Moral Argument

Moral Argument

Kant
1. Argument set out clearly in his book "Critique of Practical Reason"
2. He has to solve the following problem:
  1. 1. Kant claims that human beings are rational, autonomous, moral decision makers.
  2. 2. Morality is a matter of doing one's moral duty. However:
  3. 3. Kant rejects the idea that God's will or commands are the basis of morality; Reason is the basis of morality
  4. 4. How does God fit into Kant's system?
The actual moral argument of Kant
1. Moral action is about one's duty
2. The highest good must be achievable, otherwise moral goodness is pointless
  1. what could make the highest good achievable?
    1. God
      1. We should postulate the existence of God
3. The reason to do one's duty is to achieve the Summum Bonum
Kant and Morality
1. Moral duty is something you should do
2. the Summum Bonum is the achievement of moral goodness and happiness together
3. Through reason we can work out what is the right thing to do because the right thing to do has to be applicable universally
Weaknesses of Kant's Argument
1. Is Kant's argument teleological?
2. Is the Summum Bonum achievable?
  1. Just because you ought to aim at achieving the Summum Bonum, it does not mean that the highest good has to be achievable.
  2. Kant's argument suggests that there is a choice between:
    1. the SB being unachievable in reality and therefore moral behaviour is meaningless
    2. The SB being achievable in reality and therefore moral behaviour is meaningful and
3. Confusing
4. Kant + happiness
5. Kant + moral awareness
6. Does postulating the existence of God help people to be moral?
  1. No, we are autonomous, rational decision makers
Freud's model of the Mind
1. the id
  1. part of the mind in which human instincts are based
    1. e.g. desire and appetite
2. The superego
  1. Part of the ego with which humans reason and make decisions
    1. parental influence moulds the superego
3. The ego
  1. Part of the mind which is shaped by 'external influences'
    1. e.g. traumas, bereavements, education + upbringing
Religion and Morality
1. Religion
  1. Religion is an obsessional neurosis (according to Freud)
    1. Neurosis = fears/worry/anxiety can become obssessions and inhibit one's life.
    2. If true, refutes Kant's moral argument
  2. Religion provides a way for people to satisy their desires; like the world being ordered + life being meaningful
  3. the Summum Bonum being achievable is a very persuasive human desire, but this in no way makes it or God real.
2. Morality
  1. Freud said - moral values are the results of our experiences through upbringing and their interaction with the subconscious .
    1. Parents preserve their influence in their kids by the education + values they give them.
  2. considerable evidence to support the point that experience and upbringing shape our moral ideas.
  3. Kant claims that morality is objective and can be discovered through reason
    1. Freud would argue against this, saying morality is the product of society + upbringing - there is nothing to discover.
      1. If Feud is right, Kant's argument for God's existence as a postulate of pure reason fails.
H.P.Owen
1. You can’t have a moral command without a commander.
  1. Owen argues this way and says that objective morality is either brute fact of experience – which he considers unconvincing – or it requires explanation – and God is the sufficient and necessary explanation.
Cardinal Newman
1. "We feel responsibility, are ashamed are frightened at transgressing the voice of conscience, this implies that there is one to whom we are responsible"
2. Our sense of guilt, moral responsibility & obligation is a sense of God.

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