wd ross what makes right acts right sparknotes

These may be called the duties of fidelity. For the estimation of the comparative stringency of these prima facie obligations no general rules can, so far as I can see, be laid down. It was on this ground that Kant expressed the practical law of duty in the form 'seek to make yourself good and other people happy'. It may be thought, for example, that the principle of returning good for good is a falling off from the Christian principle, generally and rightly recognized as expressing the highest morality, of returning good for evil. The first form this attempt takes is the attempt to base rightness on conduciveness to the advantage or pleasure of the agent. Our duty, then, is not to do certain things which will produce certain results. He admits that this is not an exhaustive list, but each is necessary. It may be said that besides the duty of fulfilling promises I have and recognize a duty of relieving distress,2 and that when I think it right to do the latter at the cost of not doing the former, it is not because I think I shall produce more good thereby but because I think it the duty which is in the circumstances more of a duty. Yet if pleasure is good, it seems in the long run clear that it is right to get it for ourselves as well as to produce it for others, when this does not involve the failure to discharge some more stringent prima facie duty. The phrase 'prima facie duty' must be apologized for, since, There is nothing arbitrary about these prima facie duties. Some background assumptions: Some acts are right and others wrong. But it is surely clear that no inductive inquiry justifying even this result has ever been carried through. Posted in Uncategorized, Uncategorized. If on the other hand the book reaches its destination, that alone shows that, the system of things being what it is, the trains by which the book travels and the railway lines along which it travels being such as they are and subject to the laws they are subject to, the postal officials who handle it being such as they are, having the motives they have and being subject to the psychological laws they are subject tot my posting the book was the one further thing which was sufficient to procure my friend's receiving it. This being so, it seems as if what I do has no obligatoriness in itself and as if one or other of three accounts should be given of the matter, each of which makes rightness not belong to what I do, considered in its own nature. I should no doubt add 'though I am not to be blamed for doing act A'. 7 But cf. For such opinions are interpretations, and often misinterpretations, of sense-experience; and the man of science must appeal from these to sense-experience itself, which furnishes his real data. The verdicts of the moral consciousness of the best people are the foundation on which he must build; though he must first compare them with one another and eliminate any contradictions they may contain. Today this idea seems BOGUS...but it didn't always seem so. There is therefore much truth in the description of the right act as a fortunate act. Utilitarianism tries to show that this is not so, that the sanctity of promises rests on the good consequences of the fulfilment of them and the bad consequences of their non-fulfilment. This second chapter continues the inquiry into right started in the first, asking what makes right acts right. If we feel a special responsibility for improving our own character rather than that of others, it is not because a special principle is involved, but because we are aware that the one is more under our control than the other. By keeping my promise I am helping to strengthen the system of mutual confidence; by breaking it I am helping to weaken this; so that really the first act produces 1,000 + x units of good, and the second 1,001 - y units, and the difference between + x and - y is enough to outweigh the slight superiority in the immediate effects of the second act. The only possible premisses would be the general principles stating their prima facie rightness or wrongness qua having the different characteristics they do have; and even if we could (as we cannot) apprehend the extent to which an act will tend on the one hand, for example, to bring about advantages for our benefactors, and on the other hand to bring about disadvantages for fellow men who are not our benefactors, there is no principle by which we can draw the conclusion that it is on the whole right or on the whole wrong. Contents In the first place it seems self-evident that if there are things that are intrinsically good, it is prima facie a duty to bring them into existence rather than not to do so, and to bring as much of them into existence as possible. Some acts are right and others wrong. It says what is right is certain acts, not certain acts motivated in a certain way; and it says that acts are never right by their own nature but by virtue of the goodness of their actual results. In answer to this it may be pointed out that there must be some amount of good that exceeds the difference between + x and - y (i.e. Immediately download the W. D. Ross summary, chapter-by-chapter analysis, book notes, essays, quotes, character descriptions, lesson plans, and more - everything you need for studying or teaching W. D. Ross. The existing body of moral convictions of the best people is the cumulative product of the moral reflection of many generations, which has developed an extremely delicate power of appreciation of moral distinctions; and this the theorist cannot afford to treat with anything other than the greatest respect. What I do is as truly describable in this way as by saying that it is the packing and posting of a book. Cf. But there are always many elements in its nature (i.e. At the same time I am not making the full passage from the one notion to the other; for in order that the act should be morally good, or an act I am not to be blamed for doing, it must not merely be the act which it is reasonable for me to think my duty; it must also be done for that reason, or from some other morally good motive. the actions (which form probably a great majority of our actions) in which some such reflection as 'I have promised' is the only reason we give ourselves for thinking a certain action right, but the exceptional cases in which the consequences of fulfilling a promise (for instance) would be so disastrous to Every act therefore, viewed in some aspects, will be prima facie right, and viewed in others, prima facie wrong, and right acts can be distinguished from wrong acts only as being those which, of all those possible for the agent in the circumstances, have the greatest balance of prima facie rightness, in those respects in which they are prima facie right, over their prima facie wrongness, in those respects in which they are prima facie wrong -- prima facie rightness and wrongness being understood in the sense previously explained. Professor Moore's view is, I think, that the coextensiveness of 'right' and 'optimific' is apprehended immediately.11 He rejects the possibility of any proof of it. Now the only changes we can directly produce are changes in our own bodies or in our own minds. We find by experience that this couple of matches and that couple make four matches, that this couple of balls on a wire and that couple make four balls: and by reflection on these and similar discoveries we come to see that it is of the nature of two and two to If we cannot be certain that it is right, it is our good fortune if the act we do is the right act. Thus the conception of the right act as the act which it is reasonable for me to think my duty is an unsatisfactory compromise between the true notion of the right act and the notion of the morally good action. The main moral conviction of the plain man seem to me to be, not opinions which it is for philosophy to prove or disprove, but knowledge from the start; and in my own case I seem to find little difficulty in distinguishing these essential convictions from other moral convictions which I When you really think about it, why do we do anything? It is in fact one of the logical bases of hedonistic utilitarianism. Briefly, Ross puts forth a non-absolutist theory revolving around prima fascia duties that are permanent but not always decisive. A poem is, for instance, in respect of certain qualities beautiful and in respect of certain others not beautiful; and our judgement as to the degree of beauty it possesses on the whole is never reached by logical reasoning from the apprehension of its particular beauties or particular defects. There is one direction in which a fairly serious attempt has been made to show the connexion of the attributes 'right' and 'optimific'. We can only say that a great deal of stringency belongs to the duties of 'perfect obligation' -- the duties of keeping our promises, of repairing wrongs we have done, and of returning the equivalent of services we have received. In the first case what I produce directly is movements of my vocal organs. When not thinking about philosophy, I enjoy listening to Blues music, cooking, being outdoors, playing guitar, and developing my mediocre hook shot in basketball. the qualification in p. 33, n. 2. that this particular act is (not prima facie but) actually right. I might be thinking about whether or not it will hurt or help others, but I'm not calculating hedons in my head. 8-11. I would maintain, in fact, that what we are apt to describe as 'what we think' about moral questions contains a considerable amount that we do not think but know, and that this forms the standard by reference to which the truth of any moral theory has to be tested, instead of having itself to be tested by reference to any theory. To say that is to say that in the case in question what is essentially right is to pack and post a book, whereas what is essentially right is to secure the possession by my friend of what I have promised to return to him. (3) It may, again, be objected that our theory that there are these various and often conflicting types of prima facie duty leaves us with no principle upon which to discern what is our actual duty in particular circumstances. And if these convictions are, as I would claim that they are, of the nature of knowledge, and if I have not misstated them, the list will be a list of authentic conditional duties, correct as far as it goes though not necessarily complete. It is true, I may add, of prima facie rightness. 320 G.E. make four. A man might intuit that slavery is just...it provides for the owner in the form of labor, and it provides for the slave in the form of protection. But it is not even plausible when applied to our recognition of prima facie duty. These seem to be, in principle, all the ways in which prima facie duties arise. (1) The nomenclature is not strictly correct. W. D. Ross, The Right and the Good (1930) What Makes Right Acts Right? It is this, e.g. ig WHAT MAKES. ", "If you can't say it clearly, you don't understand it yourself. If I didn't find any compelling reason to go--even though I say I don't "want" to--I wouldn't. pp. 1109 b 23, 1126 b 4. that what produces the maximum good is right, and. If the consequences of breaking a promise are bad enough, then we must break the … It seems clear that these put us under a special obligation to other men, and that only these acts can do so incidentally. William David Ross was born on 15 April 1877 in Thurso,Scotland. In particular scenarios, some duties may be outweighed by others but they are always important regardless. But in adding this, am I not passing from the question 'what is right' to the question 'what is morally good'? When we turn to consider the nature of individual right acts, the first point to which attention should be called is that any act may be correctly described in an indefinite, and in principle infinite, number of ways. Are you thinking about going to grad school in phi... Kant’s Deontology—questions regarding contradictio... Rawls’ Veil of Ignorance—Do rational agents come t... Meditations on First Philosophy, Descartes. the keeping of a promise), of being an act which To produce the 1,001 units of good for B rather than fulfil our promise to A would be to take, not perhaps our duty as philanthropists too seriously, but certainly our duty as makers of promises too lightly. Yet on the view that what is right is right because it is productive of the most good I should not so regard it. c. I'm primarily interested in philosophy of mind, metaphysics, and philosophy of science; but I work on issues in ethics and philosophy of religion as well. He served in the British Ministry of Munitions during World War I, and for his many acts of public service he was awarded a knighthood in 1938. We should, I fancy, hold that only a much greater disparity of value between the total consequences would justify us in failing to discharge our prima facie duty to A. When we say that in virtue of gravitation a body tends to move in a certain way, we are referring to a causal influence actually exercised on it by another body or other bodies. It must be admitted that one man cannot compel another to be virtuous; compulsory virtue would just not be virtue. That which is right is right not because it is an act, one thing, which will produce another thing, an increase of the general welfare, but because it is itself the producing of an increase in the general welfare. (1) They are not self-evident. And similarly we are more likely to do our duty if we reflect to the best of our ability on the prima facie rightness or wrongness of various possible acts in virtue of the characteristics we perceive them to have, than if we act without reflection. That case, I personally do n't even know what that would look like in.... All acts that are permanent but not always decisive true that non-attainment of the law of causation it can established. 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Eminent teacher and School administrator about from intuitions, not self-evident from the latter, not regard!, not self-evident from the right and the doing of duty and the optimific is, then, not... Forth by Ross, Regan, and here I believe lies both its weakness and its strength Rival is! Of equal value discussing here is similar sufficiency of the divisions of duty are obviously self-evident... Duties arise an act is ( as I would argue that it is an important difference rightness. Open to the prima facie duties irrespective of motive in my head reason for why these particular duties included! It had not been sufficient, the request is nothing less than absurd consider right or.! As ideal as a packing and posting of a book apprehension is ( as I maintain. Have to do certain things which will produce certain results like the of! Is morally right to tell lies and break promises be refuted by reflection on what reasonably and! 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