Before beginningn this lecture I want you to watch the video from this Youtube link. It will only take 2:43 minutes and after watching it, I just want you to keep in the back of your mind what you have seen.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=meiU6TxysCg
In the previous lecture we discussed the difference between a belief or just an opinion and knowledge. We answered the question "What does it mean that I know statement p is true?".
A general accepted answer is, that the truth of p is based on our "Justified True Belief " of statement p which is ultimately based on reasonableness and rationality with logic as our tool.
In the discussion afterwards I said, that homo sapiens is not primarily a rational human being, but a moral human being. If accepting the truth of statement p is based on reasonableness and rationality,
it means that we have to decide every time whether or not we want to be reasonable and rational. In other words, we face the question, what am I going to do, how am I going to be.
Since we are social animals, which is in our genes and not a personal choice, the essence of life is in fact our willingness to cooperate and work together with others.
We do not live in a vacuum with our own opinions. We live together with others and what I do always will affect other and in that process process it is not rationality, that plays the first violin. It is our values of good and bad, right and wrong.
That is why I asked yu to watch that short video of Frans de Waal. It shows that a sense of fairness is in the genes of primates. I even have seen dogs protest when the other dog gets a bigger cookie for the same task.
Fairness plays an important role in a situation where you have to choose between action A or action B. Action A will harm the other (and maybe yet benefit you) and action B will benefit the other.
Here you are confronted with the question "What is good or right and what is bad or wrong to do?" IN a biological sense this question boiils down to "What gives me pleasure and what gives me pain?"
Here again you have to decide what should prevail: your own pleasure or the pleasure of the other? This leaves us with two choices:
(1) Action A contributes to my pleasure but harms the other; (2) Action A harms me but contributes to the pleasure of the other.
With harming I do not mean dramatic pains or so but for instance the choice of taking the larger of the smaller piece of the cake if only two are left.
Being reasonable and rational will not help us with the choice between (1) or (2) unless we call for our willingness to cooperate with others and what is right or wrong to do in that context.
In onther words, in a way we need to KNOW what our values and standards are. To get to the truth of our values and standards a reasonable and rationlal argumentation is required.
In the following lectures I'll discuss with you the reasonable and rationlal argumentations behind current ethical theories about the question "What ought I to do?"
Thank you for your attention... the floor is yours..
Main Sources:
MacMillan The Encyclopedia of Philosophy, 2nd edition
TABLE OF CONTENT -----------------------------------------------------------------
1 - 100 Philosophers 9 May 2009 Start of
2 - 25+ Women Philosophers 10 May 2009 this blog
3 - 25 Adventures in Thinking 10 May 2009
4 - Modern Theories of Ethics 29 Oct 2009
5 - The Ideal State 24 Febr 2010 / 234
6 - The Mystery of the Brain 3 Sept 2010 / 266
7 - The Utopia of the Free Market 16 Febr 2012 / 383
8. - The Aftermath of Neo-liberalism 5 Sept 2012 / 413
9. - The Art Not to Be an Egoist 6 Nov 2012 / 426
10 - Non-Western Philosophy 29 May 2013 / 477
11 - Why Science is Right 2 Sept 2014 / 534
12 - A Philosopher looks at Atheism 1 Jan 2015 / 557
13 - EVIL, a philosophical investigation 17 Apr 2015 / 580
14 - Existentialism and Free Will 2 Sept 2015 / 586
15 - Spinoza 2 Sept 2016 / 615
16 - The Meaning of Life 13 Febr 2017 / 637
17 - In Search of my Self 6 Sept 2017 / 670
18 - The 20th Century Revisited 3 Apr 2018 / 706
19 - The Pessimist 11 Jan 2020 / 819
20 - The Optimist 9 Febr 2020 / 824
21 - Awakening from a Neoliberal Dream 8 Oct 2020 / 872
22 - A World Full of Patterns 1 Apr 2021 / 912
23 - The Concept of Freedom 8 Jan 2022 / 965
24 - Materialism 7 Sept 2022 / 1011
25 - Historical Materialism 5 Oct 2023 / 1088
26 - The Bonobo and the Atheist 9 Jan 2024 / 1102
27 - Artificial Intelligence 9 Feb 2024 / 1108
28 - Why Am I Here 6 Sept 2024 / 1139
The Discussion
[13:21] .: Beertje :. (beertje.beaumont): Thank you Herman
[13:21] .: Beertje :. (beertje.beaumont): Sometimes it's very hard to know what to do
[13:22] .: Beertje :. (beertje.beaumont): i don't want to be selfish, but at the other hand i love the last part of the cake
[13:22] herman Bergson: Your choice depends on your values and standards...and rational deliberation might help to find an anwer
[13:23] herman Bergson: I agree Beertje:-)
[13:23] .: Beertje :. (beertje.beaumont): you can have the last part if you want:)
[13:23] herman Bergson: This can be very political...what to take ..the big part or the small part
[13:24] .: Beertje :. (beertje.beaumont): depends on the situation
[13:24] herman Bergson: yes
[13:25] .: Beertje :. (beertje.beaumont): 2 people you love need help. helping the first or helping the other first?
[13:25] herman Bergson: which point at consequentialism as ethical approach, for instance
[13:26] herman Bergson: IN such a situation you only can be reasonable...which immediately calls for your moral standards
[13:26] bergfrau Apfelbaum: Itake the smaller piece because I do not HAVE to go hungry.:::: A child in Africa might take the larger piece because theyre hungry
[13:27] herman Bergson: The child won't evenget close to the cake, Bergie :-(
[13:28] bergfrau Apfelbaum: ... :-)
[13:28] herman Bergson: I constantly have the feeling that we are biting ourselves in our tail......
[13:29] herman Bergson: To get to moral values you have to be reasonable, but to be willing to do so is already again a moral choice
[13:30] herman Bergson: Is it good or bad for me to be reasonable
[13:30] herman Bergson: It feels as if I reach the limits of our mind here
[13:31] .: Beertje :. (beertje.beaumont): you don't want to be TOO good, other wise some take advandtege of you
[13:31] herman Bergson: To stick to Socrates: oida, ouk oida..... I know that I don't know :-)
[13:32] .: Beertje :. (beertje.beaumont): we can't know everything
[13:32] herman Bergson: Can you too good?
[13:33] .: Beertje :. (beertje.beaumont): yes
[13:33] .: Beertje :. (beertje.beaumont): never say no to someone
[13:33] herman Bergson: If we go that way, I guess we end up in trying to define good here
[13:33] .: Beertje :. (beertje.beaumont): always say yes, I'll help or I do that
[13:33] herman Bergson: quite unreasonable to do so, Beertje :-)
[13:34] .: Beertje :. (beertje.beaumont): some act like that
[13:34] herman Bergson: Oh yes...but remember our lectures about stupidity....
[13:35] herman Bergson: Doing things that harm you that benefits the other.....not the smart move
[13:35] .: Beertje :. (beertje.beaumont): it's learning a lesson....
[13:36] herman Bergson: not to be stupid :-)
[13:36] .: Beertje :. (beertje.beaumont): ツ yes
[13:36] herman Bergson: Wasnt this the category of helpless people...?
[13:37] herman Bergson: stupid people acts in a way that they harm themselves and others both
[13:37] herman Bergson: plenty of examples of that these days
[13:37] .: Beertje :. (beertje.beaumont): names not to be mentioned...
[13:38] herman Bergson: put up tariffs....harms other countries and harms yourself
[13:38] herman Bergson: That is what I mean Beertje :-)
[13:38] bergfrau Apfelbaum: acting selflessly doesn't mean being stupid. only egoists see it that way, because they would never act that way themselves
[13:38] .: Beertje :. (beertje.beaumont): sometimes it's hard to make a choice
[13:39] bergfrau Apfelbaum: iknow people like that, too
[13:40] .: Beertje :. (beertje.beaumont): Lukkie made a choice to help an old man today, the price she pays it that she is very tired at the moment
[13:40] bergfrau Apfelbaum: ja Beertje, especially when you experience a situation for the first time. Grief, for example... it is like a black hole / black out
[13:41] herman Bergson: Ok....in the coming lectures we'll figure out what they have thought of, to justify moral choices
[13:41] Lukkie Sands: :-)
[13:41] Lukkie Sands: But it keeps mutual cooperation alife
[[13:42] herman Bergson: Unlees you still have an important question or matter to discuss....
[13:43] .: Beertje :. (beertje.beaumont): not at the moment..no
[13:43] herman Bergson: Thank you foro your attention....:-)
[13:43] herman Bergson: Class dismissed ....
[13:43] .: Beertje :. (beertje.beaumont): Thank you Herman
[13:43] .: Beertje :. (beertje.beaumont): brb
[13:43] bergfrau Apfelbaum: thank you Herman and class
[13:43] bergfrau Apfelbaum: yay
[13:43] 0rd: thank you!
[13:43] herman Bergson: I hope it helped you further, Ord
[13:44] 0rd: yes! i have to think more!
[13:44] herman Bergson: or didnt I meet your expectations?
[13:44] 0rd: I love this class!
[13:44] herman Bergson: Thank you :-)
[13:44] 0rd: ❤
