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Thomson - Why Ought We Do What Is Right
Thomson - Why Ought We Do What Is Right
be unjust in secret. In that case, well say that you agree with rhrasyrnachus that , of the selection, ,Adeimantus chailenges
justice is the goocl ofanother, the advantage ofthe stronger, while injustice is one's !:::."::i: -n**""or j.orlh" _".:o socrates
own advantage and profit, though not the aclvantage ofthe weaker. l :i:: :1": ::: ]*
ustice,,because n"
"f "; "i; . .^";"il,it.;. J"""..T.i:
that.independe;,-J;;;";;";:"i.,,i;
You agree that justice is one ofthe greatest goods, the ones that are worth getting *u onl:,,h
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,^:t*:: the tife of the u"t ;.;;;".-r.*";;i:;,:
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for the sake ofwhat comes from them, but much more so for their own sake, such as
ll*:nr"' as demandins that socrates .r,",'
in.i" j*.ilil";""#:;
seeing, hearing, knowing, being healthy, and all other goocls that are the just person' suppose socrates
fruitful by their courd show this. would this supply a person
the right sort of reason to do the right thing? with
own nature and not simply because of reputation. Therefore, praise justice as a good
consider the following objection: "showing
of that kind, explaining how-because of its very self-it benefits its possessors and that leading a moral life benefits
you spiritualiy just offers a variation o.,
how injustice harms them. Leave wages and reputations for others to praise. r.g,r*"nt from self-interest. Meeting
Adeimantus's challenge wourd stiil fair to ".,
others would satisfy me if they praised justice and blamed injustice in that show ti-iat we have non-serf-interested
sons to be moral.,, Do you think this objection rea-
wa extolling the wages of one and denigrating those of the other. But you, is persuasive?
unless you order me to be satisfied, wouldnt, for youve spent your whole life
investigating this and nothing else. Dont, then, give us only a theoretical ar-
gument that justice is stronger than injustice, but show what effect each has
because of itself on the person who has it
bad
- the one for good and the other for
whether it remains hidden from gods and human beings or not. . . .
-
socrates: That's well said in my opinion, for you must indeed be affected by the divine
Thomson was born in New york and is professor
ifyou're not convinced that injustice is better than justice ancl yet can speak on Emeritus at Massachusetts rnstitute
of
Technology. she has made a.number of ferd-definng
its behalf as you have done. And I believe that you really are unconvinced by contributions in morar theorf appried
political philosophy, legal phirosophy,
your own words. I infer this from the way you live, for if I had only your words !.]1n'*' ."taphysics. Her books incrude Rts,
"nd
(reB6), The Reatm of Rishrc (teea), Goodness and Advceoor; una
to go on, I wouldn t trust you. *::,::::,1:::/sk
Normativity (zOoe).
Socrates and Glaucon identify three sorts of goods. What are they? Briefly give yorr.
own examples of each of the three sorts. ,:,
Which sort of good is justice, according to Socrates? (Remember that in this pas-
sage, "justice" encompasses all forms of morally correct conduct.) Briefly explain ho!
n Plato's Republic,two young men, Glaucon and Adeimantus,
socates's classification of "justice" supports his conclusion that "it is better in every. ask Socrates a ques-
fion' socrates is among those who praise justice-who,
way to be just rather than unjust." in particurar, believe that
* <, then he p..,o, ought to < _ and rhey ask him
i:i::::::::::l
us suppose justice::i
requires Alfred to pay Bert ten
why.
dolars. Glaucon and Adeimantus
)w that socrates would say that
elfred iherefore ought to pay Bert ten dollars,
ey want to know why.
and
minus the sum of the amounts of loss, is greater than that which he or she would
have obtained by doing anything else that was open to him or her at the time. To
ensure clarity, then, let us rewrite the Ought Only If Profitable Thesis as follows:
5
Ought On If Profitable Thesls: Alfred ought ro < only if he would profit on
But should we accept those two premises? I begin
balance by Q-ing. with the second, namely the Ratio_
nal Only If profitable Thesis.
"So in sum, accepting the thesis does not require you to accept that Alfred suppose that Alfred's child now has an infection
that onry penicilrin cures. Arfred,
ought to repay Bert only if sheer selfishness would itself motivate him to do so. If however, justifiably berieves that penicillin is poisonous.
(He was told so by people he
Alfred values Bert's relief from need more than he values keeping the ten dollars has every reason to trust.) so it would be rationar
for him to refuse to alow his chird
that he owes Bert, then he will profit on balance from giving it to Bert. But if to be given penicillin. The thesis yields that it
would therefore profit him o' bulu.r..
Alfred were selfish, he wouldnt be motivated to give the ten dollars to Bert: that to refuse. But on the assumption that he greatly
varues his chird,s life, he wourd lose
is because if he were seifish, he wouldn t value Bert's relief from need more than (rather than profit) if he refused. So the thesis
wont do.
he values keeping the ten dollars that he owes Bertl' Another route to that conclusion is as follows. By hypothesis,
Alfred wourd not
profit by refusing. The thesis therefore yierds
that his refusing wourd not be rationar _
Thisreplymayallaysomeofthemistrustwithwhichweinitiallyregardedthe thus that his refusing wourd be irrational.
But given what he justifiably believes,
thesis. But we might wonder why we should agree that Alfred ought to repay Beri his refusing would not be irrationar. Alfred's
refusing would issue from his being
only if he would profit on balance by doing it. What has whether Alfred would profit ill-informed, not from his being irrational. So (again)
the thesis wont do.
got to do with whether he ought to repay Bert? The explanation of the fact that the thesis
*o't do is the fact that rationarity and
the,headt, They are not a function of what
li1l^tj::'in witl or wiil nor happen,
of whether a person has this or that piece
f,r,.or of information; rather they are a function
,T pel:on.re.aso]1s from what he or she is justified
4 *':9ri"::^.-1 :,ltlt
is in the head lies behind a very familiar
in berieving.
;."1,?:::3j:T'-""itt,r conremporary
account o what rationality requires
ofa person.2
Many people would say that the answer to that question lies in the popular idea that
you-justifiably believe that your options for
there are tight connections first between what a person ought to do and what it would ...tuoo:* action here and now are
g-rng, !/_lng, and so on.
be rational for the person to do, and second between what it would be rational for th
.^uoj"se you justifiably berieve that if you <, rhen the folowing
person to do and what it would profit the person to do. For suppose that
'
*j o+,;
ourcomes
and so on. Suppose further thar you justifiably"believe
;l.::.-:,"t::t: !0.1; that
ilf rou t' then the probability that outcome o,pr wiil come about is po*,. Suppose
Ought Only tf Rational Thesis: Alfred ought to < only if it would be ratio- also
that the a-ou" *r,r.r, o, is valuabte is
nal for him to <|. *ii:::;:::*l,o]t:
Lu might justifably believe.
th_at o,r is of negative *.rri. .rr"r p"ru*
vo*,. (since
and
ht be a negative number.) rhen i"t us ,ay t"hat the expected "* ".*,
value to you of o,1 is
Notice that if we accept the revisecl thesis, and someone asks ,,why
6 ought I do
what is right?" then while we cant reply,,Rationality requires you toj,we can reply
rRationality requires you
Let us turn now to the first of the two premises of section 4, namely the Ought Only If
to ifyou are, or would require you to ifyou were, free of
ielevant false beliefsl'
Rational Thesis. Given the thesis about rationality that we reached in section 5, that first
premise wont do. For the thesis about rationality yields that it would be irrationai for
Alfred to allow his child to be given penicillin. But he ought to. Alfred's mistakenly
believing that penicillin is poisonous has no bearing on what he ought to do: what o
(J
he ought to do turns on what would be best for his child - and by hlpothesis, what
would be best for his child is for it to be given penicillin. Here, then' is what we have replaced the two premises of section 4
Since Alfred justifiably believes that penicillin is poisonous, he will not be at fault,
with:
he will not be blameworth if he refuses to allow his chitd to be given penicillin. But ': Rtional only If Maximizes Expected value Thesis:It would
be rational for Arfred
he himself will agree that he ought to have allowed it to be given penicillin when he :' to <f only if he would maximize his expected value by <_ing.
learns, after its death, that allowing this would have saved it'
So we must reject the Ought Only If Rational Thesis.
Revised ought only If Rational rhesis: Alfred.ought to < only if it wouid be rario-
7 ,.,'
nal for him to< if he were Relevantly Well_Informed.
Alfred ought to < only if the actual outcomes of his <-ing would be of greater And if a person is told.that he or she .ii
ought to do a thing because doing it
actual value than the actual outcomes of his doing any of the other things it is be right, and therefore asks "why would a
ought I o *hut is right?,' then we iJ
theor namely:
erations of justice. Suppose that Alfred's failing to repay Bert would issue itt 6u1ernes soals ,h" Ail;
"","."ffi1:,i:;:r1;:t"J.,":
Alfred o.,sht
to,"p"y;".;. ;',-fV,^".plain ,
that have more value than the outcomes his doing anything else would have' A Conse- ;:lt:i::llat
la Alfred ousht to pay Bert if ii d;".
why rhomson betieves that
r
quentialist is therefore committed to the conclusion that Alfred ought not repay Bert::
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4 A deeper objecton to ..',$
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conseouentialisrn, and indeed, to m.ch
Reason' ofwhat discussion ofwhat G&A hacr in
3. for example, the selections in this volume by Mill an<l Scanlon in chapter 16, "Horv Do We .t$
See,
about What Is Right?" [Thomson's note.]
il l,:'j::;:1:ii'-l::11",,",:*";;;;;;;;ii"",n,.
in saying of it that
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it,,has valuel,
o..scribins to an out.o-" orul :jfi
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