Altruism Or Decency?
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[viii PEFAC ] E (1 ] ALTRUISM OR DECENCY? d u s o le k It was rush ho r. Wave of e most dresse i blac p p n , th r d , a h moved across one anoe , towar oraw fromt e metro y l an i ng t ing eg i i station. Some weretr sferr o connect r onatrans i d nge t s ng or to those slate for lo r roue . Otherswere com in t ide adin ng f i d from the cold ou s , he g down lo sets o sta rs an thr oug hca ou s h ll d the l tf Th o l vern a s towar pa orms. osepe p e ith m i h ill seemed to car ry the chilln i w the the r breat st nt d t ti , n a steaming as they e ere the s a on. nI m a w s ti was y y h y it t h i i d like rus hour in an big c . Bu w ena tra n arr at th y ve e r he e as aiting ti d hi ng platfo m w r I w w I nocesomet different. e latfo m , s i ng Crowded as th r waleav littl roomtomov e p , e , none of the passeng e s b d d the i t i r r oare tran unl eve yone who was e iti ng h d o tt e ff Th a x a g n o . erewas even m oment s e ond e fo ng of hesitation a c 's paus be re th firstpasse ers , , e embarked One pe so th d f h i d . r n near e oorso t e tran crane ide ki ng h h ny l his head to look ins chec to seew etera one e se et ht , l had y to alig . Only thenwas there a genera movement to board. e as thi ng d lly d x The scen w some I graua learne to e pecti n enh e e wing k Cop ag n. My exp riencegr o up in NewYor City [2] CHAPTER ONE Altruism orDecency? I 3] was very different. There was impatience to get on the sub there. Others,just like oneself, have schedules they're trying way, an impatience that I shared. For some, more than a few, t�-u�eet, plans they're seeking to accomplish, projects that that impatience led to a sidelong movement, slicing through are carrying them forward. I too have a life I am trying to the exiting crowd and boarding the train while others were carry on, a life whose requirements have brought me here, to still trying to leave. The idea that there would be a moment's this metro platform,at this moment. But so do these people hesitation between the last person leaving and the firstone leaving the train. And that is a fact I should take into account entering was unthinkable. If someone did that we would all or, even better, inculcate as a natural part of my own behav be wondering what was wrong with them. Perhaps they were ior.' This acknowledgment is the basis-the moral core-of tourists, or just clueless. what I am going to call decencv. In Copenhagen it is not like this. People wait for one an This i� ·a-book about that decency. It is not a book about other, and not only at train stations. I have never seen some being an exemplary moral person, what is sometimes called one push ahead of another in line or act impatiently at an an altruist. Nor is it a book about bow to fulfill our basic other's momentary faltering. There, the closest I have come moral requirements, the least we might owe to one another. to being berated is in the looks I received when stepping in Much of contemporary discussion of morality seems con advertently into a bike lane. But afterall, it can't be fun for a cerned with such issues, in ways I will canvass in a moment. biker to swerve around someone who doesn't know that he My concern is different. Simpty put. roost of us want to be is in the middle of traffic. better than moral mediocrities and yet don't see ourselves It's important not to romanticize this phenomenon, both as altruists; how then might we think about living morally? because it isn't that romantic and because it would betray my How might we frame O\Jrapproach to morality? 1 use the point. In most respects, Copenhagen is like a lot of other big word decencyto capture one way to do so. Decency, as I articu cities. People do not smile at strangers on the street. There is late it, is not concerned with traditional concepts in moral no sense of overt camaraderie on trains, buses, or elsewhere. philosophy such as duty, right, utility, intent, obligation, or While the word tak-thanks-is ubiquitous in its various the Good. Or, more precisely, it cuts across all these con forms forthe smallest of favors, or even for expected service cepts. I am not interested here in questions of what the ulti (Danes seem to seek out opportunities to thank others), the mate good is or how to conceive our duties or whether we social feel of Copenhagen will be familiarto those who have are obliged to craftthe best moral character we can manage. wandered through other large urban areas. It is not that Co Philosophers far more capable than I am have debated these penhageners, or Danes in general, display a greater warmth questions across the centuries. My interest is more pedes toward others than one finds elsewhere. {In fact, I found trian. Most of us are incapable ofliving lives that are beacons more public warmth in Athens, and Greeks are not renowned of moral light. Yet most of us also desire to be morally decent for waiting patiently in lines.) Pather it is that they seem to people, and we have some more or less inchoate sense of how recognize, or better to acknowledge, that those others are that might go. Is there some way to frame moral decency that [4] CHAPTER ONE Altruism or Decency? [ s l would enlighten us as to what we are up to in some of our ultimately results are what matter. To put it another way, the better moments, a frame that at the same time might act as a moral bottom line for consequentialists lies in contributing reflective standard formaintaining or even multiplying those to making the world a better place. moments? Such is the project of this book. Consider this example. You want to break up with your boyfriend. You care for him, but you know that this is not PH I LOSO PHY REFLECTS ON MORALITY going to work out in the long run. He's a really nice guy, and Before I unfold my own view, let's pause to consider the attractive, but in the end just a bit too boring. Or he holds current state of philosophical reflection on morality. Even political or religious views that get on your nerves. Or he al those who are not vocationally immersed in such reflection lows his mother to intrude on your relationship in ways that which is almost everyone-will likely have at least a breezy you just cannot abide. But here's the problem. He's really familiaritywith the moral concepts that characterize current into you, and you know that breaking up with him will make moral debates. For instance, questions of whether the ends him suffer.Moreover, in breaking up it will be you who makes justify the means or the importance of intending to do the him suffer.You will be responsible. You would really rather right thing are familiar to all of us. Philosophical reflection that things end differently. Maybe you could make yourself approaches such questions in a more formal way, with dif unpleasant around him so he would break up with you in ferent language, but the roots of that reflection can always stead. Or perhaps there is somebody you could introduce him be traced back to perennial human concerns. to that would capture his fancy. Or, as a last resort, maybe We might divide philosophical moral positions into three time will take care of it without your having to do anything. tvpes: consequentialism, deontology, and virtue ethics.• If we In the end, though, you know that relying on any of these investigate these positions, we w1Ji see that they do not give alternatives is not likely to work out and that the longer you us the guidance we need if what we're after is not altruism allow this relationship to drag on, the worse it will be in the but simple moral decency. The firstposition conveniently an long run for both of you. Better to break up now, cause the nounces in its name where it thinks the proper moral stakes suffering he will inevitably endure, and then allow him as lie: in the consequences. This is the position that the ends in well as you to move on. The result-less suffering overall fact do justify the means. Of course, not all ends justify any justifiesthe means-suffering in the short term. means-which is what some people often mistake for the This is an easy case. There are much more difficult ones definitionof consequentialism.