PHIL1011 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Akrasia, Moral Psychology
16 Jun 2018
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Lecture 1- what is Ethics?
• Ethics is about how we should live- is this different from morality?
• Morality concerns how we should treat other people
• Then ethics would encompass questions (e.g. how should I treat myself?)
that would not be moral question
• There are morally valuable things that are not other people
- Environment
- Animals
Should not assume all value is moral value
E.g.
• Relationship between aesthetic value and moral value is unclear
• Some norms of rationality (e.g. don’t believe in contradictions) seem
different from normal norms. Rules to tell us to be a certain way
• The dictates of self interest might conflict with morality
Ethics
1. We ask about the structure of ethics. Consequentialist and deontologists
should I cheat in order to secure a candidate?
2. Content of ethics, or what the true ethical theory tells us to do in
particular situation
what should I do with this extra income that I don’t need
Moral Psychology
• Philosophers ask questions about morality and the human mind
• What motivates your behaviour
• Rational faculties
• Struggling against our desires
• Understand natures of love, happiness, resentment and forgiveness
Why should I be good?
• Being good is not automatic
• Being good is hard, being bad/mediocre is convenient and pleasurable
Akrasia= acting against one’s best judgment
Descriptive- what we are
Normative- what we should
Harmony of the soul
• The soul/psyche’s parts perform the function that reflect their natures
• The rational part functions to constrain the other parts bringing them into
line with moral virtue
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