Tutorial � Watkins, ethics VIII � rights

Greg Detre

15/6/01

 

I need to think more about the compatibilist response

 

how come the children and the insane are excused?

no metaphsyical claims

if identify with first order desires

Dennett: free will moral responsibility = the capacity to act on reasons

 

non-determinists � intelligibility

randomness doesn't help either

worry about the coherence of free will as incompatibilists understand it

they want agents to be creators of their own wills without quantum randomness

for Frankfurt, it doesn't matter where the 2nd order desires come from � they don't have to be self-formed

2nd + 3rd order desires are fixed in determinism too

what matters is being the kind of person who values stuff � 2nd order desires value

if you�re complicated enough � - Dennett

incopmatibilist � even if you�re not causally responsible, you need to be responsible for your desires

or: be a hard determinist � radically modify practices (although of course that choice would be determined too J)

 

Strawson � defends a kind of compatibilism

can't give up the practice of holding each other responsible

vindication for compatibilist way of behaving

sceptical doubts are idle � Humean

 

determinism � everything is causally necessitated

 

fatalism = whatever you decide, things�ll turn out the same

e.g. Calvinist about going to heaven

 

determinists aren't necessarily fatalists

that�s why they don't mind discussion of free will

 

ER is not deterministic � it�s about repetition

 

no guiding principle � society juggles through consensus

 

the right to life � not absolute???

infringe through inaction

oright not to be killed � pretty absolute

 

act utilitarianism � multi-level

it�s sometimes ok to think in a non-utilitarian way

but the right act is still in terms of maximum utility

 

can you not frame justice as leading to an absolute right???

justify the virtues by consensus

the virtuous man would act as though in accordance with these virtues

consensus is a weak justification

Aristotle: his virtues arete/ergon

MacIntyre: quest for the good

 

what about arete for a society???

Fukuyama

 

Questions

free will: control + choice������� non-determinism

how specify the libertarian self???

why aren't rights the background to positive law???

need to establish the positive laws first

rule utilitarianism might be able to acknowledge absolute moral duties

no positive laws really in utilitarianism

Kantianism � 2nd CI is easier as a right

rights protect oru status as ends in ourselves

virtue � I have a right to be treated as a virtuous person would treat us

if we have a right, does everyone have a duty to promote my right etc.???

do I have a right to a cure for my rare disease???

does my right to life outweigh subsidising the arts etc.???

right to be entertained from taxes???