Regarding feelings about disease far away: I’m glad you have become concerned about these topics! I’m not sure virtue ethicists couldn’t also motivate those concerns though. Random side-note: I absolutely think consequentialism is the way to go when judging public/corporate/non-profit policy. It makes no sense to judge the policy of those entities the same way we judge the actions of individual humans. The world would be a much better place if state departments, when determining where to send foreign aid, used consequentialist reasoning.
Regarding feelings toward your friend: I’m glad to hear that moral reasoning has helped you there too! There is certainly nothing wrong with using moral reasoning to cultivate or maintain one’s care for another. And some days, we just don’t have the energy to muster an emotional response and the best we can do is just follow the rules/do what you know is expected of you to do even if you have no heart in it. But isn’t it better when we do have our heart in it? When we can dispense with the reasoning, or the rule consulting?
It’s better when we have our heart in it, and my point is that moral reasoning can help us do that. From my point of view, almost all the moral gains that really matter come from action on the level of global initiatives and careers directed at steering outcomes on that level. There, as you say, consequentialism is the way to go. For the everyday human acts that make up our day to day lives, I don’t particularly care which moral system people use—whatever keeps us relating well with others and happy seems fine to me. I’d be fine with all three ethical systems advertising themselves and competing in the marketplace of ideas, as long as we can still come to a consensus that we should fund bed nets and find a way not to unleash a technological apocalypse on ourselves.
It’s better when we have our heart in it, and my point is that moral reasoning can help us do that.
My bad, I should have been clearer. I meant to say “isn’t it better when we have our heart in it, and we can dispense with the reasoning or the rule consulting?”
I should note, you would be in good company if you answered “no.” Kant believed that an action has no moral worth if it was not motivated by duty, a motivation that results from correctly reasoning about one’s moral imperatives. He really did seem to think we should be reasoning about our duties all the time. I think he was mistaken.
Regarding feelings about disease far away:
I’m glad you have become concerned about these topics! I’m not sure virtue ethicists couldn’t also motivate those concerns though. Random side-note: I absolutely think consequentialism is the way to go when judging public/corporate/non-profit policy. It makes no sense to judge the policy of those entities the same way we judge the actions of individual humans. The world would be a much better place if state departments, when determining where to send foreign aid, used consequentialist reasoning.
Regarding feelings toward your friend:
I’m glad to hear that moral reasoning has helped you there too! There is certainly nothing wrong with using moral reasoning to cultivate or maintain one’s care for another. And some days, we just don’t have the energy to muster an emotional response and the best we can do is just follow the rules/do what you know is expected of you to do even if you have no heart in it. But isn’t it better when we do have our heart in it? When we can dispense with the reasoning, or the rule consulting?
It’s better when we have our heart in it, and my point is that moral reasoning can help us do that. From my point of view, almost all the moral gains that really matter come from action on the level of global initiatives and careers directed at steering outcomes on that level. There, as you say, consequentialism is the way to go. For the everyday human acts that make up our day to day lives, I don’t particularly care which moral system people use—whatever keeps us relating well with others and happy seems fine to me. I’d be fine with all three ethical systems advertising themselves and competing in the marketplace of ideas, as long as we can still come to a consensus that we should fund bed nets and find a way not to unleash a technological apocalypse on ourselves.
My bad, I should have been clearer. I meant to say “isn’t it better when we have our heart in it, and we can dispense with the reasoning or the rule consulting?”
I should note, you would be in good company if you answered “no.” Kant believed that an action has no moral worth if it was not motivated by duty, a motivation that results from correctly reasoning about one’s moral imperatives. He really did seem to think we should be reasoning about our duties all the time. I think he was mistaken.