Values, Self & Knowledge: Tutorial 1

1. Philosophical thinking Values, Self & Knowledge: Tutorial 1

2. Plan • Thinking process • Reading process • Assessment • Practice puzzle

3. Thinking process • Think of something that’s clearly morally wrong in your view • Why is it morally wrong?

4. Thinking process • Think of something that’s clearly morally wrong in your view • Why is it morally wrong? Specific context Application of principle Principle

5. Search & examine the principles Why should I be moral? Particular application of principle Only because it benefits me Counter-examples? I should do something only if it benefits me General principle

6. Search & examine the principles Why? Because… Abstraction Underlying Principle

7. Example Why should I be moral? To avoid feeling guilty Why should I do something? To avoid feeling bad Why should I repeatedly shower? To avoid feeling bad

8. How to start?

9. Abstraction What is the cause of this infection? 1 2 3 4 N

10. Abstraction • Start by considering ‘obvious’ cases • Track patterns • Form initial theory • Consider a wide range of cases • Revise theory if needed

11. Constructing experiments • Whether gas X prevents fire. • The only time virus V harms humans is when they have high blood pressure. • Euthanasia is wrong only because it saddens the family of the euthanised person.

12. Testing a theory Theory Hypothesis/Prediction Observation Compare

13. Observation Explanation

14. Abstraction Are moral judgments absolutely true? What is the criterion to use in evaluating? Judgmt1 Judgmt2 Judgmt3 Judgmt4 JudgmtN No disagreement exists Reflection Thought experiment

15. Thought experiment When he came to him, he said, “There were two men in a certain town, one rich and the other poor. The rich man had a very large number of sheep and cattle, but the poor man had nothing except one little ewe lamb he had bought. He raised it, and it grew up with him and his children. It shared his food, drank from his cup and even slept in his arms. It was like a daughter to him.

16. Thought experiment “Now a traveler came to the rich man, but the rich man refrained from taking one of his own sheep or cattle to prepare a meal for the traveler who had come to him. Instead, he took the ewe lamb that belonged to the poor man and prepared it for the one who had come to him.” David burned with anger against the man and said to Nathan, “As surely as the Lord lives, the man who did this must die! He must pay for that lamb four times over, because he did such a thing and had no pity.” Then Nathan said to David, “You are the man!

17. Possible responses Then Nathan said to David, “You are the man! “The man in the story is a fictional character!” “The action is wrong, but only in that story!”

18. Thought experiments • Logically possible scenarios • Constructed, then considered to test philosophical claims • Typically imaginary, highly-artificial and ridiculously extreme

19. Ring of Gyges “…If you could imagine any one obtaining this power of becoming invisible, and never doing any wrong or touching what was another's, he would be thought by the lookers-on to be a most wretched idiot, although they would praise him to one another's faces, and keep up appearances with one another from a fear that they too might suffer injustice.”

20. Testing a philosophical view Philosophical View Observation/Reflection Hypothesis/Prediction Compare

21. Guidelines • Have a hypothesis • Eliminate complicating variables • Make theory-free judgment

22. Overview of process Current view Abstraction Distinction Thought experiments

23. Distinctions • Would & should • Instrumental & intrinsic value • Absolute & relative • Situational, descriptive & meta-ethical relativism • …

24. Reading a philosophy essay • Method • Understanding reasoning • Examining principles • Considering thought experiments • Grasping distinctions • Big picture • How all sections are linked Suggestion: Start by understanding the overall structure of the essay Then proceed to examine specific parts. (“What is the author trying to do here?”)

25. Additional suggestion • Try to anticipate responses • What might the author say • Check again what the author in fact says

26. Essay (10% + 40%) • Check ‘Assessment’ page • Check access to eReadings • Submit via Turnitin • Check for plagiarism • Note deadlines • Penalty for late submission: 0.5% or 2% per 24hrs overdue

27. Practice puzzle Either: Existing unicorn = A unicorn that exists Existing unicorns exist Existing unicorns do not exist. or Existing unicorns exist.

28. Practice puzzle • If blue pens exist, then pens exist. • If expensive cars exist, then cars exist. • If blue unicorns exist, then unicorns exist. • If existing unicorns exist, then unicorns exist. • If existing unicorns exist, then unicorns exist. • Existing unicorns exist. • Therefore unicorns exist.