Morality: constitutive of or overcoming self-interest?

1. Morality: constitutive of or overcoming self-interest? Michael Lacewing

2. Self-interest and morality • Can we say what is in our self-interest without referring to morality? • E.g. cheating - might make you feel happy at the time, but you don’t gain what is of real value (‘achievement’) • Self-interest is getting what is truly valuable

3. Aristotle on ‘flourishing’ • We all aim at living the best life we can. But what this is depends on what we are. • Human beings are capable of reason. • So living well is living in accordance with reason. • Our character is important here - to be virtuous is to have desires and emotions that are ‘reasonable’.

4. Virtue • As we are social, we need to consider what counts as the most appropriate response to living with others. • E.g. anger; to feel it ‘at the right times, with reference to the right objects, towards the right people, with the right motive, and in the right way’ • The moral life is the life that is best for us.

5. Objections • Being moral because it benefits me doesn’t recognise the value of other people. • It doesn’t recognise how morally good people think and feel – they aren’t aiming to get the best for themselves. • It doesn’t explain the importance of morality. • In general, ‘You ought to do x’ doesn’t mean ‘If you want to live the best life for you, you ought to do x’.

6. Kant’s big idea • If self-interest is irrelevant to morality, what reason to do we have to be moral? • Kant: morality is reason itself • Morality is meant to guide our actions. • We act on maxims: principle of action, what we intend. • Morality is universal, the same for everyone. • So “Act only on that maxim through which you can at the same time will that it should become a universal law”.

7. Imperatives • An imperative is just a command. • A hypothetical imperative is a command that presupposes some further goal or end. • A categorical imperative is not hypothetical. It is irrational and immoral not to obey it.

8. Happiness and reason • Only reason and happiness motivate us. Morality motivates us, so must be one of these. • It can’t be happiness, since what makes people happy differs, and happiness can be good or bad. • And we’ve argued that self-interest is not the right motivation for morality. • It is reason: morality is universal and categorical - so is reason.

9. Objections to Kant • Is Kant right that reason alone can motivate me? Even knowing what I ought to do, don’t I have to care about morality? • Is Kant right that rationality requires me to act in a way in which everyone can act? • The difference between ‘theoretical’ reason and ‘practical’ reason

10. Aristotle’s defence of self-interest • Being moral because it benefits me doesn’t recognise the value of other people. • The best life for you involves recognising other people’s value, and treating them accordingly. • It doesn’t recognise how morally good people think and feel – they aren’t aiming to get the best for themselves. • Morality is not distinct from self-interest - a good person does not think that being moral is no good for them. • It doesn’t explain the importance of morality. • Failing to be motivated by other people’s rights or needs means not having the right relationship with them.