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The Ideal Observer Theory and Motivational Internalism

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The Ideal Observer Theory and Motivational Internalism The Ideal Observer Theory and Motivational Internalism Daniel Ronnedal¨ Abstract In this paper I show that one version of motivational internalism follows from the so-called ideal observer theory. Let us call the version of the ideal observer theory used in this essay (IOT). According to (IOT), it is necessarily the case that it ought to be that A if and only if every ideal observer wants it to be the case that A. We shall call the version of motivational internalism that follows from (IOT) (moral) conditional belief motivational internalism (CBMI). According to (CBMI), it is necessarily the case that, for every x: if x were an ideal observer, it would be the case that x believes that it ought to be that A only if x wants it to be the case that A. Given that it is necessarily true that no ideal observer has any false beliefs, (IOT) entails (CBMI). Or, so I shall argue. Keywords: the ideal observer theory, motivational internalism, practical reason 1 Introduction In this paper I show that one version of motivational internalism follows from the so-called ideal observer theory. The classical modern formula- tion of the ideal observer theory is [16].1 According to Roderick Firth, If it is possible to formulate a satisfactory absolutist and dis- positional analysis of ethical statements, it must be possible [. ] to express the meaning of statements of the form \x is right" in terms of other statements which have the form: \Any ideal observer would react to x in such and such a way under such and such conditions." [16, 329] The main idea seems to be that an act is right if and only if (iff) it would be approved by any ideal observer, and more generally that an act has Kriterion { Journal of Philosophy, 2015, 29(1): 79{98. http://www.kriterion-journal-of-philosophy.org c 2015 The author 80 KRITERION { Journal of Philosophy, 2015, 29(1): 79{98 a moral property iff any ideal observer would react in such and such a way if such and such conditions were realized. According to Firth such an analysis is absolutist, dispositional, ob- jectivist, relational, and empirical. An ideal observer is omniscient with respect to all non-ethical facts, omnipercipient, disinterested, dispassion- ate, consistent, and in other respects normal. The ideal observer theory used in this essay is inspired by, but not identical to, Firth's. Our ver- sion, which we will call (IOT), entails two important theses (O) and (B). (O) Necessarily, it ought to be that A if and only if every ideal observer wants it to be the case that A.2 (B) Necessarily, for every x: if x is an ideal observer, then if x believes that A then A. Firth thinks that we should assume that an ideal observer knows all (non-ethical) facts whatsoever. (B) is a slightly different, and in one sense weaker, condition. According to (B) it is necessarily true that no ideal observer has any false beliefs. But we don't have to assume that an ideal observer knows everything. (B) is a reasonable condition since desires based on false beliefs might be irrational. Furthermore, we don't have to restrict (B) to beliefs about non-normative facts, since normative facts, according to the ideal observer theory, just are (constituted by) facts about what ideal observers want. And it seems quite reasonable to assume that an ideal observer's beliefs about what ideal observers want are true. We could, in fact, restrict (B) as Firth does. But then our argument would become slightly more complex. So, I will not labour the details here. We have stipulated that (B) follows from (IOT). It is worth noting that this is not a definition that is peculiar only to our version of the ideal observer theory. Here is a quote from Michael Smith, for instance: My suggestion is that to be fully rational an agent must not be suffering from the effects of any physical or emotional dis- turbance, she must have no false beliefs, she must have all relevant true beliefs, and she must have a systematically jus- tifiable set of desires, that is, a set of desires that is maximally coherent and unified. [48, 263] [My italics.] Furthermore, if it is necessary that (i) every ideal observer believes what she knows, and (ii) it is necessary that no ideal observer believe that A and believe that not-A, then (B) follows from the proposition that it Daniel R¨onnedal: Ideal Observer & Motivational Internalism 81 is necessary that every ideal observer knows everything. So, (B) is also entailed by every version of the ideal observer theory that assumes that every ideal observer is omniscient and satisfies conditions (i) and (ii), which seem very reasonable. The following considerations show why it is plausible to assume that (IOT) entails (B). Suppose that this is not the case. Then ideal observers can have false beliefs. And if some ideal observers have false beliefs, it is very unlikely that all will want and accept the same things. This entails that it is difficult to formulate a reasonable deontic logic (see section 2), and may lead to implausible relativistic conclusions. Furthermore, if ideal observers can have false beliefs, we can derive intuitively im- plausible normative results from (IOT). Suppose there is just one ideal observer and this ideal observer wrongly believes that a new vaccine has no bad side effects. Furthermore, suppose that this is supported by all evidence. Therefore, the ideal observer wants the doctors to adminis- ter this vaccine to all children in the world. According to the current version of the ideal observer theory, it follows that the doctors should administer the vaccine. However, the ideal observer's belief is false; the vaccine has severe side effects and administering it to all children in the world would have catastrophic consequences. So, according to our intu- itions, the doctors should not administer the vaccine. Accordingly, if the ideal observer theory does not entail (B), or some very similar princi- ple, it has intuitively incorrect normative consequences in this case and doesn't seem to be a reasonable theory. For our purposes in this essay, it doesn't matter if (IOT) also entails other propositions. We don't have to specify the necessary and sufficient conditions for the theory in order to establish our results.3 Let us now turn to a definition of \internalism". There are many forms of this philosophical thesis: existence, judgement and belief inter- nalism, conditional and unconditional internalism, reasons and motiva- tional internalism etc.4 One of the most important distinctions between different kinds of internalism is the distinction between unconditional (unrestricted, in- defeasible) and conditional (restricted, defeasible) versions. Here is an example of an unconditional belief motivational internalism. (UMI) Necessarily, for every x: if x believes that it ought to be the case that A, then x wants it to be the case that A. Depending on how we read the \necessity-operator" in (UMI) we obtain several forms of (UMI) with different strength. Internalism has tradi- tionally been interpreted as some kind of conceptual or analytic truth, 82 KRITERION { Journal of Philosophy, 2015, 29(1): 79{98 but we might also formulate versions of (UMI) where the necessity is some sort of metaphysical, nomological or historical necessity. Finally, it is also possible to drop the \necessity-operator" entirely. If we replace \believes" with \judges" in (UMI), we obtain a similar kind of unconditional judgement motivational internalism. By replacing \wants" or \wants it to be the case that" in (UMI) with some other expression, e.g. \is motivated to see to it that" or \has a reason to see to it that", it is possible to formulate many other versions of internalism. As [7, 126] points out, it is regularly assumed in contemporary metaethics that theories of this kind are too strong, since \it seems possi- ble to conceive of someone who makes a moral judgement but fails to be motivated accordingly because she suffers from, e.g. apathy, depression, exhaustion, or emotional disturbance". The amoralist is an individual who acknowledges moral obligations, but remains utterly unmoved by them. And the amoralist seems to be a conceivable person. Uncondi- tional forms of internalism have a hard time explaining the phenomenon of weakness of will.5 To avoid problems of this kind, internalists have often defended some version of conditional internalism of the following form instead: (CMI) Necessarily, for every x: if x has the property P , then if x believes that it ought to be the case that A, then x wants it to be the case that A. Again, there are many different interpretations of (CMI). \Necessarily" can stand for conceptual, metaphysical, nomological, historical necessity etc. We have not used a counterfactual in (CMI), but there are also counterfactual versions of this schema. According to [7], there are three broad kinds of specification of the property P in theories of this sort6: the property P can stand for the property of being psychologically nor- mal7, the property of being practically rational8 or the property of being morally perceptive9. The kind of internalism that is entailed by (IOT) is a (moral) condi- tional belief motivational internalism, abbreviated (CBMI). This version is most similar to the second kind of theories mentioned by [7], where \the property P " stands for \the property of being practically rational". However, since it is not obvious that it is not possible to be completely rational and still have false beliefs, the current version is perhaps best classified as a separate kind.
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