Stoics and Hope

 For many of us our hopes play an important part in our lives, try imagining a life without any hope. In this posting I want to examine four questions connected to hope.  First exactly what do we mean by hope?  Secondly why is hope valuable? Thirdly can a stoic hope? Intuitively I will suggest that hoping goes against stoic principles. I will then question whether the stoic idea of preferred indifferents might mean that I am mistaken. Lastly I will examine whether the idea of preferred indifferents is a meaningful one.

I will now outline a definition of hope. Intuitively someone hopes for some outcome if she desires that outcome even though this outcome is uncertain. In what follows I will make use of some of the ideas of Adrienne Martin (1). However Marin doesn’t believe hope can be accounted for by desire, in this posting I will argue that it can be provided that we understand desires correctly. Our intuitive definition seems to be an inadequate one, for instance does someone really hope for some outcome if she expects it? Does a spouse hope for a birthday present from a loving partner or simply expect it? With this in mind we might define hope as follows. 

Hoe 1.  Someone hopes for some outcome when she desires this outcome which has a low probability of being actualised. 

Unfortunately as pointed out by Martin such a desire might give rise to both hope and despair. Let us accept that emotions capture and focus our attention. If we accept this then then perhaps Martin is mistaken in believing our desires can’t account for hope. Using Martin’s example, let us consider two patients with advanced cancer who are offered a new treatment with a low probability of success. Each patient faces the same facts but the focus of each will determine whether they hope or despair. One might despairs because she focusses on probable bad outcome and the other hopes because he focusses on the low probability of a good outcome. This is a good point to make it clear how hope differs from simply wishing or being unrealistically optimistic. Hoping always involves being roughly aware of the probabilities. If someone simply wishes for some outcome then she pays no attention to the probabilities in much the same way as a bullshitter pays no attention to the truth. It might be suggested that whilst Panglossian optimism is harmful that realistic optimism can be beneficial by combatting passivity, see Tiberuus and Realistic Optimism sm . I won’t pursue this suggestion here.

 Let us now define hope as follows.

 ope 2.  If someone hopes then her desires focusses her attention mainly on some positive outcome which has a low probability of being actualises whilst being aware of the true probabilities.

However this definition seems to lack something. Hope doesn’t suddenly materialise out of a vacuum.  A pragmatic person who has never built up her hopes about anything in the past is unlikely to suddenly start hoping for some specific outcome. Hoping seems connected to being a hopeful person. The above definition might be refined as follows.

Hope 3,  If someone hopes then her desires focusses her attention mainly on some positive outcome which has a low probability of being actualises whilst being aware of the true probabilities and this desire is based on her character. .

Hope, like optimism, combats passivity. Some might argue all emotions combat passivity and that despair is mood rather than a genuine emotion. I won’t pursue this thought here. The hopeful person undertakes some sort of action, even if this is merely imagining a better future, whilst the despairing person simply does nothing. Why is combatting passivity valuable? Combatting passivity involves exercising the will and I will now argue that the exercise of the will has essentialist or intrinsic value for human beings.

How might exercising our will be valuable? The approach I will follow is based on that of Gwen Bradford (2). She introduces the idea of an essentialist value. If some capacity is essential to human beings then according to Bradford the exercise of this capacity is of value to human beings. One such capacity is the exercise of the will. It is tempting to equate essentialist value with intrinsic value. If we accept Bradford’s position then hope has essentialist value because it involves exercising the will.

Let us now consider why stoics believe hoping is harmful. Hope as I have defined it above is an emotion, it is possible to define hope in terms of ‘caring about’ or love, see What do we mean by Hope?  . I won’t pursue this further here. Let us accept that hope is an emotion. Stoics believe that we should avoid all emotions as far as possible because emotions harm us by making us vulnerable. But even if we accept that emotions harm us by making us vulnerable this alone doesn’t mean that we should avoid them. For instance a doctor might recommend surgery because it benefits a patient in the long term even if it harms her in the short term. It follows even if emotion harm us that this harm might be outweighed by some benefits. A stoic must be committed to one of two options. Either that emotions have no real value and don’t benefit us in any way or that any benefit emotions confer on us is always outweighed by the harm causes by making us vulnerable. It is difficult to accept the first option for almost everyone has some emotions and it seems unlikely that these would have evolved without benefiting us in some way. Most stoics seem to accept that emotions have some value because they accept the idea of preferred indifferents. For instance they accept that it is better to be happy rather than unhappy even if we shouldn’t pursue happiness. It would seem that most stoics must believe that the value of any emotion is always outweighed by the vulnerability it causes, but why?

Perhaps they believe this because they believe that we are essentially rational creatures rather than emotional ones. What reason might they give for this belief? They might suggest that having a will is essential to being a human being. Let us accept this. However a stoic must also believe that we only express our will through our rationality and that we simply experience emotions. A stoic seems committed to the idea that emotions serve no purpose. Unfortunately for their argument it seems highly unlikely that emotions evolved to serve no purpose. It follows that if emotions serve some purpose then they aren’t totally irrational. For instance in some circumstances it can make sense to be angry because anger might focus someone’s attention on righting a wrong. It follows that even if we accept that we are essentially rational creatures that we don’t have reason to ignore our emotions. Emotions are connected to our rationality. Indeed it might be argued that a failure to attend to our emotions is itself irrational. At this point a stoic might modify her argument and suggest that not only are human beings rational but that they are also free to some degree. A stoic holds this view because she believes that even if we aren’t free to choose our fate we are always free to choose our attitude towards it. She might then argue even if emotions are rational that they deny our freedom by making us slaves to our passions. I would reject such an argument. I accept that we might become a slave to my age but my anger can be controlled and modified. For instance we might choose to retain our anger if an apology isn’t forthcoming and dismiss it if one is. It follows that we aren’t just slaves to our passions and that by controlling the emotions appropriate to us in different situations we shape ourselves. Human beings aren’t robots which act solely rationally without reference to emotions. Acting like a robot denies our nature. If we accept the above then stoics are mistaken in denying the importance of the emotions. Emotions, including hope, matter because they are part of our essential nature.

At this point a stoic might suggest that my treatment of emotions is too simple. She might further suggest that I should differentiate between experiencing an emotion and desiring one. She might move on to suggest that of course stoics prefer experience being happy but that they shouldn’t desire being happy. They believe that the pursuit of happiness makes us vulnerable and usually makes us unhappy and as a result we should remain indifferent to pursuing it. This is a very rough outline of the stoic idea of preferred indifferents. In response I would question whether it is possible to simply experience an emotion. If someone is in an affective state and this state creates no desire, either to avoid or maintain it, then I would suggest that she is experiencing a mood rather than an emotion. I would suggest that whilst there might be a grey area between emotions and moods that we can usually differentiate between the two. We can simply experience a mood because it serves no purpose, the same isn’t true of emotions. I argued above that it can be rational to experience some emotion which means emotions have some purpose. It follows that if an emotion serve some purpose that it is either illogical or impossible to remain indifferent towards them and simply experience them. It further follows that the idea of preferred indifferents makes no sense because it is impossible simply to experience an emotion.

In conclusion it appears to me that stoicism has a distorted notion of the emotions and that this distorted notion leads them to downplay emotions such as love and hope which have essentialist value to human beings. It might be concluded that stoicism hinders someone from living up to her full potential.

1.   Martin, Adrienne. 2014, How We Hope: A Moral Psychology, Princeton University Press.

2.   Gwen Bradford, 2015, Achievement, Oxford University Press

Angela's Wedding, Human Enhancement

 

It is the first of May in 2122 and Angela and Ian are getting married on another warm sunny day in Ullapool. A century ago Ullapool was a cold place and marriage seemed to be in terminal decline in the Western world with fewer and fewer bothered to get married. Times have changed. A century ago most couples who married in the West married did so for love, couples fell in love and as a consewuencet got married. Love still matters but now it is of secondary importance now and usually only blossoms after marriage rather than before as it did a century ago. Marriage has fallen in line with  Asian customs. Nowadays marriage is a practical matter and needs a marriage arranger. This change in the way people marry came about shortly after pharmacological and genetic enhancement were banned because of the damage they might do to society. However many parents still wanted to give their children a goof start in life. In order to do so many parents like Angela and Ian have replaced natural selection with conscious rational selection,

Angela decided to marry not because she needed to be loved but because she wanted to have children. A century ago she might have satisfied her desire for parenthood by simply finding a suitable man or sperm donor and raising the child together or by herself. Angela is a clever woman who had clever parents and wants to have clever children as she believes that this will give them a good start in life. In order to help her achieve this desire she employed a marriage arranger called Alex who suggested suitable partners. Ian also employed Alex and he also wanted clever children. Alex takes her profession seriously. First Angela had to submit an advanced CV called a PCV. Next she interviewed Angela to get a clear idea of Angela’s preferences for any future children. Together they gave weights to these preferences and then Alex used AI to suggest suitable matches. She did the same thing with all her clients including Ian. Alex had sent details of Ian and Angela to each other and suggested that they meet. Shortly after Christmas they did so. After a few more meetings Angela and Ian decided to marry and have children. In March they settled the practical details of living together and signed a pre-nuptial agreement. Perhaps such a scenario is unlikely to come about but it isn’t implausible but it might even be argued that the class system is a primitive form of enhancement. I now want to examine its philosophical implications of the above.

For the sake of arguments let us assume that this scenario creates three main breeding groups. Angela’s group values intelligence, a second values physical and sporting prowess and lastly the traditional group who don’t prioritise any particular attributes, who still marry for love and don’t use marriage arranger. These groups aren’t races but might be classes as breeding groups of humans who mostly breed among themselves. Of course these breeding groups can interbreed but in most cases they don’t. However in a limited number of cases marriage arrangers such as Alex might recommend couples choose a partner from outside their own group in order to introduce hybrid vigour. The society which has been created seems to be a naturally created analogue of the one envisioned by Plato in his Republic. Few people would welcome such a society and this was the main reason why pharmacological and genetic enhancement were banned. At this point it might be objected that such a change in society is highly unlikely and that I have exaggerated the effectiveness of selected breeding. In response I would suggest that the Russian silver fox domestication experiment lead by Dimitry Belyayev showed that selective breeding can bring about large changes in a relatively short time, see  fox experiment . What are the consequences of accepting the above as a plausible, even if unlikely, future scenario?

First because such a scenario seems unpalatable to us because it seems to regard people as breeding animals we might take steps to prevent it occurring. Of course we are breeding animals and conscious rational selection would not make us into purely breeding animals. The breeders and those breeding are the same. Nonetheless such a scenario still seems an unpalatable one and steps might still be taken to prevent it from occurring. Unfortunately these steps would have to include measures limiting people’s ability to have children with whomsoever they please. Steps would have to be taken to control what happens in the privacy of people’s bedrooms. Such measures might be possible in a totalitarian society, China had a one child policy, but such measures would be impossible in a free society. It follows if we value our right to reproduce by natural means with anyone we choose to do so, with exception of incestuous relationships, that we must accept the possibility of the unpalatable scenario even if this is only because it is the less unpalatable option.

If we accept that enhancement could take place naturally by conscious rational selection then even if we ban pharmacological and genetic methods then perhaps we should question whether we should introduce such a ban in the first place. Such a ban would fail to fully address the problems it was meant to solve. It might be argued such a ban would delay the process giving us more time to consider how we might better mitigate some of its worst consequences for society. Perhaps but banning artificial enhancement doesn’t prevent enhancement by other means and I would suggest our energies would be better employed in regulating artificial enhancement so it takes place in a safe way. Perhaps for instance we should always take steps to enhance empathy in conjunction with any other enhancement. Perhaps also some of the harms of enhancement, which ever way they are caused, might be outweighed by some of the benefits. For instance those who are enhanced might have better health and be more able to control their destiny better.

If the unpalatable scenario came into existence one bad consequence would be that equality of opportunity might seem to be impossible. Perhaps if we accept that equality of opportunity doesn’t occur now and won’t occur in the future then we should be less concerned and concentrate on other goods. For instance we might concentrate on protecting personal autonomy and toleration. Some might argue that if we make artificial enhancement available to all that my worry about enhancement damaging equal opportunity is unfounded. Enhancement might actually increase equal opportunity.

Lastly I want to consider a much more fanciful consequence of enhancement which like climate change pose an existential threat to humanity. In the ‘Time Machine’ H G Wells envisions humanity evolving into two distinct species the Eloi and the Morlocks by natural selection. It is important to note that these are species who can’t interbreed rather than races. Might in the far distant future enhancement by artificial means or conscious rational selection lead to human speciation? Two enhanced species competing for control might pose an existential threat to humanity.

I have argued that in a free society that human enhancement is inevitable. If we accept this then instead of thinking about banning enhancement we should consider how we might mitigate some of its worst effects.

Cholbi and Grief

 

In his book on grief (1) Michael Cholbi argues that in the long term it is good to grieve. He concludes that grief serves a useful purpose. This is an excellent book and I recommend it to anyone interested in the topic. In this posting I will outline Cholbi’s arguments before moving on to offer an alternative as to why it is good to be able to grieve.

Cholbi argues that grief is paradoxical. He points out that grieving is painful and even harms us for no apparent benefit yet we would recommend others0 to grieve. Surgery hurts us but in the long term benefits us but the same doesn’t appear to be true of grief. Cholbi uses two examples to make his point. First he considers C S Lewis who terribly tormented by the death of his wife Joy. He then considers a fictional example. He considers Meursault in the book ‘The Stranger’ by Camus who remains completely emotionally indifferent to the death of his mother. Cholbi argues that the paradox of grief arises because we want to recommend Lewis’ torment rather than Meursault’s indifference whilst apparently having no reasons to do so. A Stoic might argue that we don’t have any reasons and commend Meursault’s indifference.

I will now outline Chobi’s reason for recommending Lewis’ torment before moving on to offer an alternative explanation. He points out that grief is a collection of negative emotions on the death of another. However this other can’t be anyone it must be someone who is close to us. Following Korsgaard he argues that those who are close to us help form our practical identity. It follows that the death of someone close to us damages our practical identity. Moods might be purposeless but emotions aren’t. Let us accept that purpose of emotions is to hold our attention on something important, see for instance Michael Brady. (2) Cholbi argues that the purpose of grief is to hold our attention on reshaping our relationship with the deceased and that this also involves reshaping our practical identity. He suggests that the grieving person needn’t be consciously aware of the purpose of his grief.

I agree with Cholbi that our practical identity is connected to grief. What we love is connected to our practical identity and I will now argue that grief is an unwanted consequence of our capacity to love. Before proceeding I must make it clear what I mean by love. To love doesn’t simply mean romantic love but to care about something as defined by Harry Frankfurt. According to Frankfurt love isn’t simply an emotion but a matter of the will. There seem to be three important features of ‘caring about’ or love so defined. First love makes the lover vulnerable to the fortune and fate of the loved one. If I appear to love someone or something and it is harmed and I remain indifferent, as Meursault did, then my love isn’t real. Secondly love must have persistence. IF I appear to love someone or something and five minutes later become indifferent to its fate thenonce again my love isn’t real. Of course love may fade over time, it needn’t be permanent, but it must have some persistence. Lastly love must motivate action. If I appear to love something but fail to act to prevent harm to the loved one when it is in my power to do so then once again my love isn’t real.

I now want to argue that our personal or practical identity can be defined by what we love. Someone whose actions are only guided by his emotions might be classed as a wanton because his life has no direction due to emotions having no persistence. Such a person doesn’t have a practical identity. If someone’s has a practical identity, rather than being a wanton, then his life must have some consistency and if this consistency cannot be achieved by his emotions then this might be done by his values or ideals. Our ideals and values have persistence, compel us to act and when our ideals are damaged we are damaged. It follows our values are determined by what we love or ‘care about’ and if our practical is defined by our ideals and values then our practical identity is defined by what we love.

If we accept this concept of practical identity then the paradox of grief disappears. Let us recall that the paradox of grief contends that grief is painful and even harms us for no apparent benefit yet we would recommend it to others in the right circumstances. Cholbi resolves the paradox by arguing that grief does have a purpose and it benefits us. However if we accept Frankfurt’s ideas on practical identity then if we love someone who dies we are harmed and this harm persists because of love’s persistence. If someone we love dies then grief is inevitable and it makes no sense to recommend the inevitable. The late Queen Elizabeth was right when she said grief is the price we pay for love. The paradox of grief is an illusion.

There are differences in our attitude to grief depending on whether we see grief as having a purpose or being an unwanted consequence of our capacity to love. Cholbi uses a thought experiment to illustrate the paradox. He imagines a situation in which a pill, which is completely safe to use becomes available, which takes away our grief. He argues that we shouldn’t take the pill as grief serves a useful purpose. However if grief is an unwanted side effect of our capacity to love we should. Caution is needed here. If such a pill only took away our grief then we should take it but if it also damaged our capacity to love we shouldn’t. Damaging our capacity to love would harm us. It is good to be the sort of person with a disposition to love even if this means we will sometimes grief and that this grieving will harm us. It seems possible to me that seeking to limit their capacity to grieve stoics limit their disposition to love, see Why I'm not a Stoic

I now want to briefly consider some of the consequences of accepting that grief is simply an unwanted consequence of our disposition to love. It seems if we accept this account then because we can love a great variety of things that we must also be able to grieve for a great variety of things and that some of these things aren’t persons or even living. Someone might love other people, dogs, a way of life and even a landscape or particular building. Does it make sense to say we can grieve for the last  things? Old people who live alone can become very attached to dogs and it is sensible to say that they grieve on their loss. It also seems to say someone can grief for a lost way of life, perhaps a new city dweller night grieve for his former existence. Lastly in some circumstances it makes sense to say someone can grieve for a building, perhaps the Dean of some ancient cathedral might grieve for it if it was burnt down. If we accept that we can grieve for a wide variety of things then this suggests grief is connected to love.

In the light of the above we might ask whether only humans can grieve. Can some animals grieve? Some might suggest a dog can grieve for their deceased owner and elephants appear to grieve for a dead herd member. Whether animals can experience a primitive form of grief or just exhibit grief like behaviour is an interesting question but the answer to it gives us some pointers to the nature of grief. Let us assume that no animal has a practical self. It follows if animals can grieve that the purpose of grief cannot solely be to reshape our practical identity.

I have argued that grief is an unwanted consequence of our capacity to love. I now want to row back a bit. Let us accept that grief is an unwanted consequence of our capacity to love and that it is unavoidable. Let us also agree with Cholbi that grief is connected to our practical identity. However I will still maintain that we cannot recommend grief to others. Let us further accept that most human beings ‘care about’ or love many things and that when we act we must be able to prioritise or rank these things, if we couldn’t our lives would be lives of inaction or chaos. Lastly let us also accept the things we love, ‘care about’, together with how we prioritise these things shapes our practical identity.  If we lose one of the things we love we should try to reshape our practical identity to reflect the change in reality. The bundle of emotions we experience during grief unconsciously draws out attention to the need to reshape our relationship with the deceases and our identity. These emotions are unavoidable and a failure to grieve involves a failure to love in the first place. Let us return to Camus’ Meursault. Meursault failed to grieve for his mother because he didn’t love her. Moreover it would be pointless suggesting to Meursault that he should grieve for his mother as this would require him coming to love her. People can’t simply come to love someone or something because they want to especially in retrospect. Coming to love is a natural process and cannot be willed. It follows that we have no reason to recommend grief to others and that the paradox of grief is an illusion. Nonetheless even if we have no reason to recommend grief to others we do have a reason to recommend that they lead a life which makes grief inevitable in the appropriate circumstances.

Even if the above is interesting does it have any practical consequences? First I would that grief counsellor’s should help the bereaved slowly overcome their grief by helping them reshape their identity. They should focus on how the changed relationship between the deceased and the bereaved requires that the latter needs to reshape her relationship with the deceased and by doing so her practical identity. Secondly it suggests that a stoic by seeking to eliminate her grief deprives herself of a useful tool which helps her maintain her focus on the need to reshape her practical identity. A reason to be wary of fully blown stoicism, see why I'm not a stoic . Lastly and somewhat controversially becausr people with autism have problems with empathy do they also have problems with grief?

 

 

1.Michael Cholbi, 2022, Grief: A Philosophical Guide, Harvad University Press.

2.  Michael Brady, 2016,Emotional Insight: The Epistemic Role of Emotional Experience, Oxford University Press.

Is Loyalty an Outdated Virtue?

 

We automatically assume loyalty matters and is a virtue. In this posting I will question this automatic assumption and will argue even if this true in the past it might not hold now. I have previously argued tact isn’t. Talk of loyalty comes easily to most of us but ease of use doesn’t make the assumption true. In practice we can only be loyal to certain kind of things. For instance it makes no sense to talk of being loyal to the humanity or being a loyal parent, parents are meant to be loyal naturally. I will argue that if we consider the sort of things we can loyal to then being a loyal x isn’t a useful term and in some contexts loyalty can be a vice rather than a virtue.

Let us accept that if someone has some virtue then she has a disposition to usually act in a way which helps her or others flourish, courage helps her and justice helps others. This is an incomplete definition but will serve our purposes here. Intuitively it seems to make sense to talk about a loyal friend. I will start by considering whether loyalty is a virtue by considering how loyalty and friendship are connected. Before doing so I must define loyalty and friendship. Loyalty can be roughly defined as a commitment to help someone or some cause achieve their aims. Friendship is more complicated. Basically friends care about each other but they do so for different reasons. According to Aristotle there are three types of friends. Friends who care about each other for erotic reasons, friends who care about each other because they are useful to each other and friends who care because they share aims and values. Friends of utility and those who share erotic purpose are fair weather friends and I will only consider the last sort as real friends. Friends share values and are committed to furthering their common aims, if they weren’t then these wouldn’t be aims or values. It should be noted that using this definition some people can be good friends even if they share bad values and have evil aims. Nazis can be friends. A good friend is someone is some who is good at furthering his friend’s aims. A loyal friend is one who is committed to furthering his friend’s aims. If we accept the above then adding the term loyal to f friend serves no useful purpose because friends by definition seek to further each other’s aims whenever possible. Adding loyalty to friendship does no work. A loyal friend is just a good friend. I would suggest that the same applies if we add loyalty to colleagues, team mates and causes. Colleagues and team mates have common aims which they seek to further whilst it would be nonsensical to say someone serves a cause if she doesn’t seek to further the aims of the cause. It might be concluded that in many contexts attaching ‘loyalty’ to someone does no useful work and is simply rhetoric and shouldn’t be considered as a virtue.   

I now want to consider some objections to the above conclusion. First an objector might argue that my definition of loyalty is an inadequate one. My definition focusses on the loyal person sharing the values and furthering the aims of the person or cause she is being loyal to. My objector might argue that these aims and values are the sub focus of loyalty and that the real focus should be on the person or cause involved. The aims and values only matter because they are the aims and values of the person or cause. I am reluctant to accept this conclusion for two reasons. First whilst it is possible to simply respect and accept human beings without referring to any aims and values this isn’t true of feeling positive affect for a person. Feelings of love, admiration and loyalty would seem to depend on the character of the person involved, on her aims and values. Even a Jane Austen heroine doesn’t admire her beloved simply because of his good looks and wealth, even if these help, she falls in love because of his values and sense of honour. It follows that we cannot be loyal to someone without reference to her aims and values.

Another argument can be used to counter my objector’s contention that we can be loyal to someone without reference to her aims and values. Even if this were possible we might question how we acquired our initial loyalty to someone or some cause, surely we must have had some reason to do so. Surely loyalty doesn’t just spring fully formed from thin air. We acquire loyalty because we admire a person or cause, loyalty based on admiration of someone’s beauty or the popularity of some cause would seem to be a shallow sort. Admittedly such loyalty is unconnected to aims and values but it gives no reason to further these. I would suggest that we can only acquire loyalty by admiring aims and values. I would argue that when we become friends, team mates or support a cause that we do so because of the aims and values and saying someone is a loyal friend or is loyal to a cause adds nothing and serves no useful purpose. At this point my objector might accept that aims and values matter in becoming loyal but continue to insist that loyalty is a meaningful idea. She might suggest that my defining of loyalty fails to consider persistence. Someone might become loyal to someone else because of his aims and values but even if his or the other’s aims and values change loyalty persists to a person or cause. She might suggest that it makes sense to talk about being a loyal friend because of the former congruence of aims and values. Once again I am reluctant to accept this objection. True friends share aims and values and once they cease to do so friendship dies as does the suggestion that loyalty can be based on persistence even if persistence matters. Political parties often demand loyalty when times are hard if the times are hard due to poor decision making or incompetence loyalty becomes an excuse for dishonesty.

At this point my objector might raise another argument against my contention that loyalty isn’t a virtue. She might argue that loyalty has a much broader domain than the one I’ve suggested. She might argue that we can be loyal to entities which don’t have particular any aims or values. Entities such as families, tribes and football teams. However being loyal to an entity without any aims isn’t always virtuous. A racist might be loyal to his race and a misogynist to the patriarchy. Such loyalty is a vice rather than a virtue. Nonetheless are there some things without any aims for which being loyal to is a virtue? Perhaps, I admit that the way I’ve used the term loyalty is incomplete.  Let us accept that it matters when we are loyal as well as how we are loyal. Being loyal in easy times is easy and doesn’t matter much. Perhaps loyalty only matters in hard times. It also matters why times are hard. For instance shielding a family member who is a killer isn’t acting virtuously.  Perhaps also being loyal to such entities requires a narrowing of our domain of moral concern. In the twenty first century do we really want loyal to a class or tribe, class traitor would seem to be an outdated idea. In conclusion I would suggest that in most cases using the term loyalty does no useful work because loyalty is already baked into the concept. A loyal friend is just a friend. Friendship incorporates the same characteristics as loyalty. Perhaps loyalty was an important virtue in ancient times but its importance has dwindled as our moral domain has expanded and  we can't restore its former importance without restricting this domain  again something I would be reluctant to contemplate.

Afterthoughts. loyalty is vital to tribes, clans and monarchies if l loyalty is outdated are these outdated? it might be objected that loyalty remains essential to families. loyalty to a murderer, rapist or even a liar?

Is the exercise of virtue constrained by respect for autonomy?

 

In this posting I want to examine the relationship between virtue and autonomy.  In order to do so I will use Christian Miller’s ideas about the virtue of honesty. Miller suggests that sometimes the virtue of honesty seems to be inappropriate. For instance when

 “where lying would prevent severe harm, such as lying to save a Jewish family from the Nazis or to stop a terrorist attack.” (1)

One solution to such problems according to Miller is that one virtue outweighs another. Miller goes on to suggest that this weighting might be carried out by the virtue of practical wisdom.

“Thus in Nazi-at-the-door cases, practical wisdom might help decide between what honesty demands (telling the truth to the Nazi) and what compassion demands (protecting the Jewish family).” (2)

I find Miller’s treatment of the problem quite convincing but in what follows I will briefly outline an alternative solution before moving on to argue that the problem might be resolved by considering the relationship between autonomy and virtue.

First it might be suggested that our intuitive ideas of honesty need to be refined. It might be argued that telling a Nazi where a Jewish family isn’t acting virtuously. Telling the truth isn’t part of the virtue in all situations. Honesty is a situationist virtue. Perhaps when we define what actions are part of the virtue of honesty we must also define the domain in which these actions take place. Perhaps the above suggestion might apply to virtues more generally. Even though this might offer a possible solution to apparent clashes in virtues I won’t pursue it further here.

It might be argued someone can still be virtuous whilst telling white lies to children. For instance a mother might tell her child that he can’t go to McDonalds because she’s forgotten her purse. Honesty is a sitiationist virtue and doesn’t apply in this domain. I now want to consider h white lies and autonomy. In Against tact I argued that the telling of such white lies is not only wrong because it deceives people but also because it fails to respect them. It is respect which will concern us here. Respect in this scenario means seeing others as the kind of creatures who can govern themselves and who should be allowed to do so. Respecting persons means respecting their autonomy, in our example the mother can act virtuously, she cares for her child, and there is no need to consider respecting his autonomy as he isn’t yet autonomous.

I now want to consider the relationship, if any, between respecting the autonomy of autonomous agents and virtue. The concept of autonomy used here simply requires that an autonomous agent can make and implement the decisions by which she governs herself. This is a primitive account. For the instrumental virtues this relationship doesn’t really matter. However for the moral virtues it does. Let us accept that for a virtuous person acting morally matters. Acting morally isn’t simply acting, it is choosing to act for a reason. To be able to act morally someone must be able to choose, be able to govern herself, be autonomous. Let us accept that we can act virtuously towards young children and animals without the need to respect their auronomy, respecting autonomy doesn’t constrain virtue. The same isn’t true of our dealings with creatures capable of moral decision making. If we fail to respect the autonomy of some creature which is capable of acting virtuously then we are failing to recognise the importance of a capacity necessary for being virtuous. If someone believes that she is acting virtuously whilst failing to respect the autonomy of someone capable of acting virtuously then she believes she is acting virtuously and at the same time that the capacity to act virtuously doesn’t matter. This isn’t an easy position to maintain. If we aren’t prepared to maintain the above then we must accept that a virtuous person’s actions are constrained by a need to respect autonomy.

In the light of the above let us return to our example of the Nazi. Someone might argue that even if we accept the above that respect for the Nazi’s autonomy means that we must tell him the truth. If we lie to him we deprive him of the ability to make a moral decision depriving him of a chance to act virtuously however unlikely this might be. If we ignore probabilities how might we counter this argument? It might be suggested that if we used a different account of autonomy that this might help. For instance we might use Mill’s account of liberty to give us an account of autonomy

“the only purpose for which power can be rightfully exercised over any member of a civilized community, against his will, is to prevent harm to others. His own good, either physical or moral, is not a sufficient warrant.” 3

Unfortunately if we adopt this account harm helps define autonomy and instead of morality being constrained by respect for autonomy, respect for autonomy is constrained by moral considerations. I would suggest the same is true of all concept of autonomy which contains a substantive element.

I want to argue that if we adopt a primitive account of autonomy that we can account for our intuitions about the Nazi because autonomy places constraints on the exercise of virtue. Let us accept that respect for autonomy means respecting the capacity to be autonomous. If we are honest with the Nazi then we aren’t respecting people’s capacity for autonomy because he will destroy that of theJewish family. Respecting people’s capacity for autonomy constrains our honesty. It might be objected that in this case we aren’t respecting the autonomy of the Nazi. We are denying him the possibility to make a moral decision by our lack of honesty. In response I would suggest that in cases when we can’t respect the autonomy of all the parties involved that we must respect the autonomy of as many people as possible and moral considerations play no part in our decision making.

In the light of the above I now want to suggest that the exercise of all moral virtues must be constrained by respect for autonomy if we want to live in a virtuous society, Perhaps Aristotle would have agreed even if his virtuous society was limited to a few men.

 

1. Miller, Christian, Honesty (p. 10). Oxford University Press.
2. Miller, Christian, Honesty (p. 118). Oxford University Press.
3. Mill J S. (1974) On Liberty and Other Essays. Oxford University Press

Space Exploration and Game Playing

Recently SpaceX brought back four tourists from space. In this posting I want to examine what reasons could to given to support manned space exploration. Let us accept that we have reason to explore space because such exploration adds to human knowledge. However the information gained by this exploration could be gathered by robots. If human beings are not required to gather this information do we have other any reason for the manned exploration of space? Such an exploration will be much more difficult than envisioned some fifty years ago because human bodies find it hard to adapt to space travel which makes answering the above question important. In spite of these difficulties I will argue that we do have reason to pursue the manned exploration of space based on inner space, based on the human psyche.

In what follows space exploration will refer to manned space exploration unless stated otherwise, before I examine possible reasons for space exploration I will examine some reasons why we shouldn’t.

First it might be suggested that any resources devoted to exploring space would be better spent on projects on earth. I now want to present two arguments rejecting this suggestion. I accept that if we were now to devote a great number of resources to space exploration that it would be better if these resources were devoted to reducing need on earth. However at some time in the future it is feasible that science and technology will be able to satisfy all of our most basic needs even if some other less basic needs remain unsatisfied. In these circumstances In this situation I would argue that there is no reason why we shouldn’t devote some of our resources to exploring space.  It follows that whilst we have reason to delay exploring space that we don’t have reason to abandon it forever. My second argument for rejecting the suggestion that we shouldn’t explore space is based on personal autonomy. Let us assume that in the future some entrepreneur such as Elon Musk wishes to explore Mars. If we accept the argument above then we should delay her from doing so and redirect the resources involved to projects on earth. Clearly the entrepreneur’s autonomy has been overruled. Let us assume that instead she decides to buy a luxury yacht and private jet rather than devote her resources to some project with which benefits others more generally. If we accept the above there is no significant difference between such purchases and exploring mars. It follows if we are to remain consistent that we must either permit the exploration of Mars or prohibit the purchase of luxury goods. Let us accept that we should choose the second option. Let us also accept that morality is concerned with harm. If morality is solely concerned with preventing harm then it considers us in the same way as we consider our pets. Morality for human beings must treat us as the kind of creatures who can decide their own future and this of necessity involves respecting autonomy. It follows that our entrepreneur should be able to explore Mars.

Let us now consider a second suggestion as to why we shouldn’t explore space. Let us accept that the exploration of space would lead to the colonisation of space. It might be suggested that argues that the possibility of an intergalactic conflict with weapons which can cause suffering to billions are sufficiently serious to warrant caution when it comes to the colonisation of space. Perhaps scenarios such as those depicted in Star Wars or War of the Worlds are possible. However I will now argue that they are improbable. The source of most conflicts is a scarcity of resources. Let us assume that the galaxy has enough resources for our current human population even if we can’t exploit most of these resources. These resources will only become scarce if we colonise space and our population increases in some Malthusian manner. However it seems that as people become more prosperous the birth rate falls and we have less need to fear population increasing in this manner. It might then be argued that as we colonise space the population becomes more thinly spread leading to less competition for resources which lessens the probability of war. The colonisation of space far from increasing the probability of war might actually decrease it. It would seem we have little reason to accept the second suggestion

I have argued that whilst we might have reason to delay the exploration of space but we don’t have good reasons for not doing so in the long term. The question remains do we have any reasons to explore space? I will present four arguments as to why we do.

Let us accept that the exploration of space will make the colonisation of space possible. This possibility leads to an argument set out by Nick Bostron . He argues that from a utilitarian perspective that we should be concerned with the maximisation of worthwhile sentient lives. It follows that if we fail to colonise space that we fail to maximise these lives. Whether we should accept Bostrom’s argument depends on whether we should maximise the number of worthwhile sentient lives which in turn depend on which form of utilitarianism we accept. Do we accept a hedonic account or some form of preference satisfaction account. Preference satisfaction utilitarianism is about satisfying preferences for actual people and not about creating preferences which can be satisfied. If we accept a preference satisfaction account then preference utilitarianism alone doesn’t give any reason to colonise space. Let us accept a purely hedonic account of utilitarianism. If we do so we should accept Bostrom’s argument. Unfortunately if we do so we must also accept the repugnant conclusion. This means that we must accept that any reasonable degree of happiness experienced by some can be outweighed by a marginal degree of happiness experienced by a sufficiently large number of others. If we aren’t prepared to accept the repugnant conclusion then we reject a hedonistic account of utilitarianism and this means rejecting Bostrom’s reason to colonise space. The first argument fails.

The second argument is based on our need for resources which space can provide. Perhaps in the future earth runs short of some essential resources such as minerals. For the sake of argument let us assume this occurs. It might then be suggested that the exploration and colonisation of other planets or asteroids could supply earth with these resources. I am prepared to accept this suggestion. However it seems even if colonists could provide these resources that this could be achieved by robotic means, it follows that the second argument also fails.

Let us now consider an argument based on curiosity. I want to argue that the desire to explore space is a natural one and that if we fail to act upon that we are radically changing human nature. It might be objected that there is nothing natural about space exploration. If we do so my objector might point out that we are moving into a totally unnatural environment and one to which we are totally unsuited. I am prepared to accept that the space exploration would mean moving into an alien environment which is unnatural to us. However, human beings are basically tropical animals which moved in the past into hostile environments such as the artic even if these environments aren’t quite as unnatural as space. Moreover when I refer to human nature I’m not referring the nature we live in or our physiological features but to our psychological characteristics. Human beings are naturally curious animals and a failure to be curious would be contrary to our nature. Of course sometimes we need to adapt our nature. For instance perhaps we needed to adapt our nature in order to live in cities but I would suggest that if we lost our curiosity that we would lose something which is fundamental to being a human being. My objector might accept that curiosity is essential for human beings but proceed to argue that we can satisfy our curiosity by exploring space remotely. In response I would point out that we can have a natural curiosity about what it would be like for us to explore and colonist space which cannot be satisfied by remote exploration. I would suggest that this natural curiosity gives us a weak reason to ex[lore space.

Let us now consider an argument is based on the value of playing games. It might be objected that space exploration is a serious matter and shouldn’t be trivialised by being considered as a game. What do we mean by a game? A game is a course of action aimed at an outcome, this outcome can only be achieved subject to some accepted rules. This is a very broad definition. It would include football, a billionaire building his own house when she could employ a builder and space exploration provided this could also be done robotically. In what follows I will accept this broad definition of a game. Are games valuable? According to John Danaher,

“Games will be arenas in which human autonomy and agency can be nurtured and developed. They will provide opportunities for humans to think, plan, and decide; to cultivate moral virtues such as courage, generosity, and fair play; and to display ingenuity and creativity. This is not an unusual or alien idea. People have long argued that the value of sports, for example, lies in their capacity to develop such attributes and provide outlets for human agency to flourish.” (1)

I have argued that sport, which is always a game as defined above fosters certain virtues because competition involves some limited suffering, see Nietzsche, sport and suffering . Clearly space exploration can be regarded as a game and if we accept the above has some value.

Lastly I want to argue that space exploration would have essentialist value because it would be an achievement. Let us accept that achievement isn’t limited to games. In what follows I will adopt Gwen Bradford’s ideas of achievement. According to Bradford achievements are difficult requiring the exercise of our will and cognitive abilities. Space exploration would be difficult involving the exercise of these abilities and as a result would be an achievement. Doing difficult things fosters certain virtues such as perseverance and fortitude would giving space exploration some limited value in the same manner games might do. Bradford also introduces the idea of an essentialist value. If some capacity is essential to being a person then the exercise of this capacity is of value to persons. In what follows I will equate essentialist value with intrinsic value. Let us accept that the exercise of our will and cognitive abilities are essential to human beings and have intrinsic value. Someone with no will and incapable of some basic reasoning couldn’t be regarded as a person even if they could still be regarded as a human being. Moreover the more difficult a achievement is the greater the exercise of these capacities. Space exploration would be difficult requiring the exercise of these capacities and so be of intrinsic value.

What conclusions can be drawn from the above? Let us assume that space exploration becomes possible. Perhaps we have short term reasons not to explore space however in the long term we have real reasons to do so. Space exploration would have value even if this value isn’t due to the knowledge gained by going boldly forth to explore. These reasons might be summarised as follows,

• Not to explore space when we capable of doing so would to deny our natural curiosity, our nature, such a denial might damage us.
• Space exploration would foster certain instrumental virtues which are of value.
• Even if the achievement of exploring space has little value achieving it has value.

The value of space exploration might of course be outweighed by other things. Perhaps even by sport but this possibility seems unlikely due to the extreme difficulty space exploration would pose.

1. Danaher John, 2019, Automation and Utopia, Harvard University, page 231

Having Children, Happiness and Love

In a posting in practical ethics  David Edmonds suggests that having children might make people less happy. Simply bringing children into the world would seems unlikely to bring about a change someone’s happiness whilst raising children, being an active parent might. In the rest of this posting having children will refer to being a fully engaged parent and this includes non-biological parents. This suggestion seems to conflict with our intuitions about how most parents feel. Edmonds advances four reasons to account for this apparent conflict. In this posting I will examine Edmonds’ second reason. This holds that parents may be deluded as to their own happiness. This reason concurs with the views of Daniel Haybron who believes people are often mistaken as to what makes them happy because they are poor at affective forecasting (1). I will offer two suggestions as to why this apparent delusion might be illusory. Next I will consider Edmonds’ fourth reason in more detail. This reason holds that parents value something more than happiness. Lastly I will examine two reasons people might have for having children which are unconnected to parental happiness. 

Edmonds suggests that parents who think having children will make them happier might be deluding themselves. Haybron provides us with a reason as to why this delusion may be illusory. He suggests there are problems with defining happiness.

 “The trouble with the ordinary concept of happiness appears neither to be well defined nor univocal. Indeed there may be no “the” ordinary, but perhaps several, even many.” (2)

For instance, happiness might be defined either in the psychological sense as either positive affect or wellbeing and in addition to this division both of these senses might be subdivided further. This situation opens up the possibility that parents and researchers are simply using different definitions, talking about different things. It follows parents might not be deluded when they consider themselves as happy having children using their own idea of happiness but this wouldn’t be considered as happiness using the researchers’ definition. Accepting the above means the conflict highlighted by the study might well be illusory. A second possibility is that parents are not deluded and accept the researchers’ definition of happiness and concur with the researchers that having children makes them less happy in the short term. However, parents may believe having children will make them happier in the long term. Once again the conflict seems to be illusory as the researchers are concerned with happiness now whilst parents are concerned with happiness in the longer term.

I now want to turn to the question whether even if parents believe having children might make them happy that there are more important things in life than happiness. I don’t want to deny the importance of happiness in making someone’s life go well but I will argue that there are more important things in someone’s life than being happy. This is by no means a new position for in the nineteenth century Mill famously argued that it is better to be a dissatisfied human than a satisfied pig. Unfortunately, in the absence of an accepted definition of exactly what happiness is there is a problem with even starting my argument. In order for my argument to proceed I must first provide a definition. Haybron defines happiness as the aggregate of all someone’s emotions and moods at any one time and if this aggregate is positive then he is happy and conversely if this aggregate is negative he is unhappy. Clearly not all emotions carry equal weight. For instance someone’s irritation at the buzzing of a fly is not as important as love for his spouse. The most important emotions are one’s we feel attuned to, engaged with and endorse. In the following I will accept Haybron’s definition because it concurs reasonably well with our everyday usage. The question now becomes are some things more valuable in life than just having an aggregate of positive emotions? I will now argue that possibly a sense of achievement and love are more important in life than simply being happy. I will then argue that parenting can give someone a sense of achievement and satisfies her need to love.

According to Gwen Bradford achievements above some minimum threshold are difficult and must be carried out competently (3).

She also suggests that there are certain capacities which are essential to being a human being and that exercising these capacities is of value to human beings. Exercising a capacity strengthens that capacity. Among these essential human capacities is having a will and the ability to reason. I would prefer to use the term person rather than human being because someone in a coma might have neither of the above capacities but nonetheless remains a human being. Let us accept Bradford’s position and agree that achieving has essentialist value to someone irrespective of whether the achievement itself is a valuable. Climbing a mountain for instance. It might then be argued that achievement might be of more value to someone than the happiness children might bring. It is completely plausible that someone might value having a career more than having children. I will now to argue that having children, parenting them, is an achievement. Let us accept that parenting children is sometimes difficult. Let us also accept that if we are to be good parents we need to be competent. For instance good parents ensure that their children eat a balanced diet and get adequate sleep. It follows that for most people being a parent is an achievement and is valuable to them. It further follows that if having children doesn’t make people happy or even makes them unhappy that achievement gives a reason to have children. However this reason like happiness must be balanced with other reasons we have to do things. Someone might value having a career more than having children. Moreover if having children makes people happy then achievement reinforces this reason. It might be pointed out that achieving itself makes us happy and this is one of the reasons we pursue achievements. I won’t pursue this point further here.

However even if we accept the above most children would be unhappy if they thought the only reason they made their parents happy was that they achieved something by parenting them. I would agree that their unhappiness was fully justified. Moreover most children would also be unhappy with the thought that they only existed because their parents thought that they would make them happy. Children aren’t commodities. Children want to be loved. Indeed I would suggest that most parents would be unhappy with the idea that the only value they gain from parenting is due to achieving. What is achieved by good parenting matters because parents love their children. What is achieved matter more than the achieving. I have argued elsewhere that not only do we want to be loved we have a need to love, see love me for a reason . The love I’m referring to isn’t romantic love but simply ‘caring about’ as defined by Harry Frankfurt. (4) I now want to argue that someone without the capacity to love isn’t really a person at all meaning a capacity to love is an essentialist capacity of persons in the same way as having a will and the capacity to reason. According to Frankfurt having ideals, “caring about” or loving is essential to being a person.

 “He can make whatever decision he likes and shape his will as he pleases. This does not mean that his will is free. It only means that his will is anarchic, moved by mere impulse and inclination. For a person without ideals, there are no volitional laws he has bound himself to respect and to which he unconditionally submits. He has no inviolable boundaries. Thus he is amorphous with no fixed shape or identity.” (5) 

Let us accept that capacity to love is essential to being a person and what someone loves helps define him, loving is tied to identity. I argued above that the exercise of an essentialist capacity has value because it strengthens that capacity. Loving has value both to the loved one and lover, loving children has value both to children and parents. Love gives us a reason to have children irrespective of whether they will make us happy or not. In cases when children make us happy love enhances this happiness. Sometimes our children make us unhappy. Some children might become seriously ill causing us distress to their parent but this doesn’t mean that they regret having them.  Some children might commit terrible crimes but their parents might still love them. I would argue that in such cases our unhappiness is due to our love. Love makes us vulnerable and ties us to the fate of our loved ones. If our loved ones flourishes we are happy and if our loved ones are harmed or causes harm we become unhappy. In cases in which our children make us unhappy love means that we retain a reason for having children. In cases in which our children make us happy love enhances our happiness. It follows irrespective of whether having children makes us happy we have reasons due to love to have children. Finally some people say that when a childless couple keep a dog that the dog is a substitute child. This is clearly false but the underlying reasons might share a common basis. Both parent and some pet owners have a need to love and a lesser need to be loved.

1. Daniel Haybron, 2008, The Pursuit of Unhappiness, Oxford, page 231.
2. Haybron, page 43
3. Gwen Bradford, 2015, Achievement, Oxford University Press. . (
4. Harry Frankfurt, 1988, The Importance of What We Care About. Cambridge University Press.
5. Frankfurt. 1999, Necessity, Volition, and Love. Cambridge University Press. Page 114