a player makes Choices, then he or she is making choices as though he were ‘equipped with a preference relation which has that choice pre- ferred to others, in the ight of what else he believes about the Situation. An eligible agente always interpretable a hough he ‘were secking to Further a preference The fst part ofthe approach makes utilities logical constructions‘ out of preferences, wile the second makes preferences logical construct tons out choices, given belts. Uti and Revpif apply to anyone with consistent, transitive prefer ences over a se of options, We can call such persons eligible persons Wis extremely important not to conf the issue by calling ther rational as is fequently done, because this perpetuates the ilusion thot we are tlkg about special sors of person, or giving recom: ppendaionin the name of reacon. Whereas all we can sa 0 far is that Un inelgble person veould simply be someone who cannot be inte preted in tere of ulti, so far asthe set of options in play iscor- cred. Silay, ia Balance cannot weigh some clement in a set of Sbjecs ort weighs #> band > bute >, then it cannot deliver [Netof weights defined over the set. This makes ita bad balance, but itmay be usehl for other purposes, such as introdacing philosophy of scence to students, or confusing a enemy Putting Ul and Rete together means that we ca always intr pret any eligible agent av they were seeing to maximize expected Ul. This would have been surprising if we had not gone trough the two preceding interpetaions of the principe of ational chotce in the last chapter Ios he fallre that ed us fo look more closely for 2 gemaine conception ofthe concer of an agent (hel particular appetites, n Butler's terms) and the problem of defining a conception ‘of thei uty that ts consistent with that notion. Ut and Recpre er Game Try an Ratios Choice oa datver what wanted, and we shall ee ht itis very doubyul ‘whether anyother approach could do so, a ‘Da the pines ake taal tat anybody can beierprete as parsuing ther own tty? Not gute, Besse you can ere cli by tis sproprae to compare the methodology of interpretation used in Chapter to determine the content of proposition am the inferential habits of agents. Logic imposes ama rn he sence that is only if agence pattems are somorphic withthe deductive relationships amongst propositions that we cn interpret them a thinking informs of those proposons I ight sound a> though this makes it mpossibefor anya to olds contodcton, ‘fou anysuicienl clementry loge Bat he inerpretationa Strategy isnot quite ay chantable a that. I enough ele tue of an ‘agent to suggest tht she must by one statement mon and must by another statement mean not and she ie sncre i sring both, then we donot automatically sentrpet to preserve hee lg Similar, given enough chaos in an agent's spestuons to chase, then Ramsey's gr Becomes inapplicable. But, ss the dsesston of interpretation in Chapter y suggests the cose ie necessary excep tional Even chaos can be interpreted: perhaps one o the ent’ one cers, and hence 4 source of thet ty, 40 dpty 2 chaning Uunpredicabiiy ‘Weshould now pause to disarm two possibeabectons to Ui and ‘ecpre One thing that dist some economists tat uy as here defined, wd have nothing to do with an agents wellare, to with their personal economic gain We need only semenber Balers man ‘who runs ip certain unin ade 0 revere himself on his enc. He prefers revenge ance revenge asa higher expected tity But hs well is prediably diminished Amartya Se, for example, hinds {hs troubling” Sen Believes tht this undermines the autho of ah approach based on Ui Butitshould not oso, Welle iplesaspe tlc empirical sim, and takes us back ote dialogue ofthe lst chap ter we il got no authoritative conception ofa rato or even an aximirabl agent as one who wrapped up inher wn welfare Choice by coneastistay the upshot of watever the player aes aout and allwehave a conception of wlity derived enti fram choice, We eran cannot ertcze ether axiom by reminding ourselves ofthe heterogeneous rate of desi, ony aredesigned prcely inorder Amaya Sacha, Ws nd Mesure (Canepa: MI Pet stag ey cle ne “16 (Game Tory and Rational Choice {to cope with that nature, An agent, for instance, who prefers revenge tolfe or liberty attaches a higher expected tity to revenge Tis now definition ot doctrine "The same caveats apply if we tart to contrast preference with prin- séple or with conscience as Sen also does Thee is certainly 8 vera ‘lar distinction here, foe we tak of being ebliged to do what wed not prefer todo. But preference, revealed by choice may include the pre rence for acting on aay speci principle: the preference to keep & promise, or keep a vow to God, or foavoud the gaze ofthe man within ‘¢the preference todo one’s bt oF the preference for Being the man ‘who bought the Brooklyn Bridge eather than the man who slit The better way to describe the confit’ betwen a narrow sense of prefer ‘ce and what happens when principle introduced i 4 say that Sometimes we are obliged todo what we would not otherwise have referred to de, but this leaves it open that now inthe presence ofthe $bligation, out preference actually tat we conform to the require rents of obligation or day. The counterfactual preference that we ‘would have had, had we not made the promise, of fel cblged to co- ‘pera, or whatever its, i ot ou alLthinge-considered preference: ‘our strongest concem. AS we saw nthe lastchapter,threisan clement ‘of rgimentation here. We sometimes choose things beause we think ‘of ourselves as having to dos, rather than wanting to doso, The view {hat preferences are revealed by decisions accommodates such cases by saying that your choice then reveals tat you prefer to Fall your role, or do your duty, o fellow your principles. Ia choice is appar cently unmotivated, like the destructive behaviour of a child in 2 ‘anirum, then we say that reveals thatthe agent prefers to beam “ance, or make a scene Ifthe agents behaviours suliciently random {o dey interpretation then hei ineligible, and cannot be understood in terms of preferences and bei ‘Sil, the word ‘preference’ disguises where we ar. I tempts us towards thinking of desites with narrow and perhaps hedonistic ‘bjs By contrat ts common to think of Values a things of greater ‘weight and dignity as we described in Chapte 5, values come inthe "egon of what we are set on preferring or prefer to prefer or what we {allt prefer only at some cost I this bothers us, it would be better to substtate 2 won like "concerns or ‘sim Ina decision theoretic it Ston higher number attached tothe utility ofa choice represents the ‘exten to which the agent concerned abou oF the stength of pur pose with which she sims at. And by Reape isn tara is measured Eimply by the extent to which she incline towards i. Principles and ‘ales att give us some ofthe things that we are concerned about: Game Tory end Rational Choice 67 3eeping promises, o telling the truth, or stoning the unfaithful. We ‘ould substtate for Rey a principle Rescon (Reeve) Choice behaviour is primitive. Ifa player makes choices, then he of she is making choices as though he mere ‘quipped witha concem relation sehich has his concerns beter smetby that choice than other, nthe ight of whatelsehe believes about the situation An eligible agent i aleays interpretable a¢ "hough he were seeking todo what most concems hi, {shal eontinge to talk of preference since is entrenched inthe iter ‘We now haveall the ingredients for the third, ttokogous or math- matically imposed way of reading the principle of maximizing txpected utility Homo economics is now nota special Kind of agent Toutany agent tal described in terms of concern and uty. Ramsey's Approach gives usa kind of grid within which to place our under Sanding of agents In falling this oe it doesnot ese recommenda- ‘ons genorm or give advice inthe mame of reason” The famework by itself issues no empirical predictions, nor any normative recom: ‘mendations. Why nat? No empirical predictions, ecase nothing 8 ‘gent desis inconsistent witht The agent who ignores Nown wel fares as much ‘maximizing uly” when he indulges his revenge as theone who swallows his vengefl feelings and goes about culating Ins bankboalance. I you di it that just shows where your concer ay, and, perhaps in rtospet that you attached more expected uty fo ‘sg itthan doing the other hing. More surprisingly, teem tha the Approach issues no recommendation, because 2 recommendation is “Something you can succeed in following, orn disobeying, But under the present suggestions thing you do would count as acting Nott rmaximire expected uly, As Wigenstein might have sid, anything You do woud equ acon with the avian hat ears hat 0 Advice was given “This lst claim may look to bea litle to strong® We can return to the question of whether logic has any normative bite, given is similar ‘tats ean interpretative grid We want to say bot hs nterpeta ton must represent its subjects as bedient to logic and that tis obe- “dence should play 8 role in their system of normative governance! should dictate thee inferential Rabie fom within. Can we siilanly 5 Shc 8 Pic op eget CNP iat 970), Bo-5. Lae "Py Game Tory ond Rational Coie say that obedience tothe norms of expected ullity theory isan inter prctative grid, but alco something t0 which a subject should conform Fisorher deliberations? Up ta point A subject may rom within the Aelbertive perspective, be aay clear about his concerns. And a dec- ‘Sion theorist nay beable to say that with these concerns in suceand- Sach an environment, such-and-such a policy isthe correct one to follow What isnot thereby givers what Wo say ifthe agent does some- ‘hing else whether thisillustates"eeationality’,or mere lack aware- esto the fotaliy of operating concerns We shall see mare of this in ‘what follows 12, BLACKMAILERS AND CENTIPEDES So what goes on when we apply the mathematical apparatus to the Kin of decision problems that arse? For game theorist certainly give tuvice, indeed conflicting advice, yet we just came dese To suggesting that any such pretension must be based an confusion, Tone ut anid fo ings back 0 hi, we ead 0 isingush between what I shall call an empirical situation or an ‘empincl game, and the theoretical situation, or interpreted game. The “mirc situation x describe in empirical term if someone makes Sicheand-nuch a choioe then they wil receive so many dollar, o 30 ‘many yeas in piso, for example, according to the move the other player makes But describing problem in these terms is not descrb- [rg it in the terms in which an agent necessarily ses is or her stir ation. They may not care about dollars, they may even not cre about ‘years in prison. They may also care sbous such things as how the dl- Iivs were gained, or how the years in prison were avoided. Infact if twe think of an option in a concrete situation, then there ino limit to themumiber of etre that, potently, might engage someone's cor ‘ers imagine someane choosing to stay athome, rather than gotothe ‘ips What atioced or repelled him? Wai staying at home, beingin {oon wen itisreatively empty, taying-ahome-with-Aunt Mary, sStaying-nearJone-and-nothaving-tovace-thechanneerossing OF Infatever, for an indefinitely lange mamber of posible qualifications andridens? iis now sedely recognized that in the application of decision ‘theory, interpretation i rial, For example John Broome presented 1 plausible casein which, when offered pairwise options, somenne Shows inransitivity, and hence is apparently bound to seem irs Game Theory and Rational Choice ry tional® Offered a choice between going to Rome and hiking in the Alps, Maurice prefers Rome (R'> A), Otlered a choice between poi, to Rome and Staying at home, he would sty at home (1 i) ‘Transtvity requires that H'> A. But, alas, offered a choice Between staying at home and going tothe Alps, Maurice would go tthe Alps. ‘hiss classic inransevity of preferences, and woul equally closet cally be a hallmark of fratonality (a ur terns, we would say that Maurice is ineligible, or has no defined preferences over this set of options) But suppose we ean interpret Maurice as follows Rome beats the Alps ina straight choice, because the Alps are frightening and the altematve is interesting enough. Home beats Rome in staight ‘choice, because although Rome interesting ome s comfortable But ifthe options are home or the Alp, it would be cowardly to avd the thallenge: to allow comfort to overcome the fsson of danger is tunmanly (note that there was nothing cowaedly about preferring Rome to the Alps the interest of museums defends against ay inclpe lent charge of cowardice In other words diferent contents of choice most be taken info account. A suficienty fine rained description of Maurice's practical thinking reveals nothing irational at all Hme- when-thealtemativeisthe Alps represents one abject of concer, an ‘one that does not appeal to Maurice a6 much ay Home-whencthe- Alterativers Rome Outcomes a objects of concern ate more fine {rained than outcomes thought ofa identified empirical tates, and they come identified by particular complexe of potentially important properties But what i ight i that Maurie asso fa described has no answer tothe question of which of thethwoe he prefers when sat om the table. We have oaly given him pairwise preference. I we sought to infer hisal thee’ preferences om tha, there would be inconsistent ways of doing it But that would be our fault or tying to do such a thing) rather than Maurice's for being ina state from which it cannot bbe done). Maurice would need to confont the question only if and ‘when it comes up, and then indeed he has to change in some way before selecting one option as best overall. But there fe nothing ira tional or defective abouta Maurice who simply ts aside the question ‘of what he would do if al thre eame up. Perhaps, indeed, he knows that they vil not, for instonce because ie climbing and muse going partner will have already lined the options bere him. Obviously we need to know something about the agen’ pattern of| concemns to elect one conceptualization ofthe situation and say That Jo Brame, ing Gv On Basha 10-3ea Game Theory an Ration Chace he preferred tis othe other decision, also conceptualize in terms of features that mattered. There can aise here a kindof circularity inthe theory of interpretation, I ee start with raw behaviou, as registered bby seamera ors choreographer wedo not know which features ofthe Siluation are part ofthe agents decision-making representation of ‘Wedon't know what he understood or believed about the situation, tnd the consequences of diferent actions But fortunately the problem ‘of interpretation snot impenetrable. We guess at which features of i= tations matter by seeing the agent's raw dispositions to move and {void we feedback our interpretation, anc learn how he sees his sit “ton by applying our theory of which features ae sigpifiant to hi, In other words, there iss to-and-fro between our understanding of ‘which features of situations in general matter to the agen, and our “Understanding of how he thought about the options in et of him on ny concrete ocasion "Tallstate the distinction between the theoretical ana theempir- ical situation further consider Adam snd Eve. They each face a simple hoice, Kor If they chose Xthen they gin 1 and te other get 5, ‘ice versa if they choose ¥ This describes the empirical situation, and itis dential foreach of them. Now suppose Adam chooses X. Tis ‘choice shows what be prefers, and this shows what was his expected [uly higher if he gee $1 than # Eve does. Suppose Eve chooses Y. This shows what she prefers, and shows that her expected uty i higher if Adam gets a dollar than if she does. Maybe she i altruist, ‘rexpects benefits from Adam in return, of hates money or Wants 0 score off the experimenter, or whatever "This mean that Adam and Eve were in ferent theoretical games cor choice situations, We can erie the same empirical choice for each ofthe X_ $1 forme, So for the ober, Y_ Soforme, 5 forthe other But we cannot write the same theoretical choice fr each ofthe: 2X. mits of utility fr me, (rm) for the other YY Ge=m) units of wy for me fr the other. Foranly Adam iin this choice situation, with postive n and positive smaller We mast (by UH and Reopre wite a diferent matrix for Eves one in which she ges more unt of utity by choosing ¥ than by ‘hoosing X, since that is what she actualy does. We can sum this up by saying that Adan corey modelled by the second, theoretical, esrpton, but Eve isnot Game Theory and Rational Choice aa Can anyone recommend Adam's choice over E's of vce vers? ‘One might ke or dake someone whose preteens go wih tet enone ai, Dita sands, Bre fs someone with oe set lpi and Adam someone wien on ata ee "th the distinction between the mpi andthe theoreti to ‘and, we can now conser more intersting decisions Cnude ist the sation of Blackmail The story that Before the sation ass Eve has committed an indiscretion. If Adam does nothing, he has $, and Eve has Ihe lacks Eve and she subs, he takes one of ves dll But fae does ot submit she Blows the gat on revelinghim sablackmatr butalsoreedingher omnedseretn ‘east everything they have, ao eaving te So ach, rs common tds eter pone ‘hw dove tee ing hat on option neah ese smo aggresive, andthe oer es $© his preeabeto saying that one option vale eating “hing, 8 sete de ie fhe hi opto Pad convention of behaviour) ne 2 died ‘Adam: Dove the stats quo: he as, Eve joys 2 Fswkc he makes he threat moves to ves un vc: Dove'shesubmiy ond ef with, Adam hao awkcshe Blows the pl and they acca ft with So ‘We can draw the choices in the diagram Hawkish options are tothe right, daveish ones to the left. Adams holdings are describe first, Eve's second. This 6 the expircl st ation. What should Adam do? What should Eve do? 'AS we should by now expect, thee ino unigue answer. Foe i ‘lepencs onthe theoretical game. Suppase, st, that foreach of hem, ‘expected uty (measured, remember by what hey are inclined to ‘choose simply goesalong with their own dollars. Thismeans tht theyaa Game Theory ae Rational Chie careabout nothing except their oven dolla holdings Suppose too, that tach knows this about the other Then Adam knows what will happen ifitcomesto Eve's tums she will play dove to keep $, instead of play- ing hawk and moving to$0. And knowing this, Adam wil play ave, {or given that all he cats abouts dolas i would bea contradiction (by Uiland Reson) forhim to stick with ess uly fewer dollars, Iwhenby a simple choice he can have more. he will play hawk, Eve Will submit and Adam takes one of Eve's dollar. Poor Ev Bat nove suppose Eve hasbeen toa good schoo, which has taught her to be proud and vengeful And suppose Adam knows {his Then Adam Knows that Eve's thee situation is not repre- ented bythe dollar payoffs Submiting and leaving Adam beter off might be unthinkable to this Eve Her preference and hence her ult iy, woul be to blow the gaff even this means running upon he own Financial ui. In terms of tes, her play aught look hike this, ve: Dove: she submits and is eft with 20 units of uilty over all, Adam with +5 Hawk: she Blows the gl andisletoveral with-10,Adam. with 5 Each loses dollars inthe gabowing Hinale and te (arbitrary) neg ie figures simply represent that i worse foreach of them than the aus quo, But Eve prefers to losing only $1 to Adam and having to live withthe fac of having been Backmaied. Thats worse oe. Ina realfe situation, Adam may know the empirical game. But he is very uilely to know the theoretical game: in fact nobody is likely to know it unt after the actions have been taken, and reveated the tgents’ cancers If Adam is minded tbe a blackmails, he ad beter Took out not to pick on vengeful and proud subjects. And i Eve is joing tobe a possible age for blackmail she had better develop and ‘even publicize ance vengefl streak. tn other words, wecanrefect on the soil situations in which people may’fnd themselves, and recog- ‘ize which character wil succeed and which will notin thse situa- tions. The game theorist can ony say: be someone, or don't be Someone, whi is modelled as being in this o that theoretical game. Whatshe cnnatsayissonceyouarenthisorthatempincal game, ply this or dat way. 'Now consider mote interesting stations. One that has attracted some attention is Centipede. In this game, we imagine a known “Sequence af actions, ether co-operative or nat, taken by each player in tum. Atany point a nomco-operative move breaks the sequence, and tach player stops with the payoff so far Each combined sequence of Game Theory ad Rational Choice ” (co-operation + reciprocation) ratchet up the pays Bat at anys a payers co-operation san immed os oly recoups when he ater player reiprocates ce sf 8 990 ope A> ED ADE A> E> A> E> End 8 97 99 8 100 Artoaa : 98 100 99 101 100 132 4 Sointhe diagram Adams moveat ates him tom 100;5.'smone 2 etakeser fom 310 sand soon The cs ample of th ind of structreis Hume eat wre help you gt your em in expe ing You tp me when my fed whch ripe nes ready. fe sath co-operate we each doteter and we uppoe hat each pssng Stason incense our went Bieber and you dan ee fate am wore of than bd’ Ctheed. Mabe Ta fo te fet macho my ow harvest in an in any event your haves Belag {nthe mth depres pies But you abt tha i ou recs procte in et ipsting men ard wore ard insu you ge "hater peor your commis oman ares Tithe gues sre something we cre aout sacha money, it scems vis tha we sug to cooperate Each rupert rd Tacks up ou holding. Bt the Steal aa he prcbleme wth ths. Under tat nays we suppor that each ples ows eee sonal exchpayerkrows th other aya ndench es at theother nae hand sn the seta ofthe game common -oedge betwen ten) But in party ache Um fas ‘when the game ends (pers ter Kass havea dfn em) Now Conse hela round Each kaws wilt tun E' e yd ross ition loro Ssh wont ‘epocate. But hwring th, Adam not ape on ond Bat hoving tht ve wos pret fast fos ad won ack Tre ocwars induction swan tat uly ratonal piers Koon eheatuatonand non heer know eer Sa speton butwoul sy with her mists tling of ench's) This sums vey od yee so mat haw cme you ait ch? ‘ab oa bp Se J St Bach nen Arce te eae of Sa nya tc Bven 5 Band Inductor pee ab ih 8m4 Game Theory ond Rational Choice Again, te it step toa solution isto distinguish the empirical game faa the theoretical game, Empirically the set-up may'be as given, if the units represent dollar holdings for eample. But what ncinations ‘might each player plausibly have? Among other things: no being idle ‘fc enough not ty co-operation feeling abit ofa bounder for not reoprocttg feeling that once the pater is established it would be ‘eromg to break land testing the partner to fel the same. I Eve as ‘och ncinaions, and Adam ean reasonably expect he to have them, fn vice vest then the pattem of reciprocation is established, and they do wel. "The theoretical game need not atal share the empirical game's ex ture that Eve's final co-operation represents pure los. Asa real mult {Seeted person, she maybe proud the pater and loyal toi she may ‘ot vet to Be the frst and lst 0 break it she may have formed an {Tfection for Adam a the seasons unwound; she may’be going o take Up anevr lense and foresees that she will need eo-operation either fom ‘Adam or from other people inthe future. She may feel unease at the {eal or imagined verdict of thers hiss explored further inthe next ‘hapter lence Adam cannot predict that she will defect even on the final round. Hence Eve cannot predict on any previous round that ‘Adam will defect because he will expect her to defect mediately sterwerds And in fact evens Adam does spect hat Eve wil defect fon the fina oud, hen tm ight be Toya to the patter for similar ‘easons, and prefer tleave with an intact sense of having dane hibit ‘Ofcourse Eve may be tempted to cheat at the end, and Adam may fear this one ean el imagine them becoming uneasy asthe las ea Sons draw on. Eve might bes bounder and Adam may indeed wake tofind that she bas decamped leaving him ted out and with his har ‘est ail to gather But itcould be strange fr him to fear that outcome much that he never risks co-operation [At this a game Uweorist may ell complain that we have legit mately introduced conceansthatarenot representedin the game's pa tf structure. nother words, we are arbiuaiy from his point of view) Specying tha the theoretical game not ike the empires game. But ithe stringently insist thatthe umbers do represent expected wil thes then there nothing paradoxical or surprising inthe result that thesequence never gets styted Adam expects olove by hist ation ot helping Eve foro <1. So he won'tdo period. Remember that by rcp and Uti nobody ever chooses in sucha way that their expected uty is dinished By the chee. Is a matter of definition that [ope ac so a fo masmize expected utility (they can be interpeeted sactig atl in terms ofthe choces we are daserbing). If you know Gum Theory end Rational Cice ws some agent expected ites, you know wha they wil do. they expect ls roma choc, the hey wot ake it (itn gan). Sled we dnt bere hve a orn! dsp eral game that ge lf the runway a all bu hss Ro loger supe ates ifAam really expects oe througmakinga tee operate move then ths must bebecause he expects Eve ot focooperste bck, te then hel not exsay the move Msi Ie bes Eve had Steady pd ce Syn al uer no ccumstanes wi he fceralp with Adams harvest And hen of cute they sy ip ‘rahe the bral. Pople might pos such notes fs a el ‘eighboursdo but not because thy sretapecalytotonal They post them because they are flo and fearful or shortsighted cet jen hs yeu pmb oo ound up whe med ate future ta let the prospect aces prospenty in the dst future hare them. = ee 7 ‘nBlacknal we sae hat Eve needed tohave gone toa good school toflouish inthe word of peple ike Adam Assng tat he hast teen educated to nd Blackall epellent then er Pb nastiness alone protects her In Centipede the farmers need f be people mith Some reson for expecting ech other toco operat They med fo have analhope for ie bit eis Hume waste fist fo ecognze tat the prevalence of such merdependences i suticent fo expan the crlionof may ofrecer anos ae ang ot about mutual ai, but about abstain rom predating upon or ‘another's property) he says a oerve that it ibe omy inet o eave anther in the pose of ‘gpd vd wills hese marr witha He se sible of inet inthe ulti of cont Whom thi commen ere of iret mut expressed and knwo bet proces Sultable solution and beanie Andis may propery enh beled ‘onventon of agreement etwat though oat the inepation oft mmo ane te acta rhe ee the ofthe Lndareperormed upon the pponon ht something tobe permed ot the other prt Two men who pl he cars of ea deb an agreement ot «convention, hog they have sever pen poms to each aber Nor he rule concening he sity o ponenon he ess derived om Ruma co ‘eto that tars rally and aces fre y sow progesn,d ‘your repent expetenceo he ncoavenon of tangs Othe yd, and and. shal cll this ondering of prefer tence the prisoners dilemma ordering, {hall cll cH, H> Wa hore for the war fall against all Victory (or whoever plays H) Co-operation and Ruin So ther anking’s Vitory, Co. ‘operation, Wa, Ruin , We are, of couse ot told by how "uch Adam prefers one option to nthe Maybe the fourth option is truly tele‘ and the frst rly wonderful, but maybe nol Adam we | | ‘What will Adam do, understanding this tobe the situation? Choices ate thought of this tage as made independently and in ignorance ‘ofthe others choice. Sot seems as though Adam must play hawk. Hite isthe famous proot the ‘dominance’ argument Adam knows that ether Eve plays have, or she plays dove, and which she plays Is independent of anything he does. Suppose she plays hawk. Then ‘Adam is better off playing hawks he gets his War instead of Ruin. Suppose se plays dave: Then Adam beter off playing hawic he pets his Victory instead of Co-operation. Playing hawk therefore has greater uty than playing dove fr Adam, Mathematically is greater ‘expected! uty than playing dave isthe su (W -RYProb. Eve plays hawk) + (¥ ~CProb. Eve plays dove) where W” represents the uty Adam attaches tothe War outcome, ‘and soon for the others. Te increased wit of War over Ruin is le tipie by the probably of Eve playing hawk, and the increased util ity of Victory over Coroperation sampled bythe probability of Eve playing dove. We know this expresion x postive ance aherwise we ‘would have got the rankings trong, Knowing itis postive, we can ‘ly interpret Adam a being in this theonetical situation he chooses the hawk option. Ihe were to choose the ofl, then by Rescne and8 Game Theory and Rational Choice Ut doves otanking hawk in ems fies, n which cave he Sum bua of isco wt x ener in he gra The sme wearing pps Fx, sn she sho plas hawk I otis hate nr taly decd by the mat ten thee ‘Sho pati fete othem playing dove Knowing the stn feradam reduce “Rr 0) whch ej W “Te re empiri stron tat ae atic example ofthis stuctar antherene sol sitontt r lawibly mode by musa (0) Artificial games: I pt Adam and Eve in separate rooms ina labo- fatory, and tell them to prest the red button (hawkish) or green (Govelsy: I make sure they know that the dollar payout i as fellows, where subscripts indicate ho gets what Eve Ech might prefer mos ofall that they get the thee and the other zero Each has cond best that they get 80 each and as third best that they get one each I his he sum foal of heir concerns, each plays hawk, and gts one. (2) Inthe original example of the structure, two prisoners were sup- fred kept apart itom eachother Toexcho hem the prsector ofr TRevamcoptin: thy canconfess tne cine or nt IW Actes and eonessey, then each suerte penalty for ther crime. confesses fed dos then A oe ean slr an extended sentence {perished bath onthe che, an for eing sardase) each rears {Contes ten ll that can happen that each safle reduce er tence tay on the leer charge wasting pice ine Game Theory ond Rational Choice cS (9) There are socal situations in which we do nat have two persons, but in which each person similarly stated, and canbe thought of asacting inthe light of what the rest are doing, Consider gun conto Itmay be best for meif Lam armed and nobody ele for Ican then «exert power over the others, since they are unarmed Its wort fr me ifthe rest are armed, and Tam not, for then they ean (collectively oF individually exerase power over me. Ithis means that lam described by the otra Mast kl they willboth betel sag atthe meagre, > papell So eek imay become resigned to expecting a symmeti utc. The exe tty stacked Yo the asymm: Vcory outcome Begin fo Seem himerial (othe expected ty of paying Haw sls mune). Inwhich cae each hts motive make sur tat he syne ut come sthebest possible Since they prefer <2 each has meta {oputino place metarians ensure Lies gongs goss wel for them abit would doi they ould become happy tosis es ‘ater than stoggle forthe ultaly «3.000 “This does a mean hatin he Reo prisoners lemma sis atonsts atonal o cope Are have sen» tation ony Properly conceptualize ana prone dlemunaifeachagent spa fot toconopeate Nor dost mean tat an empl erin i “rq ttlonl to do one hing the other Al mean that each fushata motivation to generate sufcientco-opeativeconcers that ‘what woul tle heres demas boca benign, because the cooperative option appeis mont fo us The soltion then sto ‘sure thatthe enpiral game not he theoreti game Tn eer words wey to make ure cher tat peopl ave an expanded eof Concer, ort hei expectation of wht it be ated lat ther detection ls change Something as fo deve thelr maxima ‘expected uly away fom the hawhish option ae tei mum ‘expected tity away om the doveshone In ae'saalasol the ‘ear ofalagpnt al hiss achieved te Sovereign who npr ‘hon co-operative behaviour Inthe ceo the coors or faeries Socal presues to sel-restsn can aise adi economic behaviout Feople may realistically come to realize that he chance of he eng {hebaly group tobenfi tom unrestrained gece vanichingy sal Compared tthe chance of thr bing uml tcked ino dsedvan fous competition. Inthe eal world, perception of ths eae what Motiatesustobindourlvestocoopeaivesrangement sould sma econo nec ec pos oh mpeoveet ‘Wecan this tothe point about hw fine gained ur interpre tion fs decision problem Socaliaton work charging he way 2 Ave de sa in nan Mac, Pte’ Rail Alain aay Mery Doe op 9 Taa Game Theory and Rational Choice cptions are thought of. yarn prison saved ora doll gained sone thing, yearn prison saved a he conto enegingon sh agreement, rat the cost of Knowing that someone be serving» cispropor™ {onate sentence as esl diferent thing and to mest of ws not pealy so atactve. A dois gained by frau, mitepresentatin, or jist disappointing someone ele fenat he tame as a dollar gained by ones. “Giver an empirical prisoners diem, some people will cooper ate or play dave anders wl efector play hawk. Neer sie tational or inationl becuse of hat By Ut and Resp ther choices tevel diferent expected ies ether diferent preferences, ordi erent expectation abot the behaviour of heater The one person talus ceren things, o« has flerent expectations rm te othe. Tieisinadiferentthgortcal ame, Prhapee half expected the par pe to co-operate and knows he woul flaca i he defected all the ‘ine Or perhaps he hal expected the porter to deft and woul Feta fel ne Co-operated while tat Mapponed Ins world of me, rel sotalized people wo expec others Be soto, the former Py Shlogy prvals The word swe have tsa ile mined. There are ie uho jump the queue, and people who stand in ine Peis important to fects ite at this point about what can be Ieared fam these modes Some phlonopters tink very Me hey pot out, or ist, that nostic stote suchas that described by Fue: ever existed or that we aleady comet ate pesoner dilemmas with fll ecko scl cones. And peopl anno! ust putin abeyance th let that a particle representation of thelr uation has. Aone of prones’ dilemmas more ‘one than ‘voneoff exposure ta pice of Engch i We cannot indo our i toro ustbecanse we eto odo s0 "cbbes himsoiscenr eno that his thought experiment of he state of nature desc: poop wh never weee He expt wants {Sito consider men ei ul even now sprung ost ofthe eth, and Saenly lke mushrooms, come full matty without al kind of ngagement wih eachother But his snot a tis sometimes p= Shiu a meaknes in hs constuction ® For there ae Hungs To be > for expe in Seyia Bena Te Generale an te Concrete Ober: "The ‘Silene tries ld art eh er wae dome ‘Selanne beyond the pe tren moe he pact ee Beha ‘Siang tS New Yk Rows, Game Tory end Rational Choice 8 learned rom the exercise. One is the function of convention apd cu ture and the motivations associated withthe, in wading of te invisible oot Another isthe elatve plasty of peplesmivatons {nd expectations. And thd is the mportnce 6 providing a alin hich they grow int the right shape fhe socal fod i be po ‘oted jour ld wl face stustons withthe emprilsacure Of dilemmas, you do welt bring them upto cooperate If you are responsible forthe grovp, you enaue tat they ae co-operate stan gone whe ttn diferent vovantpeaton willhave the same tet I however you see yourself pacing your shilen ina world of hae, you tty far tat they Lecome what ume memorably calls he ‘ales victims) they = They ‘become the only people to stand i ine whl everybody coe pushes Lote font or they heen toe th asta ant We retumtothisn section 5 4. TOXINS, BOXES, AND REASONS Wis not uncommon to sce statements like this: it tautology that a rational player wil necessarily choose hawk in the prasoners dilemma The idea is that given the way the maties are set up in terms of agents ules, wehave that Adams utility ishigher beng ‘ahavek whatever Bye does, But that just means by Ub that he peers being a hawk, whatever Eve does. And in tur, Reef determines that this is made true by the fact that he chooses tobe a hawk, whatever he expects Eve todo. But we must be 2 good deal more careful how we state the tautol- ‘gy. The tautology eter applies to empirical dilemmas, We know that ‘people choose differently in those, and Ihave already sketched wy they do, and why its perfectly rational fr them fo do so, no fa as this means anything at all. So now, all we can sy is this Suppose ‘Adam makes the dovechoice. Tene preferred one ot bth of te out- ‘comes in which he als a a dove to the others. The question is: Why ‘might hehave done tha, inspite of the dll valves? An the answer fs that although he knows he could get more dollars for himself by choosing hawk (whatever Eve does), tis has nt swayed him. Some ‘other consideration matters. Swe must constact a ity fui con et yy ne oy nf1 Game Tory and Rational Choice sccordance wit that preference and hence he wa not actually ina ‘Greve prisoner dilemna, His decison problem was not acc Sey mode bythe VW. R> ordering Ta the there ae Ste have sccsflly modelo cof players only when they ave 1 interns (nothing they cave about) Gat are uepresented in the ‘ames payolfstuctare Buta pescners diem s defined sothat the Kerik ules ouvank the dovesh ons and Ht in tum spy treat thatthe hawkish opons are the oes tat get chosen inthe usual eminology te dove choice nthe sone dla te soon domated (hat fo rotever the pater does the plyer {ester by chosing other). Playing dove als called ‘ot of qulbrlum’ pay forthe same reson (pay sout of equim when ‘SSlyer could do beter for ims y uate detection fro). ‘Ther hasbeen debate between hose who recommend songly dom. Irn checes ay rational, such a Dovid Gaur and Edward Nicene, and those who dissent Some opponents deny that ‘ut ‘oglu play can be sustained in the long ra Butt should fe puren thats sno te best way to debate things tis no that ar gPegalibum play cnet be stsned in the ong un or needs Sajchlagies hate have not got Al we ges that nthe expircal Tee wht oes ie tean wel happen and goon happening ain {fe theoretical game It cannot happen al For inthe theoreti fine, payer co-perat Gat showy a heaached mare RESUS Aha macon ts someting hte wore do. So Cale omer actors do eel he toate ayer but he impropriety of this application ofthe theory PeSTner rama ad the oe gameteorec stactres cn nde says by contanting the sar inerest represented by $Slmseryeasinpron wthsome wider se feocera Thus David Gite cotrss the ands of interest you maximize, wt constants tater Ks He wants to contac a otand-out mosiize with “estned masini? sone who apse 1 comp wh ‘rutally advonageoss moral corsa provided he expect sai Tnrcomplionce fom others Hi mbion io show tat this second Ti ofmanimizr I move anal than any oer Gauthier sees 0 ‘Sow tat people understanding the dlemma suctare coud ist ‘eonaly st temectes to ase» dapeston to croperate, and > Dav Gathi, Mr by Aner: Earl Meee Raita vbr Can ney Game Theory and Rational Choice 85 then rationally co-operste when the moment comes, even although tht manent why woul be animes by paying aw The Spach ejects erp an fori ot nda y chon The eonstrained manner would do beter for himsalf gin more tli) by choosing other tan eds now want fo eu tht Ramsey's amewerk erent by Reon and Ul shoul ot be gen hw ines rset os use andes Allsiesgrethat people ecognize that things goketier when they co-operate makes seme for them to clvate he coeperatie cone cermin themselves and thers rnd fen Ont Rasy acount {his is changing the nature ofthe decison. The fact ha he awk eption snow persed nomcroperstve hav is on sft changes rin stn change the bad 08 VC WR raking it propery embedded in the agents pefesences W changes what they Prete todo when he tie comes Bet dees ot change aby mae Ingitrational foram odo nhs wou turns etna! oe ‘ie ty. For Ramsey oct changing te way ihc th ty iste beached testing Forsrmave des $i theorist ch astra his opponents tat et Te cans the mater ke this Rass methodology ie one shales bck rom the acest dy conta the reullantofthe forces ont Theres therefore no Space for saying hat Sometos do, and oer donot srl m acorn Wilh th ‘clan The noematvedecsion hr ike someone saying tat thee are seme bodies that do, and some that Go not a scerng 0 thereat ofthe mposed res sd the sueson hte to ‘scommend those hat do, othr hat Got This a couse ens age tsk and one which snot sce appectd Fri te relat notre backs he actertion, ere este besome ‘ther metho of entfyng i Ramseys mathew gives wv maths ately tacble and empinalypecahe Cnc of ul Given lie) agents we can cert ites Any ther way of conceptualizing it eis nding afer empial meth and theres tore tat promis to dsiver anything mathematically tracable, Sopp, fo tance, someone wit htryencos st of Concer se wan ofl her tok as mother eeprom, ted fain smeincome but nfrnstely ne sso ches in shocan nly att fre one theese Then we conot a ashe ‘nt concemed abut the one tat eventually sways her che ow do we discover what she mon concemed stout Ava ow do we decide whether it was tatonal oration or eto be meted186 Game Theory ae Rational Chive by something that didnot mast concern her? The enterprise look ‘pele rm het "he Ramsey analyse allows of couse, that people who are suscep le to some motivational forces arebad oslo imprudent There ‘Sho prclum about drawing line sound some subset of bjs of oncetn and vcommendingteirimportance atthe expenss of Oe ne an even we inal a3 trm of abuse for persons who are Sayed by factors outside the prefered subset Thi the sense in ‘which am economist might say tot someone imation ithe care host other tung than none But hiss jst normative comparison some choc of concern with others: fal toprege‘aional a5 inmost ineumsentin the theory ofchoke. “The nomative theory might be developed ik hat There would be asset mtn ces actingon an get an hee irom that subset represent the agents ea overs concerns. It {ronal to et only inte ight of thse weal o tered interests. But seen lo oth bcnset ter ator Ualy ha “bad thing to do: such people may typiealy Be urtale, or Ble, oF Inprudenorselidestactive Sometimes however canbe a ‘goed thing todo, becnuseso doing enables people to gan the neti Operation. Then sone people (Gauthier) recommends the resulting Tees her any hy ant log wen terplad that sometnes people aeration is tet to consider thor im connection seth deson problems in ‘which athe moment of decision, everything seems to speak against ‘Sine parla cole yet thee Se benefits being the sort per Sor nomabesit Thebortnoven pureexampleo the stractre the tou pul ntrodaced by Gey Kava Har, thee x someone, he ‘xpermenter, who wey good ined ating my intentions, He Promises me very substantial reward, which I wl get on Monday Eni if genulty intnd on Monday to dink on Wednesday a toxin that induees unpleasant nausea or mil les Thnow (and he OWS TThnow, and soon that on Wednesday there vil be absolutely no reacon fr doing this and thee wil be some reason against doing ee mrerioorenn eres Sole cieteare ager rymrangcovine ear (Game Theory ond Rational Choice 7 since the toxin is unpleasant. tis important here that there appar ently going to be no reason foe drinking the toxin on Wednesday Tis ‘ot, fr instance, that fling to drink t would be now-eo-operative, oF ‘woul disappoint some trust (ve can even specify that nobody ese Including the experimenter, wl know whether drank the toxin ot not). The experimenter gives me a mative to form a intention fo do something which there will ny be reason not to do. Can I form that Ienton? And if do so, am I eratonal? If do s, and then cary it ‘ut on Wednesday; am T doubly iratonal? These questions ser to make sense, and, it may be suggested, they reveal the space for nor mative decison theory thatthe analysis so fr seems tohavecosed of Te the toxin offer isan oftenepeated event, then, given that the ‘reward is substantial enough, Thave a motivation to became the sort ‘of person who can form the intention to do something when {know ‘hat when the time comes there will only seem to be reason against, doing it To see if this is posible, we need to think ite sbout form ing intentions Folowing Beatman I hink we shoul say that o form an intention is () to Become disposed to perform an acon, and (i) 12 be dispose to sustain that csposition (oughly by eegarding the mat ter as closed, refusing 40 reopen argument) This second clause answers tothe thought tha if matter i sil regard ae open, then really no decision has boon taken, whatever words have Been sed ‘The experimenter is very, very good, we are supposing a telling \whether both these dispositions have been formed I sant deceive |im, by pretending thatthe matter closed when nny in itis not. Then wat I want to be is someone who, on hearing ofthe reward, forms both these dispositions. [need to be the kind of pessan who cat Sy fo myself that shall do and Ines tobe the kind of person who will refuse to reconsider Now this is not an easy thing todo, and for some of us may be impossible. Thats becase the second dspstion, to refuse to reopen the question, is bound to be threatened! by the awareness that on Tuesday, i Will be known that ewig points {agaist performing the action, ‘Bat does everything point agains t? To succeed in forming the intention you should cultivate the disposition to tink, on Tuesday, things like his Tsai tomyself would doit so shallot The ques {oni close in so far as you actively reject thoughts that reopen This means that you need to have an atitude to your own decisions ‘rather ike the atitude people of principle have to pet promises: they Harvard Diversity Pres, 987) “188 Came Tory and Rational Coie Justis the isu. The people who et the eward are those who can IMopt this deontokogia tte towards ther own Formed dispos Shore Undoubtedly some of saree as than thers In le food. some peopl ct hemelves vows ikenatwallingona crackin thepavernent om the oy to school and some fake thee sas ery Sevuly and other the then morph Suppase someones fod Stith the iit question oc whether ty are rational of tional, Normal ontological atid to anc ov pst decisions {spre foolish bean wow mad to oneself nolo walk on cracks inne pavement shoul not be regarded a tragedy Beng set not 0 reconider canbe pended and stubborn. But in the Surprising i ‘Simonet of te Toxin pez, ts extremely wef Someone who rte an inal dsponton t acept the evar 3s ing their future couse of action gets the rear When he time comes, he fact thatthis was spat mund-set survives tomotvate him to perorm the mitted enpeasant action of taking the toxin. Sch a person not ‘ational, but sucess Ramey enables us o describe Rs sucess properly hehasransformed the station into ome which one of is Eincenistoact ase decided to act Hehas given sel reason to take te toi and in the surpsing cumstances ofthe puzzle that ‘asthe bat thing todo stun in Chapter Sto the strange view that Ses of slept smmchow always atthe bottom fou NO Ihave Behaviour) “Someone might think: the atonal thing to do isoform the ds positions os lsd bu al the wl seve te plano ot acting ‘Scoring tothe intention, changing yourmind when he ine comes Ttiinded best you came ik hs, for You get he reward without the penal. in otter words, you would be pres dsposed on ‘Mortny, but your cixpostons woul have changed by Wednesday Fowever the pb ise up sot you cant pen tobe ike that ‘Oncethatisyourstratey then tien longer tre on Monday hat 03 Steaiaposed noo ropen the sue Hence t snot ra that you suc tein ending en Nanay edn hei 9 Wee fr he in Centipede, hen minimal good sense would take Fim up tosomewhere nent Sr? In the empirical and socal situations it may indeed be dificult to know what todo. While agents dont “know they ane infest wondering whether to place sufficient value on cooperation, ora antecedent promise, or each others” wellae, o¢ tunforesen effects on their ov reputations or ust the escort they find as they contemplate some of the outcomes, to co-operate Or dd they care only about the yeats of prison they themselves wil serve, repulse of hove these ae obtained? Are they more frightened of ting the only co-operator than they are of being the only aggresor? Tn Centipede, do ey care about the ees of outsiders, hey walk {vay nth only $17 Ramecy’s decison theory rightly doesnot say ‘whether people do have such concer, sl less whether iis atonal tohave them ts better then, 4 avoid arguing about the ‘atonal’ of none maximizing choices, Accepting Ramsey's identification of mental Game Tory an Rational Choice wot states suchas bei and preference purely by thee fanetion, and Femembering the faut of any more substantive conception ofan Iization we should acept that anyone eligibles manning inthe Same sense exactly as anyone ese wo is gible a person cares bout a wider varetyof things Benga pot kind of person, ‘or subject to eiting contract or coopertive conventions oF ben Str rromeef ae ahem cha ery at ings indeed everthing tata elle player ever dos" er he same reasons Ramsey mework enables uo put aside the futile busines of dseusing whether person of weak wil isons not tional in favour of the more full Revs of interpretation and $ ordering described the ‘gents before the treaty it does not dos afterwards? (Game Tory ond Rational Choice 93 “hiss the problem wth thinking of gents s ‘contacting’ ot ‘he wa fal aginst al either by forming eas with each Ses sin Hobbes ownscna voluntary suing power oaoreleg Gsnatenpointd out astopstingtodoimtRecicanstanees eee theenpe Svein wl pray ee per oa con hsbc te ako gn sty or in I thinkngthiway, eon scem ipossbl fortans ae wens coe ingcoupet ent eve stated has feo mera ne itu lest wan dow andy tings alg sound ke ‘Ging promises of good behavouy and each aernos we earn to ‘Surbatc The noting pefmarce soon ss ny sae ‘Wecan niyo bout he problem he we fay using ideas explored by game theoretically minded biologie The {guston i wheter population of people tat state sould be vad! not nthe tary sco bu ine sens fing suey supersedes, bys population att some of whom fal ope the war Ether these newcomers dot tac rin och re mpi of ero hey sce in making Seung wea wih hte: amin Coupee docs et SE ‘night scem impale tay such pac nemeomers shoul us ceed they merely form prey fr the predatory hest population. Bat everything wl depend nthe cicumsanees ihe nar bbatng the populon suienty and the newcomers can fd tone tsaish a sulicen bridge. the superior protests cantegintotl Aumallenlveo! pencabe peoplecan expan athe ‘sponte of wider population wartomelgeet fe ange he cumple, a norguteovning misonty might expand overt go eveing major slag teint UA, gun rehersspd ordering ao have cons tacan ead ent ‘Ria hry (rn NI: Prac Unery Pc) nd Bd ace My Aen ere pei etn Kms en16 Game Theory en Rational Chace design a dierent ordering. In the prisoners dilemma, or Hobbe's iselap need mo soe design avaiable. IFT now hat the con. ‘ins of the other players exclude any motivation to fake acount of ‘Sfotteut tem 0 do then any sgl they fer hat they are to be {rte tel tobe misrsted Aint astm the Centipede se Ap Eve had posted a sign saying that he would ot tur ase fom ec own conems fo reuproctte any Help given by Adam, nr indeed forany ober enon ‘uti rel fe there will be insu cases working agains his beaks Formany concersaffect atl agotsocked into wae AS thePrinesayeat te endo Resa lit Where be thse enemies? Capulet, Montague, ‘Re whora scourge lid upon your hate {hat heaven nds means ol Jou joys with ove, [And fring at your discord 00 Fae lat brace ef Lremen, Alar penished [And this, together with what went before, sufficiently works on the “nlogoniss that Montague sets off to build statue to Juliet, and ‘Capuletto Romeo. Tet positon isnot usual: scourges ae typically Jail upon ate ‘What i shown by Hume's and Ramsey's approach isthe motiva tional progress whereby trast cn be extended, pethaps slowly and inch by inch nt the ternitory ofthe war ofall against al: Parties who teed tconrdiate can bring ther lemmas history of being mot ‘ated by trust and then thet signals atthe are tobe trusted will ot be inert We tight not initially trast them al that much, but we will mot havea guarantee that they are to be mistusted. And trast can be xtenced by being practised ana found tobe reciprocated. Ins far a8 Sach party asa motive to back doven from the state of mutual com pellton or hostility, and each recognizes that the mechanisms of trust ‘ould provideaway todas, then thesoilisntirrevocably poisoned, lind couperation can gradually grow There fs no ‘inevitably the trem. showing that tist mst evolve, but there is no ‘impossibility theorem, showing tht iteannot evlve ether What cannot be done = {ocontact into ts evolution, for inthe at of nature no such contract Can be made by agents whose mativational states exclude respect or Contract Hume thus improves on Hobbes in two respects: first By introducing the dimension of Hime, and second by presenting 3” ‘organic growth model n place of ational design mode eo Tlcbber’s problem s solved not by rational, bu organically by the growth of habits of reiance. With this growth, given our way of Game Tory oud Rational Choice Pa describing action, comes a reconfiguration of the agents” interests ‘They maximize their expected sities, now, pay by behaving ways that trustworthy relationships demand of them. This becomes ‘what they refer toda Tt becomes the way they do Tis quite consistent with what we have found so fa that there | cision for society t0 make, and for educators to make, Typically, 2 “ocety wants the co-operative and trusting solutions It must therefore take pains that people care aout things that wil generate those ols tions reputation, antecedent agreement, co-operative bonding, the welfare of others, one's ow abit 0 portray one's conduct in ways that others can admire, and so on. Theres nething mysterious about this being in society’ intrest, o the interests of people asa whole, for this isthe whole point of the prisoner’ dilemma, Eventually, of ‘course, giving one’s word becomes not only a motivation, ut a giant among motivations For the individual educator, the choice may, however, emain| harder Suppose Iam in charge ofa child's education and think that by suitable precept and example lean make him or her susceptible to co-operative motivations, and by others can make him imperious 0 them Which should Ido, if have only his narrow interests at heart? In general the answer wil depend on what other educators aze doing: Suppose I bring Eve up 4 become outraged at being black: raed, But suppose others are bringing Adam upto care exclusively Aout money and suppose the pays aze monetary in Blackmail ‘Adam with only this one concern may be unlikely to predict Eve's ou "age, or pay serious attention to her threats (hs is an example ofthe ‘echarieen mentioned inthe las chapter whereby those who do aot Possess some motivation find it increible that others do} So in this Setting Eve's narrow (nancial) interests will have been hurt by her {lucation. Maybe it would have been better toring her up totum the ‘other check. Clearly the peint generalizes. The person who confesses does bali putin aseting ofnon-confesoes: educators, justas much as players, may alto coordinate and when they do, educating some fone tobe aco-operator may be against their narow interests. I may hurt my son by making him the only citzen who i disposed to graze the common at its sustainable level, when everyone ele is over srazing, or by making him the only citizen who has no gun, when everyone ele has one: Perhaps to train fledgling Gadstones forthe Foreign Ofc teachers must diamantl some o thet naturally embed- did espest for teats, bese hat how the eration world “The game theorist may here cultivate anew fed of action, Pethaps|98 Game Theory ond Rational Choice wecan ascend aleve to talk of metagames, or choice between charae- {ers or persona, We can then ask whether tational a ‘hoose’ the persont ofa hawk ora dove, oof someone prey t0 various motvar Fons, and in various kinds of population various choices may be recommended, But #0 whom are such recommendations addressed? Sometimes indeed, to the agent. If my son is going to France, may fedvise him nt o queue patiently it he is waiting for something, i brio, rightly or rong, that dhe French ignore queues. But one ‘ould not address such advice in general fo an agent for en agents joing to face many and unforeseen social cucumstances, and “Sppreaching them al without minimally oroperative dispositions is bound wo wreck his or hele Success needs society, and society neds trust Nori there dovbs about the advice that must be addressed in feneral educators or those who genuinely have an influence in the fouling of personality. Iti hee sexponsibty to make sre that the ‘ext generation avoids the invisible bot (Of course, there are particular social relations that are designed to bbecompettiveand even agressive although their mits are carefully set Economic bargaining # supposed tobe carsed outwith individual ‘economic oalf-interestin mind. Butin spite ofthe laments of free mat- leer, society sels boundaries even her: tere samt tothe means 1 party may se to get the bet ofa bargain Not everything up for Sale, and Hau, misepresenation,reneging on contrat, expoting ‘monopoly power are among the things we put of-mit- ‘Society particularly flexes its muscles when a selfish choice fies not only against a co-operative option, but against a course faction that twas previously pledged Indeed, the basi fancion of promise and Contact sto communicate that you accept the roe of being trusted, nd as we have decribed, these exist precisely to generate an add tional motivational pressure and sway what you wil be concemed 10 {do Nou te now vulnerable toangerandremonetrance incase of dete: tion. But the socal pressure i also there as Fume insisted, in other cases. Free-nding or aling to pay one's part when others are playing theirs, often frowned upon almest equally severely I Eve walks ‘away without doing her bit inthe last found of Centipede, se will meet social host "None of hs makes the situations modelled as prisoners dilemmas oan. They ate sittationsin which one set of concer suggests one ours of ation, anda different set of concer suggests another. But {hat eall. There eno tbunalin which those concerns are certified oF ‘lsgualified at the bar of reason. There leno such courtroom and no such judgement ‘Game Theory and Rational Cie 199 Wiha eter ve fur dposions nou choisin onto, swecan now tam oa ure veatigatin ef ur mea Se ing sings our concen fre onan pote es oar ea anid our rationality as that is conceived of in the Kantian wade7 The Good, the Right, and the ‘Common Point of View wad some Pow’ the ite us ‘ou curse aoe seu! tad fre moni a blunder foe us “a falih notion Robert Bums, "Tos Louse’ 1, VIBRATING IN SYMPATHY: HUME AND SMITH ‘We can now return to a more detailed discussion of sentiments that ‘sctually motivates without being distracted by the treat of egos, Or the msuses of rational actor theory. In particular, we can further ‘elimi the nate of genuinely moral sentiments. We have already Sid that guilt and shame coordinate our own attudes to ourselves tvth the posible anger or disdain of others. The classical maxal plo- oper who best emphasizes this is Adam Smith, Smith talks ofthe Woice of conscience asthe voice of he man within the breast’ His theory is that this vole fenot a strange eta, having 2 divin, una Ural an inexplicable authority over us Rather, “Te uration of the man within, i founded allogther inthe dese of Priswothines and in he aversion to blame worthiness nthe dese of Posesing thse qualities, and performing hee actos, which weve ard ‘rare ether popes in the dred of possessing thse quale, ond per {feming tte ations which we hte nd dspse nthe people” ‘That is, the subject is capable of seeing his or her ation ina general light a an action that illustrates some qualities. These same qualities rouse admiration or halted when they are found in the actions of ‘ther people, and we desie our oven actions to be ofthe kind that Srouste lve or admiration and fear the reverse. In Sent, the impar "adam Sith Th hrf Mot Seinen 23. ‘The Gand, he Right nd he Common Point of View aon tial spectator’ within the beats a kind ofsymbo ofthis restless an typically Calvinist) duty of el-seratny: indeed, there i good evid- ence that Rober Bums was deliberately vflcting Sith in his mons poem. Smith had written more prmly ofthe reformation that would berunavaldable i wesaw ourselves inthe light in which others see us, cori which they would see us they knew all" ‘The sensitivity Smith desebes is ale to our abilty to take up ‘what Hume had previously called the common point of view’. Hume Contrast assessments so lade with ones made purely with regard to ‘When an denominates another his enemy is eal is antagonist his ‘sirerary be sundersod to speak the language ofl love, nd fo express ‘Soviet paso hans, ad arin rom i pt creumstances ‘Srstuation But when bestows onan} man te eis of vicious oe ‘usr depraved, he then speaks nother language, and expen sentiments {nh he expects, alls aience are to cnc with him. He mst hee ‘horfre dept i hs pivate an parol station and mnt hase 2 pointe ew, common fo Rn wih others. He must move some universal nip of te human ae and touch stan to which all mankind Have [sccied and symphony Ihe ean, thefoe to expres ht hi an po esses qualities whose fendene is fenisius fo ect, be has chown his mon pif view and athe the principle of many in seich ‘tery man in some degre concurs Whe he human eat compounded ‘tthe sun clement at posent, ll never whi initeren to pu He good: nore natfeted with the eneney of charactersand mater ‘And though ths aerton of humanity may’ nt genealy Be eter Stengar vanity or ambition, being common tall men, ean alone be the foundation orl or of ny goer sytem of ame pase, One man {mbtion snot store ation, nr wl he sare even objec sty th Bot the humanity ef one man thehamanty every coe he same chet touches thi passion in all uma cetures? Hume stresses that there is nothing unusual or special to ethics inthis change of view. If my eneray does something suchas fortify acy and foes i el, on the one hand I can curse sas an obstacle tomy owe Ambitions of my oven security, but on the other hand Tean also admire leas welladapted to its purpose, stong, wellfommed, and so on ‘These ate impersonal standards for good fortifications: hey describe what anybody who forifies acts ike towant.Isitstrange that we scl hte tartan im pn se Tag See a Ae rsINOUE ete ege Te eara rere Erg eae Uae E USE trea Ce Eee soz The Ga, the Right andthe Common Point of View should be abe to perform thi fet of abstracting from our own inter ‘hin his way? Presumably not, foe were to tellin general what are the good features ofa well ote city, We may want to employ the ‘ne builder or intuct our own bude Which models to imitate, or ‘Riise ou children on modes of construction. Todo any ofthese things ‘enced the eapacty toate past the impact this fortification has on oe ‘emconcerns end assess tinan impart manner. Of couse cn oc Slon we are so overwhelmed by personal emotion that we cnot Sppreciate the good points of something that stands in our wa: Fetal, we find it hard to recognize good. quaites in those people ‘eho we Rate, But the capacity to take up the impartial point of view ‘emalns posible, even when on ocason we are unable ose ot "Hume vother examples include praise nd blame bestowed on his: torial characters whase doings had no effect on me or mine; and ‘Pie bestowed on those whose characters are admirable, but whose ‘Ercumstances make it impossible for them to exercise thei vires 0 Syone'sbenefits—what hecalls' virtue in rags’ In each such case we “bate away from the actual potential the subject as for helping ot TRorming ws, her and nov, and think only in terms ofthe tendency the ‘chaacer has to harm or benefit those with whom its engaged. 18 ‘sithsuch abstaction tht an ethical appreiaton of a character arses. “The exec relation between Smith on the one hand and Hume, 0 the other is not our top, but Iwill venture some brief remarks Neither authori original in tesing a duty of selsratiny; indeed Flume himself acknowledged the influence ofthe Stois, especially Cicero, and Calvin. What fs new is the stesson the social aspect, 0 that seltscratiny ts a mater oF internalizing the gaze of others. tis ‘Sometimes suggested that Hume doesnot anticipate Smith's mecha- fist, Boe alu theres more sess on sympathy” in Hume, this [surely wrong, Tre isthe famous peroration om pages 620-1 ofthe ‘Trevite But throughout Book I of the Tats, especialy, the mecha- ‘sms constr at pay: On page 303, Hume els us that men always Consider the sentiments of oers i their judgment of themselves ‘Thon the setion ened ‘Of the Lave of Fame’ (I. 2.x is wholly an exploration ofthe mechaniams at work whereby the opinions of thers mi ake esas teste afte trent rc an poet nd incapactnh eon Sheeran ee meee Simos ines ‘The God, the Right andthe Common Point of View 23 tas an in 9 an inflvence on our passions. AL pope 355 he talks of the ways in ‘wich theminds omen ste merroneto he thr ‘tony becnase they ref each oer emotions but alo becaae thos af fp. Sons, sentiments ad opinions may be often evererted and ay decay away by inna degree, alhough he sso goes on Slesrbe cases in which the reverberation magne them. Then we ‘ht comer age whe Hane ng ofa eres ot ‘enee of wrong at sontemplatingijstice perpetrated upon oer, Seulestalvearentenyunsy when other woe ding the wrong top noe aang ihovatengameemeirattrosars ehaps most lings the typically Huan example on page 85 ‘Amun wll be ort if you el im ea inking bret though tis {Benois Ouro aly chest ‘Sher sveing ove as we appt oer orcmserng the os they kel aden we ent yt means ones whch ey {elon tos and in which ng bu ympaty lent Ad thssymputy we sometime crys fn aeven oe dpe au iy cmedisimle dplae thrd akti eae in thr eye though perhaps me eer ca ave ay ne So Tendering ureivesogwebie then were Wecan usefully se cach of fume and Smitha suggesting» our part process, Firat we love one or another quai in people wien we come “crest, possibly because we Rave Been educated todos. Then we take up the common panto view whch tune love teste asses ing a tal of character as amiable or the revere. Third, we can ‘some aware that tis rata tht we ourselves ext or do nt. ‘And fourth hen we do s0 we are moved fox slfsatfaction and Pride, or unease and shame, coresponding tot rina ssesent nd imagining this asesoment made of ws by others Ths. and intemal vibration nsympathy with the imagined sentiments of ther Fume constantly nats onthe way ovr ow pie esonates wth the imagined esteem of others, o the oy our nen unity sonatas with her imagined contempt04 The God the Right andthe Common Point of View Hume himself has view ofthe frst stage as largely consequential: ist we love character traits according to whether they render those who have them useful or agroenble t themselves and others. Sith ought to distance himself from this, prefersng to call only upon the ‘operation of sympathetic imagination, whereby we empathize or iden- ty with ether agents those acted upon by them. Theres room for Sebate about how great this diffrence is Partly soms designed to ‘able Smith o aod that hemay have garded as dangerous con ‘entionalisin that hovers around Hume's discussion ofthe artifical ‘Virtues of honesty and justice Smith can call upon a dect empathetic “understanding ofthe Bad motives ofthe chet or fraud, andl a come= Sponding recoil But when asked why such motives should engender Sicha recoil, Hume has an answer, whereas Sith if hei 0 avoid Feflections on uty would seem only able to appeal oan innate sense 1 propriety. Certainly the propriety of affection’ we have fora char Seer and is virtues and vies tobe found nowhere but inthe sym- pathetic clings of te impart and wellinformed spectator? Bat i INestop ther then there sno explanation for why some kinds of char cterand their actions are adapted to exciting pleasurable or admiring ‘Sympathetic elings, and others the reverse. Yet this ference the ‘ery hind of thing for which Hume offers an explanation. lever this may be, the overall mechanism is ertainly natural to ts, We ned ely etect on the human delight in gossip, orn stories for soap operss, to realize hat discussing and cooninaling ur rea tions fo human doings in genera s 2 familar and indeed obsessive, Concern, And when we are propery sodalzed an awareness that ouF ‘behaviour ould no survive the impartial scrutiny of others is uncon fortable and in principle opens the pats to reform. So can we say that Flume and Smith, betveen them, so smoothly and quickly solve the ‘main problem of understanding the moral sentiments? ‘Myself, Belles, but ther are obstacles to overcome, Hume and smith were writing towards the end of more than a century of reflec tion onthe human tendency to cae about the notice of others and to SR Thar tata ah ae {Quo Onford University Pres, 32) L312 Foe sath, te agreabe sensi (CS Sis ete st ae So Seer re set bd Raynor lam bw Adam ey Rieiisieee pouiyi ny ry gg yes RETA et ae fechas hoa ‘The Gad, the Right end the Common Paint of View 205 ‘are about thei afection and praise and esteem Inthe seventeenth ‘century the phenomenon was noted well enough, but quite generally regretted and slinzed as 2 competitor to tue vite. Out pede Or ur ‘once for honour leas to what Lock called the Law of Opinion or Reputation and which he alsa describes as the Law of Fashion® Locke has no doubt about the power ofthis motive: He denis that there {exists one of ten thousand who isi and insensble enough, to beat ‘up under th constant dislike and condemnation of is own Clu. He tevenallows thats typelly the Law of Opinion and Repstation that |we appeal to when we judge the virtue and vice of things. But he recoils with hora from the ea that ths Lave can provide the bass forestablishing a moral la After all in various clubs men can make ‘orkeep thei reputations by prety appalling actions. Ital depends on the norm of the place and time. The aristocratic norm of honour isa [Lw of Opinion and itcan ead toall he absurdities, and even crimes, ‘ofcourty ifeand obviously leaves the aristocrat rqretable abide In hus elation with others suchas servants, women and tradesmen. So for Locke the Law of Opinion i something ofan understudy, of tven an impostor with the te source of moray ying nthe Law of God, knowableby a combination of reason and revelation. And here he i only echoing an engemous tadition of moral plosophy and ‘theology: Tre vr somly counterfeited by behaviour motivated by concern for eputaion, even ina good enough society, that concer ‘ight lead ws, fortunately, into mimicking the real thing. I in the "ecesees of ourhears iti concer foretcem and prise tha drives us, then we have not yt become truly virtuous, Theis motivation by ‘ride or vanity and uteri obnoxious in the Christian tration, Even our environment ts one in which only good Behaviour gains pple, till we ae Vitis of what Nit called Ue last infinity” of noble nds, and Pope called 2 “happy fal” Yer its clear that mechanisms of praise and blame are, after al, responsible forthe norms people come © interalizeand respect The Child that cannot respond toa smile ora frown is ut of fom human 1, and we might go solar as to suggest that slf-cosciousnes sll requires a sensitivity tothe wlletive ge of others. To be slF-com cious is arguably to understand oneself asa potential object of the fective atention of others. So the question ts not whether caring Shout the reactions of ther is niveral, fori his sense it must be rn ae saline Mops Uy Ps)1206 The Goo the Right, ai he Common Poi of View “The quston becomes whether we can do something to close the gap between our deste for apprabstion and love of vate How do we tomatolove the gt tai? And how dove come tbe matiate, mot ty the dae for spplouse or pre but by the dese tomer that pple and praise? ithere oe ‘Thelieve, two key moves made in the moral tradition cul minting io Hanne and Sith which serve t answer hese questions ‘Tho ints to Hct the proces with elatvey optimise pte tv human nature, Te second eo separate the explanatory pempec {ve om the sling delterstive perspective “the optima is expresed inthe nation of sympathy. we make rally sympathize wihthe pleasures and paso oer ten we nat Uraly pace and encourage scone that promot pleasures and avoid puns and ashike and dacourge ations that do the reverse. TRS ‘oures some depres of humanity in ur desinga with each other Shmpathyisnatual and human gives usthe basic repugnence om ggeco, cuclyhuakaton, tmphabam, ad al the large and SRE ways in which we and our Kind sek to etblsh scendany {ver others Itmeans hateven i buleshave tera tbe Word Pst erm of reproach “The dstnton of perspectives comes in rain hat whe meh animsof prise snd bene nay expin the shape of mottos] aru, oes nofollow that dese for pase and blame ures i those since, et alane to the exctonion of everything ese Ts thedistincion we sow a workin Chapters socbiologicl explana {im of mata love should nat ak the fom of supposing tat the Ihother deste anhing excep the welfare of Rech Here ites Steet of or sty to pase and ame rd te choking at praia a blame We re talking dlachnialy ‘hare the pase rub off onthe aeton, not syncronicalywhere ‘ose ox pra coon with and somehow proves the orchid tur apparent evaluation of heaton. Eston has mised tthe Ghd Who grows ina person whose dominant aim remains the Schieveret of praise Te suggests only second-best or even Mypo- Shiva personality, more concerned with curving the favour of oes than wth love of uth or vite. The goat motive stimlant of pra supposed tobe setcacng The wpaotsouldethat we are ot concerned with such gale paiseo fame aa but re sin once for instance, Yodo the cvoperative thing oft avoid ene and jst nother words, we no lnger Rave ale sim Icom f wrt, but vie et With ths understood we cane the ‘Lae of pinion’ nots alam ‘The Gao, the Right ond the Common Point of View aap cntable competitor to virtue, bata key ingredient in he explanation ‘ot how we come tbe vious Int we might noice tat wih the {aw of Opinion up and runing, we may not need very shh natural sympathy to kickstart the proves Iemay be that cite get tsp pulhize deeply and widely with others as much becuse they ate Praise for showing tat they do, and the emergence oft Ror ould then in tum be urdersod on 9 es benevolent sara bas For instance litle sympathy for ober, coupled wth «heathy regard for our own longterm interests, ould give us 9 mie for encouraging wider sympathy, ncrsmstancss where weaagine that this will nereae reciprocal concern Bt clear some nara motive tonal basis has toe thereto ge the normative acon staried ‘Ofcourse things have gone wrong. and a lub admires and prises selective bd bchaviour the upshot wll bbad people Ba that just a plain truth Standing within our sysem of sty we can regret tor condemn it defer dscssing the lurking bogey o ela tia inthis unt te ial chaper). Ae virtuous people we ll ewe otjoinng such labs, and as pital annals we wil dicowr 2g thee ormaten as est econ ik wenow eit he quai rom Smith on p. 200, we can se the solution to something that might have troubled ws. Sth stars by fling of desire for prieworthiness and avoidance of lameworth ress and goes on total the uals which we love and ai or Tate and despseAnd ii ntarl fo protest tat we the fst rtivation invoves an ugh he Second gives yan. We ‘want mostothe ine, toe prasedobame for ques at dere Praise orblame nots fordesthat defo atzact it Hove does Sih Spam the gap? We now sce thatthe answer es fist in he natural FBundation of praise and blame in sympathy and sacnd inthe cor peration, within out motivation stature ofthe gaze of te man tin’ man who ses thgh any ayers of appearance with hich tre may hope to ext ane or undeserved pre frm thes all av gone wel the man within willonly love what is fvable, oul may sl arse abot the mutt of the mchuniss that Hume an Sith identi Lt us conser this in connection with he rien of trth ling and honesty for instance in wegatd to Property and contrac. Suppor someone sys that whee so. ze the general benefits to human Belg of being abet ly ups the muthflnes, oe the honesty and ste of ier, he fel ‘ampuretin about ling le, beng dishonest. oe beaking promises hms when so his Beef to So so nother words ewan Gadstone' tate to intemal dealings so» petal hab)sao8 The Gate Right aed the Common Point of View Similarly, he fels no compunction about avoiding his part in co ‘peative enterprises when these have groven up without explicit con- {tact bu wher by convention people are expected to do ther bit he [s happy to be a feeder He might recogaize that his behaviour texposs him to the anger or disdain of others if he ls discovered But Ihe would simply regard thi as actor tobe managed ina cost-benefit nals. The advantage of a particular case of cheating or reneging ‘Would have io beeslculated remembering the possible negative effects ‘ovis reputation He therefore ses to ack any mechanism for inter falizing the dldain of others, or rehearsing accusations to which he Knows he may be subjected. This person lacks the voice within. His ‘pychology i at tha of the normal socialized human being forthe Foc that spice of Behaviour i ofthe despised kind leaves im cold Itprovides no motivation, on is own, to avoid any action which, all things considered, he supposes to be to his benefit in Hume's Enpry Consrnng the Principles of Moral the character Iscalled the sensible knave: ‘sense knw, n prt incidents ay think, that an act fing oe infil wil makes considerable adliton 1 Ms forte, ehout US ‘ny comiderable breach in the scans and confederacy That honesty The best poly, ay bes good genera al; bat = lable o many exceptions ‘and est may, perp be ought. cnt Riel with mot dom, ‘rh cvervethe general ule, takes advantage ofall te ecepions® “The problem is that by the standard of elinterest the knave is acting perfectly rationally. He snot against social arrangements It isjust that hhestands ready to exploit them when he ean. If thers make contracts ‘with him, for example to abstain from some kinds of competion he Will make the contracts ts to his advantage, and bresk them when that i to his advantage. I he lucky enough to possess the rng of CGyges, making him and his infractions invisible he can do ashe kes Would be aif he were omaipotent. The consequences of Ns ations ‘ever recoil upon him. (Pato rather charmingly emphasizes the pos Silty of gong round other peoples’ beds at wil, alough whether [people make asufficenty gratifying response when subjected. invi= fe, but tangible, sexual advances may perhaps be queried) ‘What problem is posed by the knave? Iti ually posed as that of| finding 2 way of showing that the knave is rational, an it in this form that preoccupied both Pint and Kant. The wea ist fie a way ‘of proving that if season controlled him 3st ought t,he would ser * ume Ey orig Pn Mr pa. ‘The Goad, the Right end the Common Pont of View 209 fcstnterestoutot hierar or perhaps fr wath prop. ery sail onder or forthe moral ao fornia prom Fort lar and Smithy entre the nave jt chow eave the desir of possessing those alte, and perform ing thoseations, which we lave and admin other people I thor ‘rds hisdefet note of atonal buts one of cing sno thal desreorsoure of affect We educate people ocae that they share the desires we admire, but if ur eduston has ae then tay be too ate. As Hume continues "amt confes ha is man think, that hs ssi much reuis an ane wl ite fica to fd ay wich il hn spears factory and convincing ihisheart rebel nt aia such peices mins, ie etn eltanc the hough of iy or Bases he ha indeed lost aconsicerabe mie vad we may expect hat his pate wl {weansweabe to hirspcuston ‘The point being hat lage part of edcston nls making sure that people hearts domed sins uch emus macnn that fauch education has not een elective then it toolaeo con Tain What we en dos remind ourcves of he bene of socal {der based on honesty and eo-perton, and we ca sengthen Sut dlerminaton to mabe thing diel for thove tempted fo beng raves, Wecan exhort the vet shice our stents We ca ‘totum up the volume of his feelings for those whom he exploits. What ‘we cannot J aguethe knave ack int pightbehiouy fori is Senet eo aay wt he pearson ta top then wecanavance no effective congestion vepty apps ingen its don toch pls is Sot enough safe wore abut he vee should lt le upon the scr nhc he st. We might ine he ke mbes in prclr order of ust and coopera, which he then expt certainly bad Bat in mare ole enirment, thedsreto ght foradvntge eto mary nv human The ‘leo when the sooner one in which sae co-operation avebvoke down orneverexted rifts ssymetal weighted iresplotatve ways ‘Teeticcanpay pda te whet any epson eens ek‘0 —_The Ga the Right andthe Common Point of View it ist this point useful to dstiguish two semen he move to -thecommon pont of view in Hue. Onee that Hume believes that inssecsingw character or the actions os character, we shoul co Sider the nee ofthe person Rimes whove character examined, forthat persons who have connection with him Thats, we ass fe by condoning ter impact 00 fay immediate eile: Fonds, omy busines ssa, for example This nota move o the intrest feeb considered partly, which whys Strong to sce Hume ava uitain, hough his ties ceri cone Taine consequenntic ements Rather n istry vee assessed interme of funcional apitige, andthe aptitudes one of bringing, Peasureer tity fo oneself those with whom ane has everyday Emer n astsing the character of Brio ot ake up 2 Ut fanan, God'vaye dal observer standpoint and ask forthe eect of Bruty’ character bly. abstract rom my ow positon, cosier theeffects of at characte on Brutus ad hoe ent Nah ude config. We sonal do thi and doing 50 provides the sting 1 ich weal vibtensympathy. “This the Hist element involved in taking up a commen pont of view The second slighty diferent. The Sst clement suggest that We tan se Hume a an ry “commmitan, most concern 12 ‘than ded ities of charatrncr ding withthe ot Sur group or fomly or ki nade thse with whom we have ‘Sul connections But the second ements slighty dierent. tis ‘Sealy eal of city the rguement hat i conversation ‘rthothers we ind common ground with them Wedonotsimply ds oun! thr opinion or sil les tay eniely deaf thee woken everyday ie tay be convenient 0 doth avstae, for eample, Sppeus to preset ts wi characters who are in the Buss of is ‘Eling only to peopl ike themstues se Grek citizens) and who find tas to Gscount the interes, opinions, or cancers of others ‘uli the charmed cre: Hume, y contrast seems to think that we Silhavean intrest in pursuing conversations eth other we ned 0 svete cna contains whcharefve rato This iBeat or cy pts pressure on purely communion pricipls. tears thn we ann cnet wi latina with te codes Aero ed ber bp do iti eater aan "Gel Suse Mucor "Why toe Common Pit of View i eal—Ané ‘stout, Sn ply gaan ‘The Good he Right ad the Common Point of View 24s that we cannot se ourselves justifying to them. We shall consider the force of hs need further in section 4 ‘We now ned to bear in in that there are ciferent contexts for knavery: The knave so far considered isthe genuine fsad or cheat ot person of weak and unreliable honest Ina well-functioning society, there will enough social pressures o give everyone a motivation avoid appearing ke ths. And the best way to ensue that people we are for will not appar ike this in tare, to make we that they en like this and o we educate peopl into the virtues. The less tractable problem is unfortunatly also more commen. This isthe “kaave' who [Ssccurein he socal vitues,butinsensitive tothe needs of people ou ‘ide his particular ercle. Such peopl confine thelr concerns to their Immediate tbe or group ar case ge gender Within their grovp, for ‘example, they may operate roughly consequentialist moralites, but ‘only comaequences tothe group matter Such tba or foal this ake Ite account elects ona limited ice but dixpay les concer oF no «concer forthe effects of ation upon other people, people who don't ‘count as much or just don count at al. Rousseau contrasts the virtue fof theciizen with the viet of man and o llstatesthe distinction: ‘amongst strangers the Spartan wae selfish grasping and unjust, but unselfishness, jistice and harmony ruled his home life"® And like Rousseau Spartans, within the private circle people may even gain in reputation and honour by callous or faudulent dealings with those ‘utside those wih havea lesser moral satus. ‘Wecan now sce thatthe quest for a foundation of etic in ‘reason’ is the search fora diferent answer from that of Hume ge Smith, one that shows that knaves ofboth the domestic nd the Foreign-Oftice varety ae net only unpleasant, but in some sense ivationalCan any such foundation be discovered? Before tuning to that, if good f0 wonder whether we actually want any such foundation, Denying ‘ential moral stats to insiders and outsiders sa waY of saying that distancematters. And in our actual mora lives distance does matter. A person Would be criticized aseruel callous, inhuman and unfeeling, {the let cid starve to death on his dost. ut the fact that the {hl is distant, out of sight and out of min, excuses s,m ov own tyes and those of people surrounding us, We simply cannot shoulder the burden ofthe entire world tis enough i wedo our ti by those Rota, Em orn Ein, Aan Bor (Ne Yr i okaa The Grothe Rigt, andthe Common Point of View ‘with whom we ae in human contact. There are moral philosophers [duck to inset tht this is indefensible. They usethe inhumanity ofthe She situation to encourage us to fel guilty about the other. Such Sppeals canbe deeply unconnfortble But must we listen to the? 2. ARISTOTLE’S WELL-BEING Ce agument would be that is actully imposible to bea succes febloate We might une fr instance, ht teen sch hig a5 the pret me soci range hg so hat tangs ether fet caught ove far of geting caught andthe cot of ths issu {Et octreighhstever Dents they may have hoped gan by dishonest ne cn mind ourcve of be mecharinme of epo- Secondo tne thought tno many’ someone on the boLout or Sppotunies ef knavery ely sob god atconcaing thi di Poston for long and he wil then sulle for “although we ph ih hat tings were always ike eat, nthe resort shade bebe tht hey ae Onthe contrary hen {Tes rmenured by ontnay sana nclading neon aoney bat Sal stoma respect hen we ave t at the uses ‘Tris ful of people who send by more or ss dubious ear Bra the poled world even more +0 Furthermore, by thee arp Imus we amot advance yond the hss at Honesty the est fy For however well we aang hing 2 hat he Sones uf ziveilawaysbeopento sto doubt wheter thecos-benefitaraly- ‘comes dow the ny na presen iar of ciscoery Souronly moe, hen doubting ts we wil be tenet kts tehaviour What was want le texpet for honesty sc but al we tre ivens rape! fori seameanesavoiing ae veh here Tichapter we met Anstote's more pround attempt 1 align ond tehvior with sleet Aroha songs fe any delete cumens that gotomake uphuman well-being eur Ima: Wels ot ost vre 9 sinpesenston he at sing ‘Shun weare wel for plnanty tie twee, prhapstie means togaining i could be fay unethical it were something Ike a tate {nd atcan be aheved witout vit ten he mess by whch Stecame aque we be elvan rte righty ened 0 “Shane ten fom tacit ie The de that the gal of + rare Hass LCi: Cant ier Pe | er Cpr ES ion ating re Yo Oued Eerty Pe). ‘The Gao, the Right andthe Common Point of View 243 Ife is olive wel and to Live well to live ethical. Arist is here refusing the idea that seliterest may oppose morality, and instead fiving 3 theory of aman wellbeing that align the two. They cannot be separated, and so there is no appesition Between them, The ink ‘that well-being involves an active appreciation of our Place in socket, ‘of the respect thats due to us for our doings, f successes gained and failures avoided. Nobody had a stronger sense than Aristotle of the importance attaching othe fact that ts our nature to be socal beings ‘Toschieve our natural ends orf we lik, tolive healiily when health Involves the developed activity of our natural faculties, various socal relationships, particulary friendships, nee o be in place. But these Cannot be in place where theres ro trust and o integrity nor where there i one eye cocked on the possibility of fraud or deception Hence, only trustworthy persons can gain these benefits, and hence weal at bottom have an overnng motivation tbehaveso that wecan aways justify our conduct in our own eyes and those of others. "Anstol’s rections have considerable once. But it lear that they fll fr short ofa refutation at least of the Spartan or Foreign: Office kind of knave. The principal problem is that the socal sources of seleeespect Anstole highlights are heavily contextual, or local ‘rather than global For while socal ving sata, and solitary Hiving ‘may be seen as unhealthy as well as unpleasant, the poor human {animal has some quite nasty natural tendencies iH relations #0 people no ifs Kn Tt is at eat as natural to us pretty mach to confine ‘ur cares othe family o tribe or ether local group, a5 ts 9 expand four view to inchude sympathetic practical concern with everyone, however remote. Rousseau’ itwent woe upinadvancig the io claimy conversation as come toa hal vote once more hat ths pis independent of how large ‘The Goo, the Right, end the Common Point of View 239 the Tiber the se of persons to whose interests Citizen gives prior iy. Np hat hema te he morte pee wl ‘What weare approuchingisa reson not fora possibly parochial o¢ regetable fact about ourlangaage orourconceps but amore van. tally lng clam about the constrains on any language apt fo die Tam, expect feel some discomfort here Were eto contol out ehire’s cle after we have sed up al the planets natural Fesoures, we might all fo 9 ite uncomorabe. Acknowledging, parlty isnot pleasant when cntronted withthe eames peal to Impartial justice on behalf of those who have been excluded r di count Tsit a quirement of wasn that shoul conduct my eso that, were sich conversation to take place I shld note! the dion: for? In the ral world, people often get round the problem simply By ‘etusingtoimagine the conversation tal (sno use dicusing with them’ oe even They wouldnt understand) T on snicpate feng actualy conto by my remote descendants howe tives wil be impoverished because and mine squander the word's resources if fam Grek can lve my if without having to uty my conduct to ‘arbartans wt to Backs mal female. ‘Once more of cour all of almoat al. maal Iori ae aged230 The Goud, he Right andthe Common Point of View that detent people wll not shelter behind the actual absence ofthe d= Counted group atthe conversation. We ought to fel the pressure to tchaveos though the hypothetical tribunal at which such groupshave [voice nerea real tuna. The argument berwcen Hume and Smith ‘nthe ne hand, and Kantian such a Hare onthe other, concerns only the source ofthis pressure Citizen ike us, will ow that there could be coaesatons in ‘whichis cannot make an appeal that is partner could be expected to Share, There will be conversations in which the attempt t find @ trutually agreed standpoint falters, He might know that there could ‘asily ars circumstances in which something bas to be done about thot ifthe persons who ae discounted actually confront him with the ‘demand for impartaty, then he faces a polizal attack on his prefer fence for hw and his, and negotiating that attack will require Something more than the response ‘because is mine’. But ofcourse Such a politeal challenge mey never arise inthe cae of the real dis possesed, othe future generations, we ae safe, and thei silence {ows our comfort, We can pres our advantage without acknow: ledging to ourselves oranybouy else that this is what we are doing. “The second aspect othe common point view that disunguished in Hume was civility, or the enterprise of finding common ground from which to discuss practical issues with conversational partners Inconversation we ry to do better than sake eoism, and the reason [Bobvious: wehave tappeal to concerns ofthe partner if we want the partner fo throw himself behind whatever practical stance we are pro- froting. The problem here is that there are persons with whomt we ‘haven actual conversation and this motivation for fining common found then lapses. Adam Smith would say and Hare would say and gre, that we ought nol to shelter behind the defacto Tack of representation, we ght fo have aan within the breast represent ingthe abvent people without, When we do we Belong to the party of humanity Unquestionably, the disposition to think of our relation with the wh are outside the circle a if they were within tis com= ‘mendable things go better when people are lke that. Someone who Shelters Behind not actualy having to canduct the conversation Is what we always knew he was: partial, elsh, pahaps alle blind; “uncvilinhis dealings with outetders, defectvein the finer sentiments fof Benevolence or the Finer feline of justice But why irrational? se iyptetamane caveeninmereme Prone " The God, he Right andthe Common Paint of View 391 One device i to try to ‘catch out Citizen with reasoning ofthe ol lowing kind. You, iis sad, advance your conceme as Teasons for action So you, tobe consistent, must acknowledge that persons’ con- ‘ems are reasons for action; that i, you must allow the propriety of reseing bse on concer But nonin or dscouning the on ‘cemsofothers,youare neffect denying his; you are therefore caught inakind ofinconaitencyet _ “To asses this cesly lets focus on Citizen's conversation witha mire image o doppelganger, another person of dominantly sale ‘ret preferences Citizen thinks it would be better if Ne got the ‘money because he wants to send his child to schoo, et us say, nd the ‘oppiginger thinks lt would be better fhe di, so that he can send his ‘hl fo school Now Citizen of course recognizes his dopelgys State of mind; he recognizes, unless he Is incapable of interpreting others fal, that his double is advocating for himself just what he, ‘vere he in the doubles position, would also be advocating for hin Self-And he resist it with just the same claim on behalf ofhimsel- But ‘hiss only saying that he recognizes universally that peoples’ index- fea concern are reasons for em. It oes not show him Fecogrzing {hat another persone’ indoncal concems are reasons or hi, or that they are reasons foe al. Inthe same way a reasonably intelligent Carolina game fan can recognize herself moe see, nthe Duke fan, ‘She understands why the Duke fan takes a Duke success a a resson for elation she ds nota t were, regard the Duke fan as entirely alien, ora least not because ofthis. Some fans—we might call them fanatialfans—might They think Wat supporting Duke is vietally “intelligible, Bt his is syndrome with which Tarn not concerned, Although the psychology, and the degrees of selideception it fnvolves, i nof uncommon) Yet understanding the Duke mentality pus no pressure on Carolina fan to absorb dhs concern, and herself {ovtake a Duke success ac any kind of reason tall for elation. In Fc, Insucha competitive setup, iis just he reverse. ‘We might retum to invoking a “tworlevels’ approach bere. We right say thatthe intelligent fami secure in her personal sensibility, ‘but that she can, if she understands these mates retreat toa univ ‘a point of view fom which she can see that its al right for thereto be game fans that's, ts god for human happiness tat there shoul ‘eset thiskindof pari If she runs this argument successfull she itn Kran, Te Sra of Natty Cambri any ce 9232 The Goat Right, and the Common Point of View ‘an have a stable reflexive conor with her own partisanship. After Sir without i, the enterprise of College basketal, with al the pleas- fics it appareny brings, would wither Simulaly, Citizen might {iain an equilibrium by relecting that moderate doses of egoistic Competition make the world go round. Both he and his double are then making perfectly proper claims; i jst unfortunate that they onfict and that one of them will ose out But itis perfetl in order fori to make sue that ts not he who loses. My response to this is that it might be like ths, and one might Become comfortable with ‘one's own partisanship hough such universal and impartial elec tions. But there silo argument hat tas to be ike this tats mo proof that it isa requirement of reason that we only indulge such par- [ssnshipas can be protected by sucha election. Perhaps people Who fre more partisan than such reflections ashy are sels tribal, jingo- [ste smallminded, and the rst butt is sill not demonstrated that thet vie sin any way akin # elPcontradiction or in any way con trary to the dictates of reason, "The position I would urge can be characterized a falling between ‘hat of Hare, and that of communitarans who aeentiely happy with Citizen nis polemic against the component of ethics that he thinks ‘of 36 morality”, or roughly the deontological part of ethics that con- {entales upon obligations, and also against universal consequential ism or ublitaransm, Berard Wilhams can be interpreted as ‘mounting an escape bid from the requirement that one's behaviour bear the impartial erating, We want, a were, tobe Citizen with a {good conscence. Myself I cannot feel comfortable with this ethical {ecommendation, Ido fel uncomfortable when Thave to contemplate hnypothetical conversations in which I could only present myself as unconcerned about common ground, and in which my final recourse "Would have fo be some version of ‘because iis mine’. Lalo fel moderately comfortable with this discomfort ink would become 1 alightly worse person if T lst it When I contemplate those politiclans in whom such sentiments appea tobe unknown, Learnt Feet tat they ae better than me, although I alo cannot see haw to ‘Ghnge them Ey pare reason. But I wish T could change them some tow. Teal human history, one of the few bright threads genuine con .cemm for the plight ofthe dispossessed. In amongst the brutal pateio- tins of tbe, nation, class and gender there dows exist a voice of humanity: the abolition of slavery the extension of surge, the sel stain that comes fom not pressing the actual inequities of poveer too far ae all heartening enough. We are fortunately, susceptible to The Good, the Right andthe Comm Point of View 235, the thought ht here something blameworthy aout aiming for ourselves what we would sot allow wothers Newent tose > So am not advacting tat we dana che portance oe tli of the dive to mpl iherent fm urea prec Svs. only kW inpran tog sauce: Te conc forcomiongroundtike any fhe concen st ate contingent and fragile result of our sentimental natures. a 5. THE KNAVE AGAIN Jn possbly the mest elaborate defence ofthe Kanan opposition to Hulme in recent years, Christine Koragaaed undertakes fo chow that thereasan we have togo beyond Hume and Smith smetaphyical as mucha moral and derives from ou conception forex ‘rangagens Wediscussin the next chaper whether here va meta Dysil problem for Hume andthe sentient tation nthe facts of desertion Tahal sre that Hume actually beter placed than Kant to understand the empirical distinctions tht are needed But ist we mt fckethe moral problesn, and fimsh withthe kav Korsgard presents us witha sghty mone atactve vero of Hume’ sensible knave This is lawyer who believes Humes theory ofthe mora sentiments and nds herself in situation in whither deceased client hs adel wil Isvingallthe money toa worthless nephew Bt he can suppres thie wil in favour of previ busapend wil ste the mone tomeda ean with many such scenarios moral poopy, theres supper sl no doubt hat consequent exon favours medial esearch, the nephew i inedeemable there are no side-etets no chance of bing found ot and soon This alone makes reletion on such eases ‘Nighy antelable for we ate not necessarily any god at aking 2 morality evolved for rel eten ard recognizing How should be applied 10 mapicl ones (his echoes the point that we cannot fat leave our natures behind, Wot T made about artical pesones| dilemma stations i the last chapter) tll Koreas’ concern fs ‘otto argue that the Hume lawyer wll make decsoninsoch Sieumstncs,buthatshe ait were insite gaat 2 Robert Geo Matting Fla Mraiy (Ono Bache 99) = Siegen234 The Gow, the Right end the Common Pent of Views dings. She an flat he hates justice, and that she does 0 teense of generally deter ees of actos such asthe one She is contemplating Butts case wll have no bad ees, That is ow its pected Says Korpasd, it lsalmestnconeable that Teving ts wil have elit on Ber sapproval tel Her own fling ef disapproval may seem to her tte, inthis case, poorly poured, and etre na sense atinal‘Korgard igh says Rat ine ueis pot whether av-a ater of poston, the Iwyer ‘nay find hat suppressing the wil ings on oo much erated or Fury tis ater that she does ot Believe that tes elngs are wellgrounded if she could cae herself of hese fecings this s what Tewould do, Ste sire that the Hiumcan lawyer should approach this practical stuaio in one way, bu common-sense mora suggests Thar should be approached in another Specialy, the Humean Inver even if ote to prove te va wil hold feel unset tial pethapsa bite foo, even acl of he integrity’ in doing SS Wereav's Kantian yer would be foredby confidence net Son rectitude: And we ae ini to spate wth the Kann Inwyer whose principles ae ot undermined by refetion on thei "E the key question is why the Humes lawyer should wish she could eure herself he disposition to ate injstce—the disposition that easing her toate ifeven nhs case, where he justice Ww {To good Weight have found hs question dificult had went ben thrsugh the decussion of the previous caplr, stressing the real ‘arity o human concer, andthe artical of temps to reduce Silt selrnteret uty’ or inded to any exclavely forward Tooking soning Hume wasa mater ofthis Henevercousel that virtuous racing shouldbe fosor ooking Indced, one of his foremost examples ofa vive gratitude, hich i eniely back: ‘wardookng, ance it sbecnuse someone hs dane You a serie that Yoru now owe tem gratitude, Among the movvational ste that ame would approve of in lawyer willbe the dese to act a het ‘ele demands ropect forthe wishes ofthe deceased and the prio [Seat pence of mind that comes of acting oly ways that ta uP to publ scratiny, Hume hima ay concerstve thinker, ae iver from bs pakeopy fo course any grubby opportunism tr even ungrabby epportuniam from benevolent motives 50 Why los Korps ncertncless hk that the Humean layer i inst ‘only forte aginst oe? ‘Presta the hough that he ayer shou be against (en- ‘he Goo, the Rig andthe Common Point View ays, iments favouring the appliston of rls in clcumstances in which the specie benefits for whowe achievement the rks ae designe “will not accrue. She should wish she had a more sensitive or finely- tuned seni, which dies ijstice and fos a vig nything to do with i the caer where itdoes god, bu el no Such elings in other cae But there sno reson to tink hat tis Tepresets aweful or posible eal. The reltee dosnt wish aay I iaponton ure th tent wt wed of ben cll 7 alice arenatiational fr having a disposton to enore oped ing penalties regan of whether he speeding was onan oceson ‘shan th pray will moweharm han gd is wot repeating Why nt Eacept in plosphial cyan it ishardto know mhen eacestivespeed safe bu then the sets ue fexcing valid wilt. The ehodology here one ef yng ‘Absteact from all the normal consequences, and concerns and prob- shy farce ane an an nl a he famean (or fer target the thoughexperent gives felt A bute ight ets ret Bat sotha meen ery doubt fo Frat we my tik weve anced fom al on tents without actully suceningin doing. ithe seyngT want $youtoabstact away fom he fa that you aremale/femate Now Yu canot obey te command jst lke that Lyng and exceting invalid wil nope Kind of sole horor and boro wi ‘ema even there Jo ext oes whee you carl ought oF {ccutethe wil Theeisnoting to rere! about maiatinalfesces that eit and are encouraged case thy temeeles promote the tds of human bengy an here the pressure foward hones api tin ofthe resist sucha feature “Te case structurally the same tha ofthe refers ofthe ame whois alo capable of reflecting on the pointe game playing There tre found eon fo approve of fe Hansen salina apr fom Sere tee ng wo amin the ee wee a mati aplictono the rules sup by thoughts abou the ger tral god. On the contary sine gameplaying and ts benefits cook tot ext referees wee To dot, wecamot admire rece who does so and no ewe can expt the sat foes the dos Sohimecit Of coune, Hume wie enough o realize that when the Alspary betceen general rules and public ity Becomes Feat gh fe d ace gonin conf ad theres tay have tive ‘toy sis the cast of Sr Francs Drake teatoned’in Chaps 2 ume'sownerampl the governor ofthetown who does not make sy sruplofbuming he stburbs, when they faa the approach336 The Goethe Right, andthe Common Point of View ofthe enemy’ This isin spite of what he elsewhere calls the inflexs Tbe rules necessary to support general peace and order in society 2 Tis solution s the Corect one. The pot is that emergencies demand tmnergeney measures, but Rorsgaard' lawyer faces no emergency, Sd she need nol regret her sene of being governed by nvlexble rules is incidentally useful to ask what a more deontological solution to the problem ofthe sacrifice of the suburbs or Drake's referee would be. Should the Kantian remain staunchly on the side ofthe rules of property orbowls? Iso, wemustask whether we would actually want onheane inflexible about such a mater to govern the town or conduct the game times of emergency In fat in every day ie, property rales follen give way to the pubic ood: compulsory purchase orders com- pel people tcl ut forthe sake of eservoir, motorways and soon, ‘Rorsgnar may well ask what we can do about tif the lawyer does nol feel happy about her obedience tothe rule of law. Here we are indeed faced with the same problem as that posed by the sensible nave. and we have already met the right ansiver. Ifthe lawyer is fempted to tranegres, her Sentiments are regrettable, and she will Tikely be found out, and wil not be able te bear the gaze of her fzcusers. She ma, ofcourse, fel vietimized by Ths, But we may oF may aot sympathize with sucha feoing, depending on the circum: “tances We have already met the tate of mind af those who rect the Glemands of ethics and one variety ofthis malaise certainly ean arise Ba this point We imagine here someone who has been failed by the Sia orders once aioe, the cullyof his or he integrity. Perhaps alone Shestandsin line, respects promises and propery while all around her people doing nether proft, and profit at her expense, Someone who Eras out too badly by being dutifican easily start fel victim, and this biter feng may erode her entusiasm fr contning todo what ‘duty requites. People can resent what they acknowledge tobe thelr ‘duty, and can chafe agains i just a they can oie in it and take pride in thee rectitude. Our emotional lives are not one-dimensional EEimetimes chafing may be quite reasonable. A person may, to late realize tha her conscience uselesly stood between them and normal {gor things of fe fort takes a speci social order to establish har Irony between setitude and succes: Morality i among other things "socal achievement Beas Ma, Pi nd ity Ga and TH. Ge (on: “FE Cough Preps osAppen P95. The ond, he Right andthe Common Point of View ayy We have been looking at the robust moral standing of the Smith/Hume mechanism whereby our purely” personal concerns bbcome infused with respec forthe common pointe view: [havebeen raising our suscepilit tothe voice of thers, while atthe same tine ‘fusing to see that susceptibility as anything other than afaet of our Sentimental natures. It has no Kantian author, noe any authority ‘Serivedparely from the nate of moral language nor any inevitable tendency to align with our own good, otherwise conceived. In this senee,tstands on its own fee. Korsgaarel presents her discussion ofthe sensible knave inthe midst ofa prolonged explanation af how a theory derived fram Kant suc feed in solving the normative question where the contrasting sen ‘mentalist tradition fils. So we now turn to sak what the normative {question is; how the Humean taditon fas to ansver i and how the ‘mechanisms the Kantian approach brings on suceed. We sein the est chp that tere rom foram and ten db evraSelf-Control, Reason, and Freedom CConnessaganstshegran siply made me feel mean, hypoceal Se serie co that Coodnes nly mate i a weigh of my con SEonce a weight often ese than ha ben Bd on parr ad enya any sd en Bod by acide Forth mont mudling hing ol that te Badresses you did by cient were what made you fe most gull The grown-ups pre fered that was what you dion purpor that mater. This was on [Sly ura, No oe ever gets doing «Bade on purpose. For intineifyou were rae or dbedint te Mis Xa governess YOU Fahy dese, youfctestherplesssd with youre afterwards Bat iFjou wet unkind or rudety mistake tosomeone you toved A hen ous wished you were dead. ‘men Raver, Prd Piece 1, SELF-CONTROL: HUME-FRIENDLY REASON Jn Chapter 2we came across Dirce’s version of Plato's famous image fof the charoten' In this pctre, reason, the chaioter, contol the potently unraly horses of desire. The model sets up the classic way {fthinking of ourselves 98 selcontoling, rational decision-makers ‘We are aware that in the cockpit of our emotions there are unruly forces, but with calm and care we can usually conn them, Here is the classi dualism of heart and hea, desi and reason, with reason in contol s long as things are going well Apo, in the ight ules Dionysus inthe dark, Plats model was dramatically tured upside down by Hume “Reason is ad ought ony tobe the save of the passions, ane can ‘never pretend to any oer office than to serve andl obey them. He ds provocatively that "Pao Ding aie aye ai, LAL 3.3. ‘Sef Contral, Reason and Freon 28 “mt contrat to reason to pf the detacion of the whole word tothe setahing fm ger "sot conay teagan for met hse MEd fain. to prevent the lam uneasiness of ainda or person whol uno {omens itl contrary ho eaon fo peer every own acknowledg lew go to my grater snd havea more aden fection oe he fee than be ater™ ‘Hume replaces Plato's rationalist picture withthe view that our ‘courses af st by ou passions or cancers. Reason ean inform Us of the acs ofthe case Features ofthe situations in which we have oat [And tean inform us which actions ae likely to cause which upshot. ‘ut Beyond that silent. The imprudent person, or the person of "unbridled lust, malevolence, or sloth is bad, ofcourse We may even fall them unreasonable, but In a sense that Hume considers improper: For, more accurately, not thei reason that at fault but their passions. Even the person who apparently fails #0 adapt ‘means to ends isnot necessarly unreasonable. Suppose [value hat- ingor even intend tohavea cleat head tomorow and Lrecogize that the means tothatend ist leave the pty now But fil todos. Tact {a5 if prefer the outcome (stay on, dull head to the outcome [leave now, clearhend prefer my leer good. Thereare things wrong with ie, but ismy reason at fault? Tam perhaps imprudent folsh, weak- ‘willed (but afterall Tay also be good fun tobe with), Perhaps i have been talking up the vale of clear head, then Lam also annoy: ingly feb or inconstant, or even dificult to interpret. All hese are doubtless serous defects But according to Hume, they ae defects of ‘wll or passion rather than reason. Obviously #¢ happens ender- cally, we begin t revise the interpretation of an agent as genuinely having an end If she docs notstiersel then what we ook to Be het tend seems not to concem her Perhaps it is just an ide wish, scarcely even a deste But then the fal es with us, the interpreters, noe wih he, the agent. Or, there i a fal may be one a selection she thinks she intends» particular end, when ft she dove not, but isresigne to not achieving Tris quite common to see Hume describe as limiting easoning to the "bureaucrai’ r instromental easoning,of the kind made much ff by Weber This simply inaccurate on both counts. As described, failing to adopt means to ends may be just a defect of passion for lume, Ban dition thinking about end can certainly deserve the papeseel cs paar SS Cpa, wi eot sPy Se Contral, Reson, and Freon tie reasoning. When we deploy some concer in ode o query oF Citic others there nothing to stp oom desing the process ‘SSone of eaoning Hume dacs not make imposible fo ci 2 porcvends Tea czeyourendey deploying my values: And Pean‘eitcis some of my own ends by deploying eter. Hume ‘would make timposbe for me creas an end of my own ony i Teen represented my sl objet of valor sre with everything tle valued or desired a mee means to But we ae not single trinded like that Ar in 30 fa as someone approximates to the “escption then Hume stems right thy would Rave st ry Sande print rom hich ras doubts about te gol, since eprese’s IReonlycurenyof evaluation they can se ‘Humes points ota defintonal one I not an oednary an sungepoin about the scope ofthe word reason does notafet is {het hat we often deste people who ae syed bythe wrong pasion unreasonable. The words fay general lero abuse Near prtculry prone to deride people who ar too passionate, parcalry too quick to impatience an gers unreconble (he july awa posing vit of coldnes or emotional detachments fot so often decribed this way, presumably reiting our fear of Dionysus) Bul Fume isnot concen wit ius ant doesnot inalcrto him, Hehasa mach more importa pont make Interns Tntrdueed in Caper he relly wants to ctingush defects of input rom nest processing ad ence output Renan gives us our ‘preset ofthe alent features ofthe ation we ae ant ‘pees us the ability tomake farther deductions and inferences about That stuaton Remon’ ofc sto represent the word tous a But then hw we reset to hat station and that cludes Row react tol ebay is another mater Its a matter of 9 dynamic reoponse—the oration of poston, tudes, plies, of ite tioned the mot cearsighte appreension of hesitation sno fovantethat tissues nctoninguell The nature four dynamic Eeyore shows our passionate nate, or senility. We spill xpress ths structure by vorang es emarks saying what 0 be Shone or feo ave The’ pont ot an ninayngigs pot 2 et ‘opposed tothe way we regu present practi quessonsin terms cPemhait would be reasonable fo dor even what T would oi tree reasonable can ank what would dof were mre generous, Shore prudent orincluded move people or ore sentient fe nm ‘Sncerms Similarly, ean ask what would of Tunderstond myst ‘Sho beter Ignorance and conision smpede proctal decion SelfContl Reason, and Freon a making, They make us worse at doing things that it would be useful ‘or agreeable to do better One of ou proper concern enol fo at on false premises, or without thinking trough the implctions of what ve know. We can desrie this by saying that we want to act reason bly. Furthermore one ofour concerns maybe to solic the agreement ‘of others to what we ae doing, We want our behaviour to withstand Scrutiny from the common pont of view, and this #0 canbe alld ‘concern fora reasonable soltin, Bat if we pose practical problems in terms of ‘what I would do if ‘were reasonable" of what the reasonable person would do’, w should not think we have thereby got beyond the subjection ofthe will to desi and passion. ‘Reasonable’ here stands asa label for an admired freedom from various traits—ignorance, incapacity 10 Understand our situation, shorsightednes, lack of concern for the ‘common point of view: Being social, and being prudent guardians of ‘our own interests, our concersinhide avondig decisions made only Deeause of such defects But here what 1 would do if were season. able’ functions lke what would doi were Gnanclly acute Ii als a consideration or set of considerations that only affect me because ofa contingent profile of concerns or desires or passions. In Kantian terms, tis ited only to deliver hypothetical imperatives, oF pleces of advice that gain their stats only Bocas they are baptized 8s important by eur desires and passions. It wil be important i sub Sequent sections to bear in mind that there i this use of reason” and ‘sled terms, but that sing it marks no defection from the sent "mentalist position. To repeat, this is because the considerations that fave selected as ‘reasonable’ inthis sense are s0 selected precisely {rough an operation of desire or contingent profile of concern. Fling to select them would itealf be» defect of sentient, adits because we have the cancers we do that we recommend fal infor ration, de deliberation, accommedations with others, absence of Immederate passions. 1 shall call ths the Hume-friendly use of In fact, although modem moral philosophy is apt to be writen a5 Flume were unigue and afl n presenting this pict of practical