MORAL THEORIES &

PHILOSOPHY OF HUMAN RIGHTS

PHR 500 Lecture 4.1
Prof. G. Menelik
MIAMI UNIVERSITY, FL.
JUNE 2008
• Theories-
• Descriptive Inquiry
– Scientific Theories v. Metaphysical Theories
• Prescriptive Inquiry
– Normative Theories v. Metaethical Theories
 Cognitive v. Non-Cognitive Moral Theories

• Cognitive Theories (moral judgments are true or

false)
– based on reason and/or experience
• Virtue-Based Theories
• Duty-Based Theories
• Consequentialist Theories
• Non-Cognitive Theories
• Intuitionism
• Emotivism
• Constructivism (Cultural Relativism)
• Teleological Moral Theories
• Deontological Moral Theories
• Virtue-Based Moral Theories
• Goal Directed: A for the sake of B
• Consequentialism
• Cost/Benefit Ratios
• Hedonism
– Pleasure=GOOD, Pain =BAD
– Hierarchy:
• Higher (intellectual: wisdom, beauty,
friendship etc. )
• Lower (biological: sex, eating, drinking, etc.)
– Hedonistic Calculus
• Intensity, Duration, Probability, Fecundity,
• Whose Pleasures and Pains Count?
– Egoism: self
– Altruism: others:
• Problems:
– Objectivity of Pain and Pleasure
– Predictability of Pains and Pleasures
• (unanticipated consequences)
– Justice: social utility v. discrimination
• Divine Command Theory (Authority)
– Authorities: Leaders, Texts, Conscience.
– Universality v. Pluralism
• Rights-Based Theories (Justice)
– Libertarianism (Locke)
– Egalitarianism (Kant)
• Virtue Based Theories
MORALITY
:, DUTY Moral Person Universal Right Good
Reasoning s Rules Person
:, (Ends) (Categorical
Imperatives),
Universality
Ends v. Means
Kingdom of
Ends

INTEREST PLEASU Naturalistic Propert Particular Good Good

RE Dialectic y Rules Citizen
(means (Hypothetical
) Imperatives)
• Persons and Property
• Rights-
– Individual Rights
– Group Rights
– Right to Life
• Non-Human Rights
• Fetal Rights
• Rights and Moral Principles: Utility,
Beneficence, Non-Maleficence, Liberty,
Justice
• Positive Rights and Negative Rights
• Property Rights
• Rights and Duties-
• Rights and Sanctions-
– Natural sanction- enforced by nature
(natural/unnatural)
– Moral sanction- enforced by community
sentiment or convention (praise/blame)
– Legal sanction- enforced by government
(legal/illegal)
• Contingent upon governmental knowledge
and authority
–Relationship between legality and morality
• Conflict of Claims-
–Individual v. individual
–Group v. group (Israelis v. Palestinians,
Men v. Women, Blacks v. Whites)
–Group v. individual
–Natural rights, Legal rights, Moral
rights
• Architecture
– Praise (good acts) and Blame (bad acts)
• Teleological context: “forward looking”
– Change Behavior
» More pleasurable consequences
(reinforce)
» Less painful consequences (deter)
• Deontological:” backward looking”
– Justice as Proportionality (retribution)
• Issues
– Free will (voluntariness)
– Determinism (causation or coercion)
• Biological determinism
• Social or cultural determinism
• Moral Competence
• Individualism v. collectivism
• Is the assessment of responsibility
empirical?
• Virtue: “The Excellence of a Thing.”
• Purpose:
• Human Excellence
– Intellectual Virtue:
– Moral Virtue (Habit)
• The Golden Mean”
– Vice of deficiency, Virtue, Vice of Excess.

• Moral Education
– Deliberation
– Vice
– Incontinence-(weakness of the will)
SPHERE OF VICE OF VIRTUE VICE OF
FEELINGS DEFICIENCY EXCESS

Fear Cowardice Bravery Foolhardiness

Pleasure/Pain Insensibility Temperance Self-Indulgent

(Moderation)

Getting and Cheapness or Liberality Prodigality

Spending Tightwad
 Non-Cognitive Theories

• Non-Cognitivism
– Intuitionism
– Emotivism
– Constructivism
Evolutionary Psychology and Emotivism

• Emotivism
– Moral Statements are emotive expressions like
expressions of taste
• Killing is wrong because I disapprove of it
• Killing is wrong because my culture disapproves of it
• Good and Bad are not properties but expressions of
individual or collective preference
• Moral disagreements are conflicts of attitude not
conflicts of belief.
• Problems
– Universality
• Are there universal moral sentiments?
– Irreconcilability of moral disagreements
– Nature of Moral Judgment
– Reasons
– Toleration
– Confusion between Facts and Values
• Does experiencing a moral feeling necessarily imply
that it is good?
• Emotions are common among mammals,
especially primates (monkeys and apes)
• Foundational Moral Feelings
– Sympathy
• The Expanding Circle
• In-Group Out-Group Bias
– Consolation
– Retribution
• The Formal Principle of Justice