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Moral Uncertainty and Political Philosophy

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Moral Uncertainty and Political Philosophy 1 Moral Uncertainty and Political Philosophy Andrew MacGregor Isaacs Knox University College London This dissertation is submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy I, Andrew MacGregor Isaacs Knox, confirm that the work presented in this thesis is my own. Where information has been derived from other sources, I confirm that this has been indicated in the thesis. 2 3 To my parents, who taught me how to read. 4 Abstract: This thesis addresses a methodological tendency in political philosophy whereby philosophers develop their ethical views independently of the political realm and then import those views into political argumentation intact, without considering whether this sort of primacy of the ethical is appropriate. Observing that the political is non-accidentally typified by disagreement about all manner of things, including, importantly, the ethical, reveals this to be deeply problematic. Through a discussion of moral epistemology, the thesis aims to show that we should not be certain about our moral beliefs in the face of disagreement, which means in turn that we must alter the way in which we approach political philosophy. It considers two responses to this concern: the Unilateral Solution, which argues that if you have access to the moral facts you may ignore disagreement, and the Pluralist Solution, which argues that moral disagreement ought to be taken seriously and that it is the job of political philosophy to provide a framework in which this disagreement can play out. After arguing that neither of these solutions is satisfactory, the thesis concludes that the moral uncertainty caused by disagreement is unavoidable, and offers some suggestions for how we might practice political philosophy in light of this situation. 5 Impact Statement This thesis offers a critique of the methodology of political philosophy and a new way of understanding the relationship between ethics and politics, both in theory and praxis. 6 Table of Contents Abstract: ................................................................................................................................... 4 Preface ..................................................................................................................................... 8 Chapter 1 – The Tendency ..................................................................................................... 12 1.1 Aspects of the Tendency ........................................................................................ 15 1.2 The Tendency and the Rawlsian Line .......................................................................... 22 1.2.1 Locke .............................................................................................................. 22 1.2.2 Rousseau ........................................................................................................ 25 1.2.3 Kant ................................................................................................................ 33 1.2.4 Rawls .............................................................................................................. 39 1.3 Notable dissenters from the Tendency ......................................................................... 49 1.3.1 Machiavelli ........................................................................................................... 50 1.3.2 Hobbes .................................................................................................................. 51 1.3.3 Marx ...................................................................................................................... 54 Chapter 2 – Disagreement and Moral Uncertainty ................................................................ 58 2.1 Schemas of Assessment ............................................................................................... 61 2.2 Pyrrhonian Scepticism ................................................................................................. 66 2.3 Responding to irresolvability ....................................................................................... 74 2.4 Consequences of the Tendency .................................................................................... 81 2.5 Two related methodological worries and a misunderstanding ..................................... 89 2.5.1 The Depoliticisation Complaint ............................................................................ 91 2.5.2 The Moralising Complaint .................................................................................... 93 Chapter 3 – The Unilateral Solution ...................................................................................... 98 3.1 The structure of the Unilateral Solution ..................................................................... 100 3.2 A pair of constraints ................................................................................................... 105 3.2.1 The Epistemic Constraint .................................................................................... 105 3.2.2 The Precision Constraint ..................................................................................... 108 3.3 The Epistemic Challenge ........................................................................................... 109 3.4 Enoch’s response ....................................................................................................... 113 7 3.5 Dworkin’s response ................................................................................................... 118 3.6 Conclusion ................................................................................................................. 123 Chapter 4 – The Pluralist Solution ....................................................................................... 126 4.1 The Pluralist Solution ................................................................................................ 126 4.2 Problems with the Pluralist Solution .......................................................................... 130 4.2.1 The real-world prevalence of the Liberal Schema of Assessment ...................... 132 4.2.2 The Liberal Schema of Assessment as an ideal .................................................. 137 4.3 Conclusion ................................................................................................................. 147 Chapter 5 – Что делать? ...................................................................................................... 149 5.1 Dealing with scepticism ............................................................................................. 153 5.2 Dealing with disagreement......................................................................................... 159 5.2.1 The Quest for Understanding –Inquiry ............................................................... 164 5.2.2. The Quest for Understanding – Reconstruction ................................................. 170 5.2.3 The moment of action ............................................................................................. 175 5.3 Plan for a Case Study: White Supremacist Hate Groups’ theory of legitimacy ........ 178 5.4 Objections .................................................................................................................. 183 5.4.1 What difference does this way of practicing political philosophy actually make? ..................................................................................................................................... 183 5.4.2 What entitles you to suggest that we ought to practise political philosophy this way? ............................................................................................................................. 186 5.4.3 Isn’t this a recipe for conservative political thinking? ........................................ 187 5.4.4 Could my view lead to greater intolerance in a liberal society as people lose confidence in the value of tolerance? ........................................................................... 188 5.4.5 Will I be paralysed by indecision at the moment of action? ............................... 189 5.4.6 Isn’t this view of political philosophy too burdensome? .................................... 189 5.4.7 Your theory cannot give universal/general moral prescriptions, or any kind of moral prescriptions at all .............................................................................................. 190 5.5 Conclusion ................................................................................................................. 190 Works Cited ......................................................................................................................... 193 8 Preface Friedrich Nietzsche once remarked that ‘in the philosopher…there is absolutely nothing impersonal and above all, his morality furnishes a decided and decisive testimony as to who he is, – that is to say, in what order the deepest impulses of his nature stand to each other’ (Nietzsche, 1917, §6). This remark is as true of this thesis as it is of any work of philosophy. I have been thinking about the ideas discussed here for years, in both formal and informal settings, since my parents first lent me copies of Locke and Marx as a teenager. Over those years, I have been stunned by the surety of my peers in their moral opinions, often feeling inadequate for my apprehension. This thesis is an attempt to contend with that sense of inadequacy and vindicate my uncertainty.
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