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Love and Ethics in the Works of J. M. E. Mctaggart

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Western University Scholarship@Western Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository 12-3-2014 12:00 AM Love and Ethics in the Works of J. M. E. McTaggart Trevor J. Bieber The University of Western Ontario Supervisor Anthony Skelton The University of Western Ontario Graduate Program in Philosophy A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the equirr ements for the degree in Doctor of Philosophy © Trevor J. Bieber 2014 Follow this and additional works at: https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/etd Part of the Ethics and Political Philosophy Commons, and the History of Philosophy Commons Recommended Citation Bieber, Trevor J., "Love and Ethics in the Works of J. M. E. McTaggart" (2014). Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository. 2582. https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/etd/2582 This Dissertation/Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by Scholarship@Western. It has been accepted for inclusion in Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository by an authorized administrator of Scholarship@Western. For more information, please contact [email protected]. LOVE AND ETHICS IN THE WORKS OF J. M. E. MCTAGGART (Thesis format: Monograph) by Trevor Jacob Bieber Graduate Program in Philosophy A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy The School of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies The University of Western Ontario London, Ontario, Canada © Trevor Jacob Bieber 2015 Dissertation Abstract This dissertation attempts to make contributions to normative ethics and to the history of philosophy. First, it contributes to the defense of consequentialist ethics against objections grounded upon the value of loving relationships. Secondly, it provides the first systematic account of John M. E. McTaggart’s (1866-1925) ethical theory and its relation to his philosophy of love. According to (maximizing) consequentialist ethics, it is always morally wrong to knowingly do what will make the world worse-off than it could have been (i.e., had one chosen one of the other courses of action available to one at the time). Many consequentialists also recognize that love is one of the most important goods worth pursing for its own sake and so this implies a strong duty to promote love. Recently, however, philosophers (such as Stocker, Cocking, Oakley, and Badhwar) have outlined what I call the “love-based objection.” It argues that consequentialism ought to be rejected on its own terms because a commitment to maximizing aggregate overall goodness precludes forming the kinds of commitments necessary for highly valuable loving relationships. Other philosophers (such as Railton and Mason), however, have argued that a particular kind of consequentialist theory (i.e., “sophisticated consequentialism”) that recognizes the intrinsic value of love and that restricts evaluations based on maximizing goodness to only the most fundamental realms of moral evaluation and guidance overcomes the love-based objection. While philosophers have indicated how to overcome the objection through sophisticated consequentialism, the task of constructing a plausible version of such a system is currently ongoing. This dissertation argues that, more than fifty years before this contemporary debate started, McTaggart outlined a version of consequentialism called “Ideal Utilitarianism” that can (with some supplementation) overcome recent love-based objections in the way suggested by Railton and Mason. McTaggart’s work in moral philosophy, therefore, has a previously unrecognized relevance to contemporary issues in normative ethics and so his contributions ought to be considered alongside other, currently more prominent, ethicists of his day such as Hastings Rashdall and G. E. Moore. i Keywords McTaggart, ideal utilitarianism, consequentialism, love, friendship, ethics, moral philosophy, value theory, Rashdall, Moore, Stocker, Cocking, Oakley, Badhwar, Railton, Mason, utilitarianism, intrinsic value, emotions, sophisticated consequentialism, person ii For Wendy iii Acknowledgements I submit my doctoral dissertation with a deep sense of gratitude towards the many people and organizations that have supported me and my project over the past four years. I would like to take this opportunity to acknowledge some of those people. First, I want to express my deep gratitude to all of those who work and teach at King’s University College at Western University. It was at King’s that I developed an intense passion for philosophy and the philosophical training I received there during my undergraduate degree allowed me to flourish as a graduate student. In particular I want to thank Jane Borecky, John Heng, Dr. Susan Brown, and Dr. Steve Lofts. These people went out of their way to encourage and to support my decision to pursue a graduate degree. I would also like to thank the Department of Philosophy at Western University. I have been encouraged and supported by many faculty members, staff members, and graduate students throughout my graduate education. I also want to thank the Government of Ontario and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (Canada) for funding two years of my graduate studies. I would also like to thank the members of my dissertation committee. I would like to thank Dr. Richard Vernon for his comments and advice during the early stages of this project. I am grateful to Dr. Antonio Calcagno for his constant support, comments, and encouragement over the last three years. I would also like to thank Dr. Samantha Brennan, Dr. Thomas Hurka, and Dr. Doug Long for their insightful comments and feedback during the defense of the dissertation. I also want to acknowledge all of the time and energy that my supervisor Dr. Anthony Skelton has dedicated to this project. I want to thank Anthony for his constant support, his generous availability, and the many hours of discussion that he and I engaged in while conducting my research. Anthony is the one who initially introduced me to McTaggart’s work and it was also Anthony who helped me to appreciate the richness of late- nineteenth and early-twentieth century moral philosophy. iv I also want to acknowledge the many people whom I have had the good fortune to love and be loved by throughout my life. I obviously cannot name all of them here, but without these deeply influential experiences of genuine love and friendship I could never have engaged in this kind of project. In particular I want to thank my parents Garry and Anita Bieber and my sister Dawna Bieber for their unconditional love and their endless encouragement. I also want to thank Jordan Rutherford, Kurtis Muench, and Tanya Cuthbert for showing me that love and friendship can survive great distance. I also want to thank Fr. Leonard Morand for teaching me that friendship transcends title and age, and for showing me how a genuine and shared desire to live a good and moral life can deeply connect people in friendship. I would also like to thank Sean Coughlin, Rodney Parker, and Michael Borgida for their constant friendship and support throughout graduate school. Finally, I want to thank my wife Wendy Latimer. Wendy has sacrificed so much so that I could pursue my PhD and I will always remember this. Wendy’s deep sense of compassion, her unshakeable loyalty, and her seemingly endless capacity for friendship have deeply changed who I am. Our love for each other has taught me more about true love and friendship than I could have ever hoped to discover, and for this I will forever be grateful. v Table of Contents Dissertation Abstract ............................................................................................................................ i Keywords ............................................................................................................................................... ii Acknowledgements ............................................................................................................................. iv Table of Contents ................................................................................................................................ vi List of Tables .................................................................................................................................... x List of Figures ................................................................................................................................. xi Preface .................................................................................................................................................. xii 1 Introduction: Psychology, Persons, and Methodology in John M. E. McTaggart ............ 1 1.1 Introductory Summary of Love ......................................................................................... 1 1.2 Love is an Emotion: Love in the Context of McTaggart’s Theory of Psychology and Emotion ..................................................................................................................................... 3 1.2.1 Love as an Emotion: The Early Works ................................................................... 3 1.2.2 Love as an Emotion: The Later Works.................................................................... 6 1.2.3 The Theories Compared: Advantages and Disadvantages .................................. 12 1.3 The Core Distinction: “Person” vs. “Qualities of a Person” ...................................... 15 1.4 Methodology: The Object-Cause Distinction: Describing and Differentiating the Emotion of Love ..........................................................................................................................
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