Ethics Reading Group

Interested in normative ethics, metaethics, moral psychology, or related topics? Feel free to join the SU22 ethics reading party. 

The party’s second meeting will occur at 5:30pm this Sunday May 29th. We will meet at the tables in front of the Library for a potluck (Zoom is feasible as well).

After some agenda-setting items, organizer Yahui Chen will lead the reading party through a discussion of Bernard Williams’s (1981) paper, ‘Utilitarianism and moral self-indulgence‘, which was published as chapter 03 of his book, Moral Luck: Philosophical Papers. Here is an abstract:

What is one to do in circumstances where there are strong reasons, particularly of a utilitarian kind, for doing something that one finds morally distasteful, and against which one has a strong personal commitment? My concern is with a charge that can be brought against people who reject morally distasteful acts in such cases, namely that they are guilty of a certain kind of self-indulgence. When the agent’s refusal takes the particular form of saying that while others will bring evil about, at least it will not come about through him, the charge may handily take the form of saying that the agent displays a possessive attitude towards his own virtue. The problem particularly comes up in relation to utilitarianism. If the reasons for the act are strong enough for utilitarians, then they will say that the fact that the act is morally distasteful is certainly not an adequate reason against doing it in this case; as a general characteristic of acts of this sort, it is largely irrelevant to questions of what to do here and now, though it may be relevant to other aspects of the situation. Thus we may think well of the agent for finding this kind of act distasteful, his reaction being taken as a reassuring sign of good character.

Volunteers are invited to lead the next discussion, which will be on Peter Railton’s (1984) paper, ‘Alienation, consequentialism, and the demands of morality‘ on Sunday June 5th.