Demandingness as an Objection to Norms

2021 ◽  
pp. 125-138
Author(s):  
Ingmar Persson
Keyword(s):  
Moral Norm ◽  
Moral Requirement ◽  
Pragmatic Reason

A moral requirement to be universally benevolent could be very demanding, i.e. it could take great sacrifices of the agent’s welfare to live up to it. It has been argued that this is an objection to its validity, but this is denied in this chapter. Any reasonable morality will comprise norms that are quite demanding, e.g. a norm to let ourselves be tortured to death when this is necessary to prevent a million or billion from suffering the same fate. However, the fact that a moral norm is demanding could mean that you are not blameworthy if you fail to comply with it. This fact could also be a pragmatic reason for you not to try to comply with this norm but with a less demanding norm if your failure to comply will have bad consequences.

For Capital Punishment

1991 ◽  
Vol 25 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 460-465 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ernest van den Haag
Keyword(s):  
Capital Punishment ◽  
Moral Argument ◽  
Moral Requirement ◽  
Do So

The moral argument contends that crimes deserve retribution, that to impose the deserved punishment is to do justice, and that justice is a moral requirement, an end in itself, independent of any useful effects. The moral desirability of justice can be explained, but not demonstrated in non-deontological fashion. In penal matters, justice and deserved retribution are synonymous. It is for the sake of justice that we try to punish the guilty and not the innocent. Innocents do not deserve punishment. Because of justice, we would not impose punishment on them, even if it were useful to do so.

Deontological foundations of selflessness

2021 ◽  
Vol 36 (4) ◽  
pp. 7-17
Author(s):  
Wiktor Wolman
Keyword(s):  
Human Activity ◽  
Moral Norm ◽  
Ethical Perspective ◽  
The Will ◽  
The Subject

The article is a part of the broad current of the philosophy of responsibility. It analyses and describes the basic elements of human activity in the anthropological and ethical perspective. A particular feature discussed in the article is selflessness, which is analysed in the perspective of the main ethical currents. In personalistic philosophy, responsibility and selflessness result from the will, whereas in deontological philosophy they result from the moral norm adopted by the subject. The concept that describes the nature and fundamental elements of an act is the theory of supererogatory act. According to it, a selfless act is a free, conscious act resulting from the realization of a norm immanent to the subject.

Philosophical Anarchisms, Moral and Epistemological

2007 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 95-111
Author(s):  
Mark C. Murphy
Keyword(s):  
Moral Obligation ◽  
Moral Requirement ◽  
The Law ◽  
Political Communities ◽  
Philosophical Anarchism

The moral formulation of philosophical anarchism is that most persons, even in just political communities, do not have a moral obligation to obey the law. The epistemological formulation of philosophical anarchism is that most persons are unjustified in believing that they have a moral obligation to obey the law. But the philosophical anarchists’ argument strategies do not, and in fact cannot, show that belief in the moral obligation to obey the law is unjustified. And, further, given that most persons in just political communities do believe that they are under such an obligation, the moral requirement that one ought to act in accordance with one’s conscience implies that most persons have a moral obligation to obey the law. Thus the moral formulation of philosophical anarchism is false and the epistemological formulation unjustified.

To Confront or to Avoid

2017 ◽  
Vol 9 (6) ◽  
pp. 734-743 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nathan S. Kemper ◽  
Anna-Kaisa Newheiser
Keyword(s):  
Bayesian Inference ◽  
Moral Judgment ◽  
Avoidance Response ◽  
Behavioral Responses ◽  
Moral Norm ◽  
Moral Foundations ◽  
Moral Foundations Theory ◽  
Moral Norms ◽  
Strategic Action ◽  
The Face

What do people want to do in response to witnessing someone violate a moral norm? Prior research posits that violations of distinct norms elicit specific emotions, specifically anger and disgust. We examined whether moral violations analogously elicit distinct behavioral responses, focusing on desires to confront and avoid moral violators. Participants read scenarios depicting harmful and impure actions (Study 1) or violations of all six content domains proposed by Moral Foundations Theory (Study 2). Bayesian inference revealed that participants expressed distinctively high levels of desire to avoid (vs. confront) violators of purity norms. Violations of other moral norms did not similarly elicit unique patterns of avoidance or confrontation. Thus, behavioral responses to moral violators depend in part on which norm was violated, with impure acts eliciting a uniquely strong avoidance response. Moral judgment can serve as a precursor to strategic action in the face of perceived immorality.

Public reporting on food safety incidents in China: intention and its determinants

2018 ◽  
Vol 120 (11) ◽  
pp. 2615-2630 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shijiu Yin ◽  
Ying Li ◽  
Yusheng Chen ◽  
Linhai Wu ◽  
Jiang Yan
Keyword(s):  
Food Safety ◽  
Influencing Factors ◽  
Significant Influence ◽  
Subjective Norm ◽  
Moral Norm ◽  
Descriptive Norm ◽  
Injunctive Norm ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Safety Reporting ◽  
Reporting Behaviour

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to analyse the factors that influence food safety reporting intention and behaviour of the public. Design/methodology/approach Data used in this study came from a questionnaire survey conducted in Shandong Province, China. The 642 qualified samples were analysed through structural equation model based on the expanded theory of planned behaviour to study public food safety reporting behaviour and its influencing factors. Findings Results indicated that participation attitude, subjective norm, perceived behavioural control (PBC) and moral norm had significantly positive effects on public reporting intention, which had a direct effect on behaviour. Among subjective norm, descriptive norm had a more significant influence on the intention to report than injunctive norm. PBC indirectly affected reporting behaviour through participation intention, and directly affected participation behaviour. Socio-demographic variables had significant influence on participation attitude, injunctive norm and PBC, whereas these variables had no influence on descriptive norm and moral norm. Originality/value This research is of academic value and of value to policy makers. To promote public participation in food safety reporting, the government should consider influencing factors of food safety reporting.

Moral Norms, Adaptive Preferences, and Hedonic Psychology

2021 ◽  
Vol 22 (2) ◽  
pp. 35-54
Author(s):  
Jonathan S. Masur
Keyword(s):  
Economic Theory ◽  
Human Behavior ◽  
Law And Economics ◽  
Moral Norm ◽  
Moral Norms ◽  
Adaptive Preferences ◽  
The Government ◽  
Behavioral Law And Economics ◽  
Hedonic Approach

Abstract In a series of important papers published roughly twenty years ago, Professor Robert Cooter developed a comprehensive economic theory of moral norms. He explained the value of those norms, described the process by which norms are adopted, and offered a set of predictions regarding the circumstances under which an individual will choose to adopt a particular moral norm. This brief Article applies behavioral law and economics and hedonic psychology to expand upon Professor Cooter’s path-breaking theory. In particular, understanding welfare in hedonic terms — rather than preference-satisfaction terms — suggests a multitude of further situations in which individuals will justifiably seek to internalize moral norms. The hedonic approach to welfare then further suggests an enhanced role for the government to play in encouraging the adoption of welfare-enhancing norms. Cooter’s theory, combined with modern understandings of welfare and human behavior, thus offers powerful predictive and prescriptive possibilities.

Instinct and Hesitation in the Work of Arthur Hugh Clough

2020 ◽  
pp. 123-147
Author(s):  
Daniel Tyler
Keyword(s):  
Human Activity ◽  
The Other ◽  
Technical Requirement ◽  
Moral Requirement ◽  
Ongoing Process ◽  
Arthur Hugh Clough ◽  
Virtuous Life

The processes of composition and revision put impulse and inspiration into contact with calm reflection in a way that is continuous with the other kinds of human activity Clough describes in his poems—including Dipsychus and The Bothie—where instinct and hesitation have their competing advantages and exert their rival claims. This chapter explores the drafts of Clough’s poems, many of which were heavily revised and remained incomplete at the time of his death. It shows that revision is not solely a technical requirement for Clough; understood more broadly as an ongoing process of self-checking and self-correction, it is a moral requirement in leading a responsible, virtuous life.

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