Idealizing Morality

Hypatia ◽  
2010 ◽  
Vol 25 (4) ◽  
pp. 797-824 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lisa Tessman
Keyword(s):  
Moral Agent ◽  
Moral Dilemmas ◽  
Normative Theory ◽  
Nonideal Theory ◽  
Moral Failure ◽  
Normative Expectations ◽  
Action Guidance

Implicit in feminist and other critiques of ideal theorizing is a particular view of what normative theory should be like. Although I agree with the rejection of ideal theorizing that oppression theorists (and other theorists of justice) have advocated, the proposed alternative of nonideal theorizing is also problematic. Nonideal theorizing permits one to address oppression by first describing (nonideal) oppressive conditions, and then prescribing the best action that is possible or feasible given the conditions. Borrowing an insight from the “moral dilemmas debate”—namely that moral wrongdoing or failure can be unavoidable—I suggest that offering (only) action-guidance under nonideal conditions obscures the presence and significance of unavoidable moral failure. An adequate normative theory should be able to issue a further, non-action-guiding evaluative claim, namely that the best that is possible under oppressive conditions is not good enough, and may constitute a moral failure. I find exclusively action-guiding nonideal theory to be both insufficiently nonidealizing (because it idealizes the moral agent by falsely characterizing the agent as always able to avoid moral wrongdoing) and meanwhile too strongly adapted to the nonideal (because normative expectations are lowered and detrimentally adapted to options that, while the best possible, are still unacceptable).

scholarly journals Action-Guidance, Oppression, and Nonideal Theory

2016 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Lisa H Schwartzman
Keyword(s):  
Ideal Theory ◽  
Nonideal Theory ◽  
Moral Failure ◽  
Normative Issues ◽  
Action Guidance ◽  
The Ideal ◽  
The Way

Lisa Tessman’s Moral Failure: On the Impossible Demands of Morality raises important questions about ideal theory, oppression, and the role of action guidance in normative philosophy. After a brief overview of feminist and anti-racist philosophers’ critiques of ideal theory, I examine Tessman’s claim that nonideal oppression theorists focus too narrowly on action guidance and thereby obscure other important normative issues, such as the problem of moral failure. Although I agree with Tessman’s advocacy of a wider focus—and with her suggestion that situations of inevitable moral failure are particularly important to examine in contexts of oppression—I question whether nonideal oppression theorists actually emphasize action guidance to the exclusion of other concerns. I conclude with a brief examination of the way that ideal and nonideal theory have been defined and understood in debates about normative methodology, and I suggest that a move away from Rawls’s account of the ideal/nonideal distinction would benefit feminists and other oppression theorists.

scholarly journals Revisiting the Argument from Action Guidance

2019 ◽  
Vol 15 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Philip Fox
Keyword(s):  
Practical Reasoning ◽  
Normative Theory ◽  
Plausible Assumption ◽  
The Right ◽  
Action Guidance

According to objectivism about the practical 'ought', what one ought to do depends on all the facts; according to perspectivism, it depends only on epistemically available facts. This essay presents a new argument against objectivism. The first premise says that it is at least sometimes possible for a normative theory to correctly guide action. The second premise says that, if objectivism is true, this is never possible. From this it follows that objectivism is false. Perspectivism, however, turns out to be compatible with the plausible assumption about guidance.  I defend the two premises on the basis of an account of what it is for a normative theory to guide action. Central to this account is the idea that correct action-guidance involves correct practical reasoning from a normative theory to an action, which requires (among other things) that agents have the capacity to believe for the right reasons. Since objectivists about the practical 'ought' are committed to objectivism about the epistemic 'ought', it follows that agents lack this capacity and so are in principle unable to be correctly guided by a normative theory. This shows that recent attempts to reconcile objectivism with action-guidance are unsuccessful, which all assume that, if objectivism is true, it is at least sometimes possible for a normative theory to correctly guide action. 

scholarly journals Virtue ethics: an approach to moral dilemmas in nursing

Curationis ◽  
2005 ◽  
Vol 28 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
E Arries
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Virtue Ethics ◽  
Moral Agent ◽  
Moral Dilemma ◽  
Moral Dilemmas ◽  
Moral Decision Making ◽  
Whistle Blowing ◽  
Moral Principles ◽  
Principles Of Justice ◽  
The One

Nurses are increasingly confronted with situations of moral difficulty, such as not to feed terminally ill patients, whistle blowing, or participation in termination of pregnancy. Most of these moral dilemmas are often analyzed using the principle-based approach which applies the four moral principles of justice, autonomy, beneficence, and nonmalificence. In some instances, consequentialism is considered, but these frameworks have their limitations. Their limitations has to do with a consideration for the interpersonal nature of clinical nursing practice on the one hand, and is not always clear on how to judge which consequences are best on the other hand. When principles are in conflict it is not always easy to decide which principle should dominate. Furthermore, these frameworks do not take into account the importance of the interpersonal and emotional element of human experience. On the contrary, decision making about moral issues in healthcare demands that nurses exercise rational control over emotions. This clearly focuses the attention on the nurse as moral agent and in particular their character. In this article I argue that virtue ethics as an approach, which focus of the character of a person, might provide a more holistic analysis of moral dilemmas in nursing and might facilitate more flexible and creative solutions when combined with other theories of moral decision-making. Advancing this argument, firstly, I provide the central features of virtue ethics. Secondly I describe a story in which a moral dilemma is evident. Lastly I apply virtue ethics as an approach to this moral dilemma and in particular focusing on the virtues inherent in the nurse as moral agent in the story.

Moral Conflicts and Moral Awareness

Philosophy ◽  
2011 ◽  
Vol 86 (4) ◽  
pp. 563-587 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chris Bessemans
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Moral Philosophy ◽  
Moral Theory ◽  
Moral Dilemmas ◽  
Moral Awareness ◽  
Phenomenological Method ◽  
Moral Choice ◽  
Moral Conflicts ◽  
Adequate Understanding ◽  
Action Guidance

AbstractBy making use of Aurel Kolnai's ethical writings I want to offer a more adequate understanding of moral conflicts and moral dilemmas. Insisting on Kolnai's phenomenological method, in particular, focussing on the agent's moral awareness (or conscience) and his deliberation, results in an understanding of moral conflicts as moments of moral choice rather than anomalies of moral theory. In this way, I argue that one can account for Bernard Williams's phenomenological description of moral conflicts without having to accept his anti-realist conclusions. Moreover, this approach indicates the adequacy of ordinary moral reasoning for decision-making and action guidance. Lastly and importantly, the essay illustrates the relevance of Kolnai's writings to contemporary moral philosophy.

scholarly journals Two Dogmas of Moral Theory? Comments on Lisa Tessman’s Moral Failure

2016 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Eva F Kittay
Keyword(s):  
Moral Theory ◽  
Ethical Theory ◽  
Normative Theory ◽  
Ought Implies Can ◽  
Moral Failure ◽  
Guiding Principles

In Moral Failure, Lisa Tessman argues against two principles of moral theory, that ought implies can and that normative theory must be action-guiding. Although Tessman provides a trenchant account of how we are thrust into the misfortune of moral failure, often by our very efforts to act morally, and although she shows, through a discussion well-informed by the latest theorizing in ethics, neuroethics, and psychology, how much more moral theory can do than provide action-guiding principles, I argue that the two theses of moral theory that she disputes remain indispensable for ethical theory.

scholarly journals What drives public attitudes towards moral bioenhancement and why it matters: an exploratory study

2021 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Marina Budić ◽  
Marko Galjak ◽  
Vojin Rakić
Keyword(s):  
Moral Agent ◽  
Public Attitudes ◽  
Moral Dilemmas ◽  
Online Questionnaire ◽  
Moral Value ◽  
Ongoing Debate ◽  
Philosophical Debate ◽  
Level Of Education ◽  
The Public ◽  
Moral Bioenhancement

AbstractThe paper represents an empirical study of public attitudes towards moral bioenhancement. Moral bioenhancement implies the improvement of moral dispositions, i.e. an increase in the moral value of the actions or character of a moral agent. The views of bioethicists and scientists on this topic are present in the ongoing debate, but not the view of the public in general. In order to bridge the gap between the philosophical debate and the view of the public, we have examined attitudes towards moral bioenhancement. The participants were people from Serbia older than 15, who voluntarily completed an online questionnaire. The questionnaire consisted of a brief introduction to moral bioenhancement, seven general questions, 25 statements about participants’ attitudes towards moral bioenhancement, and five examples of moral dilemmas. The questionnaire also included questions which were used to reveal their preference of either deontology, or utilitarianism. Participants were asked to what degree they agree or disagree with the statements. The results showed that the means used to achieve moral enhancement, the level of education, and preference for deontology or utilitarianism do have an impact on public attitudes. Using exploratory factor analysis, we isolated four factors that appear to drive the respondents' attitudes toward moral bioenhancement, we named: general—closeness, fear of change, security, and voluntariness. Each factor in relationship to other variables offers new insights that can inform policies and give us a deeper understanding of the public attitudes. We argue that looking into different facets of attitudes towards moral bioenhancement improves the debate, and expands it.

JUSTICE AND RECIPROCITY: THE CASE FOR NONIDEAL THEORY

2016 ◽  
Vol 33 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 122-154
Author(s):  
James Woodward
Keyword(s):  
Political Theory ◽  
Human Behavior ◽  
Normative Theory ◽  
Ideal Theory ◽  
Nonideal Theory ◽  
Full Compliance ◽  
Partial Compliance ◽  
Normative Political Theory

Abstract:This essay discusses and criticizes the claim that normative political theory can be (justifiably and fruitfully) divided into two parts—a part having to do with ideal theory which assumes full compliance and abstracts away from issues having to do with implementation and, contrasting with this, a nonideal part having to do with implementation and with rules and institutions appropriate for conditions of partial compliance. On this conception of ideal theory, empirical facts about human behavior and motivation, connected to issues surrounding compliance and implementation, are irrelevant to ideal theory, although such facts can be relevant to the nonideal part of normative theory. I argue against this conception, holding instead that such empirical facts are relevant to most or all of normative political theory, including “fundamental” normative principles.

scholarly journals Possible Dilemmas Raised by Impossible Moral Requirements

2016 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Lisa Rivera
Keyword(s):  
Moral Dilemmas ◽  
Normative Theory ◽  
Systematic Theory ◽  
Fundamental Shift ◽  
Moral Requirements

The priority that Tessman’s argument gives to phenomenological and neuropsychological explanations of moral requirements entails a fundamental shift in our understanding of these. Two central problems of normative theory come together in Tessman’s account. The first arises when an agent’s sense of requirement clashes with what a systematic theory prescribes. The second arises when neuropsychological accounts fail to fit the prescription. Tessman argues that no account successfully resolves moral dilemmas such that ought always implies can, and she argues that neuropsychology explains our sense of impossible requirements. This explanation eliminates the role of a prescriptive theory in explaining an agent’s sense of requirement.

Moral dilemmas and moral failure

1967 ◽  
Vol 45 (2) ◽  
pp. 159-178 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Mallock
Keyword(s):  
Moral Dilemmas ◽  
Moral Failure

Policing and the Priority of Liberal Personhood

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Luke William Hunt
Keyword(s):  
Moral Agent ◽  
Ideal Theory ◽  
The Other ◽  
Priority Rule ◽  
Nonideal Theory ◽  
Theory Of Justice ◽  
Liberal Tradition ◽  
The Third ◽  
Liberal Conception ◽  
Political Conception

This chapter suggests that the state’s power to address injustice is constrained by a priority rule regarding the liberal conception of persons. Although the prior chapter described how a broadly outlined ideal theory includes the pre-political conception of persons as free and equal, this chapter describes how a richer conception of liberal personhood is illuminated through the interplay between ideal theory and the reality of law-breaking with which nonideal theory is concerned. The upshot is that if the elements of the yielded conception of liberal personhood track the principles of a broadly defined ideal theory of justice in the liberal tradition, then the commitment to that conception of the person is foundational to liberalism itself. Any affront to one would be an affront to the other. The chapter develops a tripartite conception of liberal personhood: reciprocator and moral agent, which illuminate the third facet of human dignity.

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