Divine command ethics,

The morale positivism of

Thomos Hobbes, Virtue
Ethics.
Basnet Narayan.
–
Divine Command Theory
General questions about morality:

• What kinds of actions are morally right/wrong?

• Why? In virtue of what (are they right/wrong)?
• Are there objective truths about morality?

– Divine command theory argues that the

foundation of morality is God’s will

• Right acts are those that are in accordance with

God’s Will; Wrong acts…
 Socrates’ Question

• Are actions right because God

commands them, or does God
command them because they are right?

• According to divine command theory, an act

is right (if it is) because God commands it.
God’s command makes it right.
 Objections

• 1. “This conception of morality is

mysterious”

• 2. ….makes God’s commands arbitrary

• 3 …provides the wrong reasons

 The morale positivism of
Thomos Hobbes
• The English philosopher Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679) is best known for
his political thought, and deservedly so.
• His vision of the world is strikingly original and still relevant to
contemporary politics.
• His main concern is the problem of social and political order: how
human beings can live together in peace and avoid the danger and
fear of civil conflict.
• He poses stark alternatives: we should give our obedience to an
unaccountable sovereign (a person or group empowered to decide
every social and political issue). Otherwise what awaits us is a "state
of nature" that closely resembles civil war – a situation of universal
insecurity, where all have reason to fear violent death and where
rewarding human cooperation is all but impossible.
 Virtue ethics
• Ethics isn’t just about acting, but
about living
• An action is right if and only if it is
what a virtuous agent would
characteristically (i.e. acting in
character) do in the circumstances
– Knowing how to act takes practical
wisdom, which involves experience and
insight
 What is a virtue?
• Aristotle: a virtue is a state of character by
which you ‘stand well’ in relation to your
desires, emotions and choices:
– ‘to feel [desires and emotions] at the right times,
with reference to the right objects, towards the
right people, with the right motive, and in the
right way’
• Virtues are traits that are necessary for
‘living well’.
 The Virtues

• Intellectual Virtues
– Wisdom, Understanding, Prudence
– Taught through instruction
• Moral Virtues
– Prudence, Justice, Fortitude, Temperance
– The result of habit
– Not natural or inborn but acquired through
practice
– Habit or disposition of the soul (our
fundamental character) which involves both
feeling and action
• “Those strengths of character that enable us to
flourish” (Hinman)
 The Virtues
• Defined / understood in terms of
spheres of human experience
Fear of important damages Courage

Bodily appetites and their Moderation

pleasures
Distribution of limited Justice
resources
Attitude to slights and Mildness of Temper
damages
Adapted from Martha C. Nussbaum, “Non-Relative Virtues”
 The Doctrine of the Mean

• Proper position between two extremes

– Vice of excess
– Vice of deficiency
• Not an arithmetic median
– Relative to us and not the thing
– Not the same for all of us, or
– Any of us, at various occasions
– “In this way, then, every knowledgeable person
avoids excess and deficiency, but looks for the
mean and chooses it” (II.6)
 The doctrine of the mean
• Virtues and virtuous actions lie between
‘intermediate’ between two vices of ‘too much’
and ‘too little’
– E.g. being good-tempered
• But this is not the same as ‘moderation’ on all
occasions
– E.g. not moderate anger, but anger appropriate to
the situation
• Not arithmetical – corresponding vices aren’t
always ‘too much’ or ‘too little’
– E.g. honesty v. tactlessness v. deception
 The Mean

Vice of Deficiency Virtue Vice of Excess

Cowardice Courage Foolhardiness

Stinginess Generosity Prodigality

Shamelessness Modesty Bashfulness

Maliciousness Righteous Enviousness

Indignation
 Practical wisdom
• Aristotle: ‘a true and reasoned state of
capacity to act with regard to the things that
are good or bad for man’
– a general conception of what is good or bad
(conditions for human flourishing);
– the ability to perceive, in light of that general
conception, what is required in terms of feeling,
choice, and action in a particular situation;
– the ability to deliberate well; and
– the ability to act on that deliberation.
 Contextualism
• There are no true generalizations
about right and wrong – practical
wisdom is a form of intuitive reason.
• But ethics is not subjective; it is
‘context-sensitive’.
• Practical wisdom cannot be taught, but
must be acquired through experience.
 Objections
• Not everyone can know what is right
– Is this a strong objection? If there is any moral
knowledge, why assume everyone has it?
• The doctrine of the mean is useless
• Virtue ethics provides no guidance
– Ask a virtuous person
– Frame questions in terms of virtues
• Can virtues conflict?
• Is there an objective truth about what it
takes to ‘live well’?
 Virtue ethics approach
1. Individual virtue and integrity count, but good
corporate ethics programs encourage individual virtue
and integrity.
2. By the employee’s role in the community
(organization), these virtues associated with
appropriate conduct form a good person.
3. The ultimate purpose is to serve society’s demands
and the public good and to be rewarded in one’s
career.
4. The well-being of the community goes together with
individual excellence because of the social
consciousness and public spirit of every individual.
Implications
Any Questions ??
Thank you.