Ethical rationalism

Lecture 2: Plato as an ethical rationalist

Topics for today

Review of basic ideas Nature of ethical rationalism Plato as a rationalist

3 basic concepts of morality

The right: Which actions are right? Which institutions are

just? The good:

Which ends, goals or states of affairs are morally good ones?

Moral worth: Which qualities make someone a morally good

person?

Two questions:

Nature of moral judgment What are moral judgments? How do we justify

them?

Nature of moral motivation How does moral motivation work or fail to work?

How is it possible for moral concepts to influence our conduct?

Requirement of objectivity

The account of moral judgment should make agreement on moral issues possible and to be expected among those who follow the correct procedures of justification.

Three approaches:

Ethical rationalism: morality as a body of knowledge

Ideal spectator approach: morality as expression of sentiment

Contractualism: morality as the content of an agreement

Rationalism on moral judgment

Moral judgments are factual claims about a reality independent of us

They are knowable by human reason

Example

For the rationalist,

Inflicting suffering merely for one’s own amusement is wrong

is like

2 + 2 = 4

Rationalism on objectivity

Objectivity of morality is the objectivity of knowledge

Possibility of agreement guaranteed by– the existence of a single reality– common access to it through human reason

Rationalism on motivation

Cognition of moral truth awakens a desire in us to conform

Moral motivation is thus motivation by reason We also have non-rational desires We can fail to act morally when we act on

these in opposition to our rational desires.

Plato tries to root morality in an independent reality:

to connect psychic harmony with morality as usually understood

to combat relativism to overcome deficiencies of Socrates’s

method

Plato’s theory of forms

Forms are the essences or natures of things They are abstract and imperceptible, being

known by thought They include values They form a hierarchy topped by the form of

the good

Plato on moral judgment

Morality is based on the form of the good What is good for us depends on the form of

the good, which gives everything its special nature and value

Correct moral judgments are based on knowledge of the realm of forms.

Plato on moral motivation

A person in psychic harmony is motivated by reason to act morally

Psychic disharmony is motivation in opposition to reason by desires stemming from non-rational parts of our nature, thereby leading to wrong behavior.

Thus Plato is a rationalist with respect to both judgment and motivation.