DOCSLIB.ORG

A Two-Dimensional Model of Utilitarian Psychology

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
A Two-Dimensional Model of Utilitarian Psychology Psychological Review © 2017 American Psychological Association 2017, Vol. 0, No. 999, 000 0033-295X/17/$12.00 http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/rev0000093 Beyond Sacrificial Harm: A Two-Dimensional Model of Utilitarian Psychology Guy Kahane, Jim A. C. Everett, Brian D. Earp, Lucius Caviola, Nadira S. Faber, Molly J. Crockett, and Julian Savulescu University of Oxford Recent research has relied on trolley-type sacrificial moral dilemmas to study utilitarian versus nonutili- tarian modes of moral decision-making. This research has generated important insights into people’s attitudes toward instrumental harm—that is, the sacrifice of an individual to save a greater number. But this approach also has serious limitations. Most notably, it ignores the positive, altruistic core of utilitarianism, which is characterized by impartial concern for the well-being of everyone, whether near or far. Here, we develop, refine, and validate a new scale—the Oxford Utilitarianism Scale—to dissociate individual differences in the ‘negative’ (permissive attitude toward instrumental harm) and ‘positive’ (impartial concern for the greater good) dimensions of utilitarian thinking as manifested in the general population. We show that these are two independent dimensions of proto-utilitarian tendencies in the lay population, each exhibiting a distinct psychological profile. Empathic concern, identification with the whole of humanity, and concern for future generations were positively associated with impartial beneficence but negatively associated with instrumental harm; and although instrumental harm was associated with subclinical psychopathy, impartial beneficence was associated with higher religiosity. Importantly, although these two dimensions were independent in the lay population, they were closely associated in a sample of moral philosophers. Acknowledging this dissociation between the instrumental harm and impartial beneficence components of utilitarian thinking in ordinary people can clarify existing debates about the nature of moral psychology and its relation to moral philosophy as well as generate fruitful avenues for further research. Keywords: empathy, impartiality, moral dilemmas, moral psychology, utilitarianism Supplemental materials: http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/rev0000093.supp According to classical utilitarianism, we should always act in causes more generally. They have been leading figures in the the way that would maximize aggregate well-being. Since its fights against sexism, racism, and ‘speciesism;’ influential sup- introduction in the 18th century by the philosopher Jeremy porters of political and sexual liberty; and key actors in attempts Bentham, this simple idea has been massively influential—and to eradicate poverty in developing countries as well as to massively controversial. Modern-day secular morality can be encourage more permissive attitudes to prenatal screening, seen as the gradual expansion of our circle of moral concern abortion, and euthanasia within our own societies (Bentham, from those who are emotionally close, physically near, or 1789/1983; Mill, 1863; Singer, 2011). Yet utilitarians have similar to us, to cover the whole of humanity, and even all never constituted more than a tiny minority, and utilitarianism sentient life (Singer, 1981; see also Pinker, 2011). Utilitarians has always faced fierce resistance. Pope John Paul II famously like Bentham, John Stuart Mill, and, in our time, Peter Singer, wrote: “Utilitarianism is a civilization of production and of use, have played a pivotal role in this process, and in progressive acivilizationof‘things’andnotof‘persons,’acivilizationin Editor’s Note. Guy Kahane and Jim A. C. Everett contributed equally and Savulescu, Uehiro Centre for Practical Ethics, University of Ox- share first authorship. ford. This research was supported by research grants from the Uehiro Foun- dation on Ethics and Education, the Wellcome Trust Institutional Strategic Support Fund, and the Wellcome Centre for Ethics and Humanities Guy Kahane, Uehiro Centre for Practical Ethics, University of Ox- (WT203132/Z/16/Z). The authors gratefully acknowledge the assistance of ford; Jim A. C. Everett, Uehiro Centre for Practical Ethics and Depart- an expert panel of philosophers who helped review items, and the assis- ment of Experimental Psychology, University of Oxford; Brian D. Earp, tance of Simon Lolliot for his statistical advice in the initial stages of the Uehiro Centre for Practical Ethics, University of Oxford; Lucius Cavi- scale development. ola, Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Oxford; Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Jim A. C. Nadira S. Faber, Uehiro Centre for Practical Ethics and Department of Everett, Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Oxford, Experimental Psychology, University of Oxford; Molly J. Crockett, South Parks Road, Oxford, United Kingdom, OX1 3UD. E-mail: Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Oxford; Julian [email protected] 1 2 KAHANE ET AL. which persons are used in the same way as things are used” gressive and antisocial tendencies including reduced concern (John Paul II, 1995). But it is not only defenders of traditional about harm to others (Bartels & Pizarro, 2011; Glenn, Koleva, morality who reject utilitarianism; prominent progressive think- Iyer, Graham, & Ditto, 2010; Kahane, Everett, Earp, Farias, & ers have criticized utilitarianism in similar terms (Rawls, 1971; Savulescu, 2015; Wiech et al., 2013). These findings are puz- Williams, 1973), and many continue to angrily protest the views zling. Utilitarians are supposed to care about the good of all of utilitarians such as Singer (Schaler, 2009). Clearly, utilitar- sentient beings; psychopaths notoriously care only about their ianism is a distinctive, influential, and controversial ethical own good. So why is psychopathy one of the traits most view. consistently associated with what are supposed to be paradigm Given the influential but controversial reach of utilitarianism cases of utilitarian judgment? in ethics and society, questions about the psychological basis of The answer to this puzzle may be found by way of illustra- utilitarian moral thinking—and why some people are so at- tion. In March 2017, disability activists outraged by Peter tracted to it while others are so repelled—have been of con- Singer’s support for the infanticide of severely disabled babies siderable interest to philosophers and psychologists alike. Util- prevented him from speaking (via an Internet link) at an event itarians have often answered such questions by appealing to a organized by the Effective Altruism Club of Victoria University contrast between cool logic and misguided intuitions and emo- in Canada—a club whose founding, in turn, was inspired by tions. They argue that common moral views have their source in Singer’s advocacy of self-sacrifice in the name of charity gut reactions and intuitions shaped by discredited religious views or (Singer, 2015). This incident—and the two ‘sides’ of Singer’s evolutionary pressures, and that careful reflection should lead us to views attracting both censure and praise—offers the beginnings abandon these views and endorse utilitarianism, a more logical view of an answer to our question by showing two distinct ways in based in rational reflection (Singer, 2005). Recognizing that this which utilitarianism radically departs from commonsense mo- notion is, in part, a testable hypothesis about human moral psychol- rality. ogy, some advocates of utilitarianism have generated an influential The first way utilitarianism departs from such commonsense body of empirical research that has by and large seemed to confirm it. morality is that it places no constraints whatsoever on the maxi- The main approach in this research has been to study re- mization of aggregate well-being. If killing a severely disabled sponses to ‘sacrificial’ moral dilemmas (such as the famous child would lead to more good overall—as Singer believes is at ‘trolley’ scenario and its various permutations; see Foot, 1967) least sometimes the case—then utilitarianism, in stark contrast to which present a choice between sacrificing one innocent person commonsense morality, requires that the child be killed. This to save a greater number of people, or doing nothing and letting explains the angry protests at Singer’s talk. But this requirement is them die. In analyzing these responses and relating them to just one aspect of utilitarianism: specifically, it is the negative other variables, such as individual difference scores on person- dimension according to which we are permitted (and even re- ality measures or patterns of brain activity, researchers have quired) to instrumentally use, severely harm, or even kill innocent tried to uncover the psychological and even neural underpin- people to promote the greater good. We call this dimension ‘in- nings of the dispute between utilitarians and their opponents— strumental harm.’ such as defenders of deontological, rights-based views of the There is also a positive dimension to utilitarianism, and this kind associated with Immanuel Kant. dimension, too, departs from commonsense morality. Recall In keeping with the ‘cool logic’ versus ‘misguided emotions’ that utilitarianism requires us to maximize, not our own pref- framework, these researchers have made heavy use of a dual- erences or well-being—not even that of those near or dear to us, process approach to understanding human cognition. Dual pro- or of our
Load more

Recommended publications
  • The Establishment Clause, Secondary Religious Effects, and Humanistic Education
    The Establishment Clause, Secondary Religious Effects, and Humanistic Education The Supreme Court decisions proscribing prayer' and Bible reading2 in public schools provoked considerable public debate. That debate has con- tinued,3 fueled in part by fear that the removal of those religious practices from public schools would hinder the moral development of school chil- dren.4 A number of different, avowedly nonreligious, moral education pro- grams5 that purport to encourage and channel the moral development of the individual child have emerged in the wake of the prayer and Bible- reading decisions.6 Although diverse in method, all of these programs, un- like more traditional forms of moral training,7 reflect the influence of an educational philosophy known as Humanistic Education. The Humanistic Education movement, originally concerned primarily with counteracting the dehumanizing character of technocratic modern ed- ucation,' has evolved into a comprehensive social and moral philosophy' 1. Engel v. Vitale, 370 U.S. 421 (1962). 2. Abington School Dist. v. Schempp, 374 U.S. 203 (1963). 3. See N.Y. Times, Apr. 20, 1980, § 12, at 3, col. 1 (many groups still fighting to put prayer back in public schools; between 10% and 30% of public schools still refuse to comply with prayer decisions). 4. See, e.g., N.Y. Times, Jan. 24, 1980, § 2, at 10, col. 5 (some proponents of prayer believe that "crime, vandalism, and drugs are all results of ruling prayer from the schools"); cf D. BOLES, THE BIBLE, RELIGION, AND THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS 245-48 (1961) (proponents of Bible reading believe that its absence from public schools will lead to decline in moral standards).
    [Show full text]
  • Beyond the Principles of Bioethics: Facing the Consequences of Fundamental Moral Disagreement
    DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5007/1677-2954.2012v11n1p13 BEYOND THE PRINCIPLES OF BIOETHICS: FACING THE CONSEQUENCES OF FUNDAMENTAL MORAL DISAGREEMENT H. TRISTRAM ENGELHARDT (Rice Universtiy / USA) ABSTRACT Given intractable secular moral pluralism, the force and significance of the four principles (autonomy, beneficence, non-maleficence, and justice) of Tom Beauchamp and James Childress must be critically re-considered. This essay examines the history of the articulation of these four principles of bioethics, showing why initially there was an illusion of a common morality that led many to hold that the principles could give guidance across cultures. But there is no one sense of the content or the theoretical justification of these principles. In addition, a wide range of secular moral and bioethical choices has been demoralized into lifestyle choices; the force of the secular moral point of view has also been deflated, thus compounding moral pluralism. It is the political generation of the principles that provides a common morality in the sense of an established morality. The principles are best understood as embedded not in a common morality, sensu stricto, but in that morality that is established at law and public policy in a particular polity. Although moral pluralism is substantive and intractable at the level of moral content, in a particular polity a particular morality and a particular bioethics can be established, regarding which health care ethics consultants can be experts. Public morality and bioethics are at their roots a political reality. Keywords: Bioethics. Pluralism. Moral disagreement. Ethical particularism. RESUMO Dado o pluralismo moral secular intratável, a força e o significado dos quatro princípios (autonomia, beneficência, não maleficência e justiça) de Tom Beauchamp e James Childress precisam ser reconsiderados criticamente.
    [Show full text]
  • Saharan Africa: the Igbo Paradigm
    Journal of International Education and Leadership Volume 5 Issue 1 Spring 2015 http://www.jielusa.org/ ISSN: 2161-7252 The Re-Birth of African Moral Traditions as Key to the Development of Sub- Saharan Africa: The Igbo Paradigm Chika J. B. Gabriel Okpalike Nnamdi Azikiwe University This work is set against the backdrop of the Sub-Saharan African environment observed to be morally degenerative. It judges that the level of decadence in the continent that could even amount to depravity could be blamed upon the disconnect between the present-day African and a moral tradition that has been swept under the carpet through history; this tradition being grounded upon a world view. World-view lies at the basis of the interpretation and operation of the world. It is the foundation of culture, religion, philosophy, morality and so forth; an attempt of humans to impose an order in which the human society works.1 Most times when the African world-view is discussed, the Africa often thought of and represented is the Africa as before in which it is very likely to see religion and community feature as two basic characters of Africa from which morality can be sifted. In his popular work Things Fall Apart, Chinua Achebe had above all things shown that this old Africa has been replaced by a new breed and things cannot be the same again. In the first instance, the former African communalism in which the community was the primary beneficiary of individual wealth has been wrestled down by capitalism in which the individual is defined by the extent in which he accumulates surplus value.
    [Show full text]
  • "Good Without God": Happiness and Pleasure Among the Humanists
    Matthew Engelke "Good without God": happiness and pleasure among the humanists Article (Published version) (Refereed) Original citation: Engelke, Matthew (2015) "Good without God": happiness and pleasure among the humanists. HAU: Journal of Ethnographic Theory, 5 (3). pp. 69-91. ISSN 2049-1115 DOI: 10.14318/hau5.3.005 Reuse of this item is permitted through licensing under the Creative Commons: © 2015 The Author CC BY 4.0 This version available at: http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/65522/ Available in LSE Research Online: February 2016 LSE has developed LSE Research Online so that users may access research output of the School. Copyright © and Moral Rights for the papers on this site are retained by the individual authors and/or other copyright owners. You may freely distribute the URL (http://eprints.lse.ac.uk) of the LSE Research Online website. 2015 | Hau: Journal of Ethnographic Theory 5 (3): 69–91 SPECIAL ISSUE “Good without God” Happiness and pleasure among the humanists Matthew Engelke, London School of Economics and Political Science In this article, I explore conceptions of happiness and pleasure among secular humanists in Britain. Based on fieldwork among members of the British Humanist Association, and its associated local groups, I argue that happiness for the humanists is both the promise and demand of enlightenment, of an appeal to reason over and against what they see as the irrationality of religion. For them, happiness and pleasure are subjective experiences, but they are also indices of philosophical and ethical commitments.
    [Show full text]
  • A VARIETY of MORAL SOURCES in a SECULAR AGE – Damian Barnat –
    Diametros 54 (2017): 161–173 doi: 10.13153/diam.54.2017.1138 A VARIETY OF MORAL SOURCES IN A SECULAR AGE – Damian Barnat – Abstract. The aim of my paper is to assess in a critical way the views presented by Graeme Smith in his book A Short History of Secularism (2008) as well as in his paper Talking to Ourselves: An Inves- tigation into the Christian Ethics Inherent in Secularism (2017). According to Smith, secular Western societies are underpinned by Christian ethics. An example of a moral norm that – in Smith’s opin- ion – derives from medieval Christianity and shapes the moral condition of the members of con- temporary societies, is the concern about the poor. My criticism of Smith’s thesis is based on the distinction between moral norms and the ways of justifying them. Referring to this distinction, my objective is to show that certain norms which appear to be the same cannot be treated as identical due to the significant differences in their justification. Keywords: Charles Taylor, secularism, ethics, religion, modernity, Enlightenment. Introduction The aim of my paper is to assess in a critical way the views presented by Graeme Smith in his book A Short History of Secularism (2008),1 as well as in his paper Talking to Ourselves: An Investigation into the Christian Ethics Inherent in Secu- larism (2017).2 According to Smith, secular Western societies are underpinned by Christian ethics. An example of a moral norm that – in Smith’s opinion – derives from medieval Christianity and shapes the moral condition of the members of con- temporary societies, is the concern about the poor.
    [Show full text]
  • New Atheism and the Scientistic Turn in the Atheism Movement MASSIMO PIGLIUCCI
    bs_bs_banner MIDWEST STUDIES IN PHILOSOPHY Midwest Studies In Philosophy, XXXVII (2013) New Atheism and the Scientistic Turn in the Atheism Movement MASSIMO PIGLIUCCI I The so-called “New Atheism” is a relatively well-defined, very recent, still unfold- ing cultural phenomenon with import for public understanding of both science and philosophy.Arguably, the opening salvo of the New Atheists was The End of Faith by Sam Harris, published in 2004, followed in rapid succession by a number of other titles penned by Harris himself, Richard Dawkins, Daniel Dennett, Victor Stenger, and Christopher Hitchens.1 After this initial burst, which was triggered (according to Harris himself) by the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, a number of other authors have been associated with the New Atheism, even though their contributions sometimes were in the form of newspapers and magazine articles or blog posts, perhaps most prominent among them evolutionary biologists and bloggers Jerry Coyne and P.Z. Myers. Still others have published and continue to publish books on atheism, some of which have had reasonable success, probably because of the interest generated by the first wave. This second wave, however, often includes authors that explicitly 1. Sam Harris, The End of Faith: Religion, Terror, and the Future of Reason (New York: W.W. Norton, 2004); Sam Harris, Letter to a Christian Nation (New York: Vintage, 2006); Richard Dawkins, The God Delusion (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2006); Daniel C. Dennett, Breaking the Spell: Religion as a Natural Phenomenon (New York: Viking Press, 2006); Victor J. Stenger, God:The Failed Hypothesis: How Science Shows That God Does Not Exist (Amherst, NY: Prometheus, 2007); Christopher Hitchens, God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything (New York: Twelve Books, 2007).
    [Show full text]
  • Man Is Condemned to Be Free by Jean-Paul Sartre from the Lecture, “Existentialism Is a Humanism” (1946) Translated by Philip Mairet (1948)
    Man is Condemned to Be Free by Jean-Paul Sartre from the lecture, “Existentialism is a Humanism” (1946) translated by Philip Mairet (1948) Existence Precedes Essence … we can begin by saying that existentialism, in our sense of the word, is a doctrine that does render human life possible; a doctrine, also, which affirms that every truth and every action imply both an environment and a human subjectivity. … [A]t bottom, what is alarming in the doctrine that I am about to try to explain to you is – is it not? – that it confronts man with a possibility of choice. To verify this, let us review the whole question upon the strictly philosophic level. What, then, is this that we call existentialism? … The question is only complicated because there are two kinds of existentialists. There are, on the one hand, the Christians, amongst whom I shall name Jaspers and Gabriel Marcel, both professed Catholics; and on the other the existential atheists, amongst whom we must place Heidegger as well as the French existentialists and myself. What they have in common is simply the fact that they believe that existence comes before essence – or, if you will, that we must begin from the subjective. What exactly do we mean by that? If one considers an article of manufacture as, for example, a book or a paper- knife – one sees that it has been made by an artisan who had a conception of it; and he has paid attention, equally, to the conception of a paper-knife and to the pre-existent technique of production which is a part of that conception and is, at bottom, a formula.
    [Show full text]
  • Atheism, Agnosticism, and Nonbelief
    ATHEISM, AGNOSTICISM, AND NONBELIEF: A QUALITATIVE AND QUANTITATIVE STUDY OF TYPE AND NARRATIVE By Christopher Frank Silver Ralph W Hood Jr Jim Tucker Professor Professor (Co-Chair) (Co-Chair) Valerie C. Rutledge David Rausch Professor Assistant Professor (Committee Member) (Committee Member) Anthony J. Lease A. Jerald Ainsworth Dean of the College of Health, Education Dean of the Graduate School and Professional Studies ATHEISM, AGNOSTICISM, AND NONBELIEF: A QUALITATIVE AND QUANTITATIVE STUDY OF TYPE AND NARRATIVE By Christopher Frank Silver A Dissertation Submitted to the Faculty of the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Education The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga Chattanooga, Tennessee August 2013 ii Copyright © 2013 By Christopher Frank Silver All Rights Reserved iii ABSTRACT Extensive research has been conducted in exploration of the American religious landscape, however recently has social science research started to explore Nonbelief in any detail. Research on Nonbelief has been limited as most research focuses on the popularity of the religious “nones” or the complexities of alternative faith expressions such as spirituality. Research has been limited in exploring the complexity of Nonbelief or how non-believers would identify themselves. Most research assumes nonbelievers are a monolithic group with no variation such as Atheism or Agnosticism. Through two studies, one qualitative and one quantitative, this study explored identity of Nonbelief. Study one (the qualitative study) discovered that individuals have shared definitional agreement but use different words to describe the different types of Nonbelief. Moreover, social tension and life narrative play a role in shaping one’s ontological worldview.
    [Show full text]
  • Does Morality Require Religious Foundations?
    Does Morality Require Religious Foundations? It is often claimed, particularly in polemical debates, that morality makes no sense without a religious foundation. In this short piece, I will set out an argument on the other side. The issues which I will be discussing have been considered with great erudition by many scholars. Here, I can only write much more briefly. These space limitations will, however, have two consequences. First, I will have to be rather cruder and may come over as more polemical than I would if more space were available, and I will often state my views without stopping to note that and why many distinguished scholars would disagree. Second, I cannot here address many important issues which readers will spot really require an answer. (Here, as with all my work, I’d welcome criticisms, objections and requests for clarification.) 1. Introduction: the very idea of religion as the basis of morality Are there dangers in a purely pragmatic and unreflective approach to issues of politics and public policy, which does not step back also to consider deeper moral questions? Second, if we say yes to this first question – as I would wish to – does morality stand in need of religious foundations? Here I will argue that it doesn’t. Let me start by being somewhat provocative. For I want to suggest that religion1 as such does not help at all with issues to do with morality (although religious traditions obviously incorporate many important moral ideas, and religious people display considerable self-sacrifice for moral causes). There are various reasons for this.
    [Show full text]
  • Philosophy 104, Business Ethics, Queens College, Spring 2007
    Philosophy 104, Business Ethics, Queens College, Spring 2007 Russell Marcus, Instructor email: [email protected] website: http://www.thatmarcusfamily.org/philosophy/Business_Ethics/BEHome.htm Lecture Notes, March 2 I. Some final considerations in favor of secular morality over religious morality Nielsen argues that religious morality requires accepting a dogma, that we know God’s will, whereas secular morality is supported by good reasons. There are other reasons that we should study morality without considering religion. 1. Many people act morally without religious motivation. There seems to be no need to consider religion, since atheists can be moral. An objection: we might internalize the real (religious) motivation for our ethical behavior. Consider that we do not fear a traffic accident when we drive. We have learned to follow certain rules. But our basic motivation for driving safely is fear of an accident. Similarly, the existence of ethical atheists may only show that they have internalized the religious lessons. It would be difficult to show that ethical atheists have internalized religion. Still, the existence of ethical atheists does not seem decisive in favor of secular morality. 2. Religious morality embroils us in the intractable problem of selecting a correct religion. There are many religions, and we do not know which one is right. They may conflict. But we do not need to know the answer to be moral. There are problems of revelation and interpretation. Is the Bible God’s word, or an historical account of God’s actions? Our answers to these questions project a prior understanding of morality. 3. Religious morality may make God’s will morally arbitrary.
    [Show full text]
  • The Secular Transformation of Pride and Humility in the Moral Philophy of David Hume
    Marquette University e-Publications@Marquette Dissertations (2009 -) Dissertations, Theses, and Professional Projects The ecS ular Transformation of Pride and Humility in the Moral Philosophy of David Hume Kirstin April Carlson McPherson Marquette University Recommended Citation McPherson, Kirstin April Carlson, "The eS cular Transformation of Pride and Humility in the Moral Philosophy of David Hume" (2016). Dissertations (2009 -). Paper 625. http://epublications.marquette.edu/dissertations_mu/625 THE SECULAR TRANSFORMATION OF PRIDE AND HUMILITY IN THE MORAL PHILOPHY OF DAVID HUME by Kirstin Carlson McPherson, B.A., M.A. A Dissertation submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate School, Marquette University, in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Milwaukee, Wisconsin May 2016 ABSTRACT: THE SECULAR TRANSFORMATION OF PRIDE AND HUMILITY IN THE MORAL PHILOSOPHY OF DAVID HUME Kirstin Carlson McPherson, B.A., M.A. Marquette University, 2016 In this dissertation I examine Hume’s secular re-definition and re-evaluation of the traditional Christian understanding of pride and humility as part of his project to establish a fully secular account of ethics and to undermine what he thought to be the harmful aspects of religious morality. Christians traditionally have seen humility, understood as receptivity to God, to be crucial for individual and social flourishing, and pride as the root of individual and social disorder. By contrast, Hume, who conceives of pride and humility immanently in terms of our self-appraisals, sees pride as a key virtue that serves as the ultimate source of moral motivation and deems humility a ‘monkish virtue’ (i.e., a vice). Hume, moreover, sees religious appeals to a transcendent moral source to be a threat to individual flourishing in that they encourage the formation of what he calls ‘artificial lives’ (of which the monkish virtues are an expression) as well as a threat to social concord, insofar as they foster unnecessary religious factions, intolerance, and theologically sanctioned violence.
    [Show full text]
  • The Demoralization and Deflation of Morality and Bioethics# a Desmoralização E Degradação Da Moralidade Na Bioética H
    ARTIGOS EM SÉRIE / SERIES PAPER Revista - Centro Universitário São Camilo - 2014;8(3):297-329 The demoralization and deflation of Morality and Bioethics# A desmoralização e degradação da Moralidade na Bioética H. Tristram Engelhardt Jr.* I. THE END OF AN AGE pact of the Frankfurter Schuleb would soon precipitate a comprehensive secularization. However, this transfor- It was 1954. I had arrived in Europe for the first mation had not yet taken place. I was in a cultural lull time, indeed in Genoa. In that early June, bright with before widespread turbulence and change. It was not yet flowers, a joy for my mother, I entered a world that was a culture after God. a universe apart from the Europe of the second decade There surely have been other periods when Italy was of the 21st century. The moral and metaphysical texture just before an immense, thoroughgoing, and largely un- of the then-dominant life-world was radically differ- anticipated change. In A.D. 395 when the Eastern and ent. There was a pronounced folk piety. Italy’s streets Western portions of the empire were divided follow- were full of young priests and children. Everywhere ing the death of Emperor Theodosius (349-395), most there were grey and black friars. Italy was young, gener- Romans could not have imagined that in fifteen years ally pious, and dynamic (although side chapels were at the City would fall to Alaric and his Gothsc. In 1954 times marked by signs bearing an astonishing warning: I could not have envisaged that by 1969 as a Fulbright Vietato urinare).
    [Show full text]