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Moral Objectivity

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 January 2010

Jonathan Lear
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Extract

Morality exercises a deep and questionable influence on the way we live our lives. The influence is deep both because moral injunctions are embedded in our psyches long before we can reflect on their status and because even after we become reflective agents, the question of how we should live our lives among others is intimately bound up with the more general question of how we should live our lives: our stance toward morality and our conception of our lives as having significance are of a piece. The influence is questionable because morality pretends to a level of objectivity that it may not possess. Moral injunctions are meant to be binding on us in some way that is independent of the desires or preferences we may happen to have. When one asserts that a certain action is morally worthy or shameful one is, prime facie, doing more than merely expressing approval or disapproval or trying to get others to act as instruments of one's own will. If moral assertions were shown, at bottom, to be merely such exhortations, then they would be shown to wear a disguise. Morality would be revealed as pretending to an objectivity it does not have, and such a revelation could not but have a profound impact on our lives. It is doubtful that such a revelation could be kept locked up inside our studies.

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Royal Institute of Philosophy Supplements , Volume 17: Objectivity and Cultural Divergence , March 1984 , pp. 135 - 170
Copyright
Copyright © The Royal Institute of Philosophy and the contributors 1984

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References

1 See Williams, Bernard, Shame and Necessity (London: Faber and Faber, forthcoming)Google Scholar; and my “Ethics, Mathematics and Relativism”, Mind 92 (1984).Google Scholar

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3 Nicomachean Ethics 1.10, 1101a14–16.

4 Ibid. 1.5, 1095b14–22; 1.9, 1099b32ff.

5 See e.g. Hegel, G. W. F., Phenomenology of Spirit, Miller, A. V. (trans.) (New York: Oxford University Press, 1977)Google Scholar, §§ 599–671; Philosophy of Right, Knox, T. M. (trans.) (New York: Oxford University Press, 1980), §§Google Scholar 105–140 (N.B. the remarks to § 135 and § 139); History ofPhilosophy, III, Haldane, E. S. and Simson, F. H. (trans.) (New York: Humanities Press, 1974), 457–464.Google Scholar

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Conference on Transcendental Arguments, Cambridge (September 1981).

8 Kant, Immanuel, Critique of Pure Reason, Smith, N. K. (trans.) (New York: St Martin's Press, 1965), A341–405, B399–432.Google Scholar

9 Cf. Thomas Nagel's response to William's ‘The Presupposition of Morality’, Thyssen Conference on Transcendental Arguments, Cambridge (September 1981).

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11 See Nagel, Thomas, The Possibility of Altruism (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1970)Google Scholar. These are what Nagel calls ‘objective reasons’; cf. Ch. X.

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13 Ibid. See especially Ch. IX, §§ 5–7.

14 N.B. that Hegel accused Kant of trying to derive substantial moral conclusions from formal tautologies. See note 5 above.

15 For a good example of this dissociation see Nagel's discussion of the practical reasoning involved when someone steps on my toe, ibid. 112–113.

16 Williams, , ‘Internal and External Reasons’, op. cit.Google Scholar

17 Cf. Nagel's prudential reasons which are supposed to be able to explain prudential conduct irrespective of whether they are also internal reasons.

18 A forceful critic of Kantian ethics and advocate of Aristotelian ethics is Alasdair MacIntyre, see After Virtue (London: Duckworth, 1981)Google Scholar from which I have drawn much inspiration. However, I disagree with Maclntyre's interpretation of how Aristotelian ethics might be applied in the twentieth century, as will become clear at the end of this essay.

19 Politics 1.2, 1253a2; and Nicomachean Ethics 1.7, 1097b11.

20 Politics 1.2, 1253a1–39.

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23 Ibid. 1253a26.

24 Nicomachean Ethics 1.7, 1097b7-22; cf. V.6, 1134a27.

25 Ibid. 1097b15.

26 Ibid. 1.8, 1099b3–6.

27 Ibid. 1.2, 1094a18–28, b7–9; 1.4, 1095a16; 1.7, 1097a22–34.

28 I do not mean by this title to imply that Wittgenstein himself is the author of this challenge as will become clear in what follows; cf. Winch, Peter, The Idea of a Social Science (London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1958)Google Scholar and ‘Understanding a Primitive Society’ in Rationality, Wilson, B. (ed.) (Oxford: Blackwell, 1970)Google Scholar. See also Williams, Bernard, ‘Wittgenstein and Idealism’, in Moral Luck op. cit.Google Scholar; Taylor, Charles, ‘Understanding and the Geisteswissenschaften’ in Wittgenstein: To Follow a Rule, Holtzman, C. and Leich, S. (eds), (London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1981)Google Scholar. But cf. Malcolm, Norman, ‘Wittgenstein and Idealism’Google Scholar and Bolton, Derek, ‘Life-form and Idealism’ both in Idealism Past and Present, Vesey, G. (ed.) (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1982).Google Scholar

29 See e.g. Wittgenstein, Ludgwig, Philosophical Investigations, Anscombe, I. G. E. M. (trans.) (Oxford: Blackwell, 1978)Google Scholar §§ 109, 126, 211, 213, 261, 325–326, 467–468, 469, 516, 599; Zettel, Anscombe, G. E. M. and von Wright, G. H. (eds and trans.) (Oxford: Blackwell, 1967), §§ 216, 313–315, 608–611.Google Scholar

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31 See my ‘Leaving the World Alone’, op. cit.

32 See e.g. Plato, , Euthyphro.Google Scholar

33 Hegel, , History of Philosophy, I, op. cit. 425–488.Google Scholar

34 See Turnbull, Colin, The Mountain People (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1972).Google Scholar

35 See especially Habermas, Jurgen, Knowledge and Human Interests, Shapiro, J. (trans.) (London: Heinemann, 1972)Google Scholar; ‘Wahrheitstheorien’, in Wirklichkeit und Reflexion: Walter Schulz zum 60 Geburtstag, (Pfullingen: Neske, 1973)Google Scholar; Theorie der GesellschaftoderSozialtechnologie—Was leistet die Systemforschung? (with Luhman, N.) (Frankfurt: Suhrkamp, 1971)Google Scholar; Theory and Practice Viertel, J. (trans.) (London: Heinemann, 1974)Google Scholar; Legitimation Crisis, McCarthy, T. (trans.) (London: Heinemann, 1976)Google Scholar. Cf. Adorno, Theodor W., Negative Dialectic, Ashton, E. B. (trans.) (New York: Seabury Press, 1973).Google Scholar

36 This is Habermas's so-called consensus theory of truth. See ‘Wahrheitstheorien’, op. cit.

37 See Geuss, Raymond's excellent exposition of critical theory's account of real interests in The Idea of a Critical Theory (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1981), 45–54Google Scholar. In the next few paragraphs I discuss Geuss's argument in detail.

38 Lewis, David, Counterfactuals, (Oxford: Blackwell, 1973).Google Scholar

39 Geuss, , op. cit. 52Google Scholar. It should be noted that Geuss confines himself pretty strictly to expositing critical theory, so the criticisms in this essay should be thought of as directed against certain ideas in critical theory, not against Geuss' position.

40 Ibid. 53. N.B. that the argument contained in these quotations is crucial to the subsequent identification of the perfect knowledge and optimal conditions approaches (p. 53). So if the argument here fails, so does the identification.

41 In this regard, note Adelaide's lament about Nathan Detroit: ‘For fourteen years I've tried to change Nathan. I've always thought how wonderful he would be if only he was different’ (Guys and Dolls, book by Jo Swerling and Abe Burrows, music and lyrics by Frank Loesser).

42 See Theorie der Gesellschaft oder Sozialtechnologie—Was liestet die Systemforschung?, op. cit.; ‘Wahrheitstheorien’, op. cit.

43 Cf. Geuss, op. cit. 64–67.Google Scholar

44 Consider, e.g.: ‘We can't be fully free without having perfect knowledge, nor acquire perfect knowledge unless we live in conditions of complete freedom. Our “real interests” are those we would form in such conditions of perfect knowledge and freedom. Although we can be in a position fully to recognize our “real interests” only if our society satisfies the utopian condition of perfect freedom, still, although we do not live in that utopia, we may be free enought to recognize how we might act to abolish some of the coercion from which we suffer and move closer to “optimal conditions” of freedom and knowledge. The task of a critical theory is to show us which way to move’ (Geuss, , op. cit. 54)Google Scholar. But why assume that there is some Utopian state that we are moving towards? Is this not merely an empty, removed condition which makes it possible, by comparison, to characterize our current state as deficient?

45 Here I am indebted to the students at UCLA who attended my seminar on transcendental idealism in the winter term, 1982; especially to Andrew Hsu.

46 Geuss, , op. cit. 62–64.Google Scholar

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50 For a discussion of a posteriori proofs, see my Aristotle and Logical Theory (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1980), Ch. five.Google Scholar

51 See Williams, Bernard, ‘Moral Luck’, in Moral Luck, op. cit.Google Scholar

52 See Sellars, Wilfrid, ‘Philosophy and the Scientific Image of Man’, in Science, Perception and Reality (London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1963).Google Scholar

53 In this essay I shall ignore the important question of whether our moral concern should be even further extended to include other animals.

54 See Cavell, Stanley, ‘The Availability of the Later Wittgenstein’, in Must We Mean What We Say? (New York: Scribner's, 1969).Google Scholar

55 If we think of morality as lacking timeless truths, then we should not be surprised or disappointed at the paucity of transcendental arguments.

56 See Aristotle, , De Interpretatione 9.Google Scholar

57 See e.g. The Philosophy of Right, op. cit. §§321–324, 329–340.

58 Ibid, preface.

59 It is beyond the scope of this paper to probe Hegel's specific arguments in detail, so I will simply note that while I find them extremely variable in quality, none are persuasive. The best argument is to the effect that the self-consciousness of a nation-state requires other autonomous states against which to define itself (cf. Philosophy of Right, §§ 321–324). This argument is clearly based on deep metaphysical principles regarding self-consciousness (cf. Phenomenology of Spirit, §§ 178–196), but I think that it is arguable that whatever truth there is in this thesis can be honoured by the diversity that would continue to exist within a world-community of societies. For there would not be one single homogeneous society, there would be a community of disparate societies. At worst, Hegel gives an appalling defence of war (cf. the Addition to § 324 of the Philosophy of Right) where he illegitimately identifies peace and stagnation. The opposite of stagnation is not war but organic life, and while this may require diversity, there is no argument to show that this diversity must be expressed in war.

60 Marcuse, Herbert, One Dimensional Man (London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1964).Google Scholar

61 See Nicomachean Ethics II–III.6.Google Scholar

62 I have had the great pleasure of discussing the issues raised in this essay with John Dunn, Cynthia Farrar, Raymond Geuss, Norman Lear, Charles Parkin, Quentin Skinner, Timothy Smiley and Bernard Williams and I have learned from them all. This essay has been much improved by their criticisms of a previous draft. I am especially grateful to Bernard Williams, both for his personal generosity to me and because in contemporary work in this field, he has set the questions and the standards.