Lecture 2: egoism, contractualism

egoism: if people’s nature is egoistic, then saying they have moral reasons to help others will be pointless and they won’t do it.

• but, is it even true? in many crises, people go volunteer and help
  • counter: maybe that’s still in self-interest. we want to feel good that we helped or maybe get compliments from others for helping (“reward seeking”), avoid feeling guilty for not helping (“punishment avoidance”), and relieve our own distress that people need help (“aversal-arousal reduction”)
• even if humans fail, we could try to make a machine that could do better

ethical egoism: people should/may be egoistic. we don’t have any duties to help others or contribute to common good.

• tragedy of the commons: we can’t sustain common goods (fresh air, public safety, energy) if we’re all ethical egoists (i.e. we don’t contribute to them)
  • e.g. you’ll have more toilet paper if you buy more, but if everyone and their grandma buys more toilet paper, there won’t be any in the shop
  • makes ethical egoism self-defeating

so what do?

contractualism: we make a deal that we cooperate (act morally not egoistically), on the condition that others do too

• morality is like a contract to limit each other’s egoism
• why accept:
  • it’s in one’s self interest, this is why we can have nice things. if nobody steals shit, nobody will steal your shit (well, in general, and doesn’t count for bikes because those seem to get stolen no matter what you do).
  • it’s also in one’s self-interest to try to secretly free-ride (benefit from others without cooperating, basically leeching). the state might try to make people cooperate by penalizing, and we’d accept this because it’s in our self-interest if everyone cooperates.
• doesn’t imply that we should always cooperate: if I benefit, and if I have reason to believe that others will cooperate, then I should cooperate.
• counters:
  • “I never signed a contract” - yeah no shit. But you would, if you understand the logic of the situation.
  • “I won’t sign a contract with everyone, but only if I will benefit from the cooperation. Like why sign such a contract with animals or oppressed groups?”
    • counter: imagine signing “behind a veil of ignorance”, i.e. you don’t know what your position will be in the society