John Doe has decided to clone himself. He is sterile. He cannot find anyone to marry him. He wishes to have children. He knows that he will not be able to love a chil

T he Elements of

Moral Philosophy

NINTH EDITION

James Rachels

Editions 5–9 by

stuaRt Rachels

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THE ELEMENTS OF MORAL PHILOSOPHY, NINTH EDITION

Published by McGraw-Hill Education, 2 Penn Plaza, New York, NY 10121. Copyright © 2019 by McGraw-Hill Education. All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America. Previous editions

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Rachels, Stuart, 1969- author. | Rachels, James, 1941-2003. Elements of moral philosophy.

Title: The elements of moral philosophy / James Rachels, editions 5-9 by Stuart Rachels.

Description: NINTH EDITION. | Dubuque, IA : McGraw-Hill Education, 2018. |

Includes bibliographical references and index.

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About the Authors

James Rachels (1941–2003) wrote The End of Life: Euthanasia and Morality (1986), Created from Animals: The Moral Implications of Darwinism (1990), Can Ethics Provide Answers? And Other Essays in Moral Philosophy (1997), Problems from Philosophy (first edition, 2005), and The Legacy of Socrates: Essays in Moral Philosophy (2007).

His website is www.jamesrachels.org.

stuaRt Rachels is Associate Professor of Philosophy at the University of Alabama. He has revised several of James Rachels’ books, including Problems from Philosophy as well as the companion anthology to this book, The Right Thing to Do. Stuart won the U.S. Chess Cham-pionship in 1989, at the age of 20, and is a Bronze Life Master at bridge. He is currently writing a book about chess.

iii

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Contents

Preface ix

About the Ninth Edition

xi

1. WHAT IS MORALITY?

1

1.1. The Problem of Definition

1

1.2. First Example: Baby Theresa

1

1.3. Second Example: Jodie and Mary

5

1.4. Third Example: Tracy Latimer

7

1.5. Reason and Impartiality

10

1.6. The Minimum Conception of Morality

13

Notes on Sources

13

2. THE CHALLENGE OF CULTURAL RELATIVISM

14

2.1. Different Cultures Have Different Moral Codes

14

2.2. Cultural Relativism

16

2.3. The Cultural Differences Argument

17

2.4. What Follows from Cultural Relativism

19

2.5. Why There Is Less Disagreement Than There Seems to Be

21

2.6. Some Values Are Shared by All Cultures

23

2.7. Judging a Cultural Practice to Be Undesirable

24

2.8. Back to the Five Claims

27

2.9. What We Can Learn from Cultural Relativism

29

Notes on Sources

31

v

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vi CONTENTS

3. SUBJECTIVISM IN ETHICS

33

3.1. The Basic Idea of Ethical Subjectivism

33

3.2. The Linguistic Turn

35

3.3. The Denial of Value

39

3.4. Ethics and Science

40

3.5. Same-Sex Relations

43

Notes on Sources

48

4. DOES MORALITY DEPEND ON RELIGION?

50

4.1. The Presumed Connection between Morality and Religion

50

4.2. The Divine Command Theory

52

4.3. The Theory of Natural Law

56

4.4. Religion and Particular Moral Issues

59

Notes on Sources

64

5. ETHICAL EGOISM

66

5.1. Is There a Duty to Help the Starving?

66

5.2. Psychological Egoism

67

5.3. Three Arguments for Ethical Egoism

73

5.4. Two Arguments against Ethical Egoism

78

Notes on Sources

82

6. THE SOCIAL CONTRACT THEORY

84

6.1. Hobbes’s Argument

84

6.2. The Prisoner’s Dilemma

87

6.3. Some Advantages of the Social Contract Theory

91

6.4. The Problem of Civil Disobedience

93

6.5. Difficulties for the Theory

96

Notes on Sources

100

7. THE UTILITARIAN APPROACH

101

7.1. The Revolution in Ethics

101

7.2. First Example: Euthanasia

102

7.3. Second Example: Marijuana

105

7.4. Third Example: Nonhuman Animals

112

Notes on Sources

116

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CONTENTS vii

8. THE DEBATE OVER UTILITARIANISM

118

8.1. The Classical Version of the Theory

118

8.2. Is Pleasure All That Matters?

119

8.3. Are Consequences All That Matter?

120

8.4. Should We Be Equally Concerned for Everyone?

124

8.5. The Defense of Utilitarianism

125

8.6. Concluding Thoughts

131

Notes on Sources

132

9. ARE THERE ABSOLUTE MORAL RULES?

133

9.1. Harry Truman and Elizabeth Anscombe

133

9.2. The Categorical Imperative

136

9.3. Kant’s Arguments on Lying

138

9.4. Conflicts between Rules

140

9.5. Kant’s Insight

141

Notes on Sources

143

10. KANT AND RESPECT FOR PERSONS

145

10.1. Kant’s Core Ideas

145

10.2. Retribution and Utility in the Theory of Punishment

148

10.3. Kant’s Retributivism

150

Notes on Sources

154

11. FEMINISM AND THE ETHICS OF CARE

156

11.1. Do Women and Men Think Differently about Ethics?

156

11.2. Implications for Moral Judgment

162

11.3. Implications for Ethical Theory

166

Notes on Sources

167

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viii CONTENTS

12. VIRTUE ETHICS

169

12.1. The Ethics of Virtue and the Ethics of Right Action

169

12.2. The Virtues

171

12.3. Two Advantages of Virtue Ethics

180

12.4. Virtue and Conduct

181

12.5. The Problem of Incompleteness

182

12.6. Conclusion

184

Notes on Sources

184

13. WHAT WOULD A SATISFACTORY MORAL

THEORY BE LIKE?

186

13.1. Morality without Hubris

186

13.2. Treating People as They Deserve

188

13.3. A Variety of Motives

189

13.4. Multiple-Strategies Utilitarianism

190

13.5. The Moral Community

193

13.6. Justice and Fairness

194

13.7. Conclusion

195

Notes on Sources

196

Index 197

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P reface

Socrates, one of the first and best moral philosophers, said that morality is about “no small matter, but how we ought to live.” This book is an introduction to moral philosophy, conceived in that broad sense.

The field of ethics is immense. In the chapters that follow, I do not try to canvass every topic in the field, nor do I cover any topic comprehensively. Instead, I try to discuss the ideas that a newcomer to the subject should encounter first.

The chapters may be read independently of one another; they are, in effect, separate essays on separate topics. Thus, someone who is interested in Ethical Egoism could go straight to Chapter 5 and find a self-contained introduction to that theory. When read in order, however, the chapters tell a more or less continuous story.

The first chapter presents a “minimum conception” of what morality is; the middle chapters cover the most important ethical theories; and the last chapter presents my own view of what a satisfactory moral theory would be like.

However, the point of this book is not to provide a neat, uni-fied account of “the truth” about ethics. That would be a poor way to introduce the subject. Philosophy is not like physics. In physics, there is a large body of accepted truth that beginners must master.

Of course, there are unresolved controversies in physics, but these take place against a backdrop of broad agreement. In philosophy, by contrast, everything is controversial—or almost everything.

Some of the fundamental issues are still up for grabs. Newcomers to philosophy may ask themselves whether a moral theory such as Utilitarianism seems correct. However, newcomers to physics are rarely encouraged to make up their own minds about the laws of thermodynamics.

A good introduction to ethics will not try to hide that somewhat embarrassing fact.

ix

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x PREFACE

In these pages, you will find a survey of contending ideas, theories, and arguments. My own views, no doubt, color the presentation. I find some of these proposals more appealing than others, and a philosopher who made different assessments would no doubt write a different book. But I try to present the contending ideas fairly, and, when I pass judgment on an argument, I try to explain why. Philosophy, like morality itself, is first and last an exercise in reason; we should embrace the ideas, positions, and theories that our best arguments support.

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About the Ninth Edition

In this edition, sex and drugs get more coverage. The section on same-sex relations (3.5) now discusses gay marriage, adoption rights, employment rights, Russia’s “gay propaganda laws,” teenage suicide, and hate crimes. The section on marijuana (7.3) now dips into the opioid crisis, the origins of the Drug War, the utilitarian rejection of “evil pleasures,” the relationship between state law and federal law, and the harms of tobacco and alcohol abuse.

Here and there, the book has been updated to reflect recent events. For example, the concept of prejudice is now illustrated with a quotation from Donald Trump (5.4), and Mike Pence now represents opposition to gay rights (3.1). Some updates reflect a world that is increasingly online. For

example, the importance of finding reliable sources of information is now discussed solely in terms of internet searches (1.5).

A few thoughts have been added to existing discussions. We now say that different societies may share some of the same values due to their shared human nature (at the end of 2.6), and we now qualify the claim that morality is “natural for human beings” on the grounds that morality may require humans to be unnaturally benevolent (13.1).

The initial explanation of the Principle of Utility now includes the phrase, “maximize happiness” (7.1). The dilemma in which absolute rules might conflict is now about a situation faced by doctors in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina, instead of about Dutch fisherman having to lie during World War II (9.4).

Gone are Kurt Baier’s argument that Ethical Egoism is logically inconsistent (from 5.4) and the examples of animal experimentation (from 7.4). I’ve also dropped the claim in Chapter 4 that Exodus 21 supports a liberal view of abortion, because I am no longer sure how to interpret that passage.

xi

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xii ABOUT THE NINTH EDITION

Finally, the age of the universe has been revised to reflect recent findings in astronomy (13.1).

For their help, I thank Caleb Andrews, Seth Bordner, Janice Daurio, Micah Davis, Daniel Hollingshead, Kaave Lajevardi, Cayce Moore, Howard Pospesel, John Rowell, Mike Vincke, and Chase Wrenn. My biggest thanks go to my wife, Professor Heather Elliott, and to my mother, Carol Rachels, for their tremendous help down the stretch.

My father, James Rachels, wrote the first four editions of The Elements of Moral Philosophy. It is still his book.

—Stuart Rachels

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1

CHAPTER

What Is Morality?

We are discussing no small matter, but how we ought to live.

SocrateS, in Plato’S Republic (ca. 390 b.c.)

1.1. The Problem of Definition

Moral philosophy is the study of what morality is and what it requires of us. As Socrates said, it’s about “how we ought to live”—

and why. It would be helpful if we could begin with a simple, uncontroversial definition of what morality is. Unfortunately, we cannot.

There are many rival theories, each expounding a different conception of what it means to live morally, and any definition that goes beyond Socrates’s simple formulation is bound to offend at least one of them.

This should make us cautious, but it need not paralyze us. In this chapter, I will describe the “minimum conception” of morality.

As the name suggests, the minimum conception is a core that every moral theory should accept, at least as a starting point. First, however, we will examine some moral controversies having to do with handicapped children. This discussion will bring out the features of the minimum conception.

1.2. First Example: Baby Theresa

Theresa Ann Campo Pearson, an infant known to the public as “Baby Theresa,” was born in Florida in 1992. Baby Theresa had anencephaly, one of the worst genetic disorders. Anencephalic infants are sometimes referred to as “babies without brains,” but that is not quite 1

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2 THE ELEMENTS OF MORAL PHILOSOPHY

accurate. Important parts of the brain—the cerebrum and cerebellum—

are missing, as is the top of the skull. The brain stem, however, is still there, and so the baby can breathe and possess a heartbeat. In the United States, most cases of anencephaly are detected during pregnancy, and the fetuses are usually aborted. Of those not aborted, half are stillborn. Of those born alive, most die within days.

Baby Theresa’s story is remarkable only because her parents made an unusual request. Knowing that their baby would die soon and could never be conscious, Theresa’s parents volunteered her organs for immediate transplant. They thought that her kidneys, liver, heart, lungs, and eyes should go to other children who could benefit from them. Her physicians agreed. Thousands of infants need transplants each year, and there are never enough organs available. However, Theresa’s organs were not taken, because Florida law forbids the removal of organs until the donor has died. And by the time Baby Theresa died, nine days later, it was too late—her organs had deteriorated too much to be transplanted.

Baby Theresa’s case was widely debated. Should she have been killed so that her organs could have been used to save other children?

A number of professional “ethicists”—people who get paid by universities, hospitals, and law schools to think about such things—were asked by the press to comment. Most of them disagreed with the parents, instead appealing to time-honored philosophical principles.

“It just seems too horrifying to use people as means to other people’s ends,” said one such expert. Another explained: “It’s unethical to kill person A to save person B.” And a third added: “What the parents are really asking for is, Kill this dying baby so that its organs may be used for someone else. Well, that’s really a horrendous proposition.”

Is it horrendous? Opinions were divided. These ethicists thought it was, while the parents and doctors did not. But we are interested in more than what people happen to believe. We want to know what’s true. Were the parents right or wrong to volunteer their baby’s organs for transplant? To answer this question, we have to ask what reasons, or arguments, can be given on each side. What can be said for or against the parents’ request?

The Benefits Argument. The parents believed that Theresa’s organs were doing her no good, because she was not conscious and was rac14259_ch01_001-013.indd 2

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WHAT IS MORALITY? 3

bound to die soon. The other children, however, could be helped.

Thus, the parents seem to have reasoned: If we can benefit someone without harming anyone else, then we ought to do so. Transplanting the organs would benefit the other children without harming Baby Theresa.

Therefore, we ought to transplant the organs.

Is this correct? Not every argument is sound. In addition to knowing what arguments can be given for a view, we also want to know whether those arguments are any good. Generally speaking, an argument is sound