Summarize william golding philosophy of human nature

The Moral Life

2)

The Moral Life An Introductory Reader in Ethics and Literature

LOUIS P. POJMAN

New York Oxford OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS

2000

Oxford University Press

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Pojman, Louis P. The moral life : an introductory reader in ethics and literature /

Louis P. Pojman. p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references. ISBN 0-19-512844-3 (pbk. : alk. paper) 1. Ethics. I. Title.

BJ1025.P67 1999 170—dc21 98-46486

CIP

Printing (last digit): 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper

Dedicated to

my colleagues in the English department

United States Military Academy

West Point •

Where Philosophy and English

cross-fertilize each other

in a magnificent manner

k.

CONTENTS

Preface xiii

Introduction: On the Nature of Morality 1

PART I THE NATURE OF MORALITY: Good and Evil 5

1. What Is the Purpose of Morality? 7

William Golding / Lord of the Flies: A Moral Allegory 8 Louis P. Pojman / On the Nature and Purpose of Morality:

Reflections on William Golding's Lord of the Flies 32 Thomas Hobbes / On the State of Nature 41 Further Readings 53

2. Good and Evil 55

-iik--1-ferman Melville / Billy Budd (58 Fyodor Dostoevski / Why Is Theme 70

lliam Styron / Sophie's Choice 77 Philip Hallie / From Cruelty to Goodness 85 Stanley Berm / Wickedness 100 Friedrich Nietzsche / Beyond Good and Evil 121 Richard Taylor / On the Origin of Good and Evil 135 Further Readings 148

3. s Everything Relative? 149

erodotus / Custom Is King 150 uth Benedict / The Case for Moral Relativism 151

Louis P. Pojman / The Case Against Moral Relativism 160 Jean Bethke Elshtain / Judge Not? 186

vii

viii Contents

Henrick Ibsen / The Enemy of the People 196 Further Readings 218

PART II MORAL THEORIES AND MORAL CHARACTER 219

4. Utilitarianism 223

Seaman Holmes and the Longboat of the William Brown, Reported by John William Wallace 225

Jeremy Bentham / Classical Utilitarianism 227 Kai Nielsen / A Defense of Utilitarianism 233 Bernard Williams / Against Utilitarianism _249 Ursula Le Guin / The Ones Who Walk Away - from Omelas 262

Aldous Huxley / The Utilitarian Social Engineer and the Savage (from Brave New World) 269

Further Readings 291

5. Deontological Ethics 292

Soren Kierkegaard / On Duty 294 Immanuel Kant / The Moral Law 297 W. D. Ross / Intuitionism 318 The Golden Rule 333 Richard Whatley / A Critique of the Golden Rule 334 Ambrose Bierce / A Horseman in the Sky 337 - Charles Fried / The Evil of Lying 344 Thomas Nagel / Moral Luck 354 Further Readings 367

6. Virtue Ethics 368

Victor Hugo / The Bishop and the Candlesticks 370 Aristotle / Virtue Ethics 388 Bernard Mayo / Virtue and the Moral Life 405 Nathaniel Hawthorne / The Great Stone Face 411 William Frankena / A Critique of Virtue-Based

Ethical Systems 429 ,---Joriathan Bennett / The Conscience of

Huckleberry Finn 440 Further Readings 455

Contents ix

7. Ves and Vices 457

esus of Nazareth / The Sermon on the Mount; The Good Samaritan 458

Leo Tolstoy / How Much Land Does a Man Need? The Vice of Greed 462

Immanuel Kant / Jealousy, Malice, and Ingratitude 477 Martin Gansberg / Moral Cowardice 485

elen Keller: Three Days to See: Gratitude 489 ice Admiral James Stockdale / Courage and Endurance 499

Story of David and Bathsheba: Lust 514 Leo Tolstoy / Where Love Is, There Is God 518 Bertrand Russell / Reflections on Suffering 526 Charles Colson / The Volunteer at Auschwitz: Altruism 529 Further Readings 535

PART III MORAL ISSUES 537

8. Ethics and Egoism: Why Should We Be Moral? 539

Plato / The Ring of Gyges 541 James Rac e1s / Ethical Egoism 549

Ce Louis P. Pojman. Egoism, Self-Trite -re-Si; and Altr— w 7 Further Readings 566

9. Does Life Have Meaning? 568

Epicurus / Hedonism 570 Epictetus and Others / Stoic Catechism 577 Albert Camus / Life Is Absurd 586 Lois Hope Walker / Religion Gives Meaning to Life 594 Viktor Frankl / The Human Search for Meaning:

Reflections on Auschwitz 601 iddhartha Gautama, the Buddha / The Four Noble Truths 609

obert Nozick / The Experience Machine 615 urther Readings 618

10. Freedom, Autonomy, and Self -Respect 620

Martin Luther King, Jr. / I Have a Dream 621

x Contents

Stanley Milgram / An Experiment in Autonomy 625 Jean-Paul Sartre / Existentialism Is a Humanism 641 Thomas E. Hill, Jr. / Servility and Self-Respect 651 Further Readings 663

PART IV APPLIED ETHICS 665

11. Sex, Love, and Marriage 667

John. Barth / Pansexuality 668 10 Immanuel Kant / On the Place of Sex in

Human Existence 669 t The Vatican Declaration on Sexual Ethics 672 Et Raymond Angelo Belliotti / Sexual Intercourse Between

Consenting Adults Is Always Permissible 681 A Vincent Punzo / Sexual Intercourse Should Be

Confined to Marriage 690 4 Burton Leiser / Is Homosexuality Unnatural? 698 '

John McMurtry / Monogamy: A Critique 708 Michael D. Bayles / Marriage, Love, and Procreation:

A Critique of McMurtry 719 !- 0 Bonnie Steinbock / What's Wrong With Adulteg? 734

Hugh LaFollette / Licensing Parents 740 Further Readings 754

0. Is Abortion Morally Permissible? 756

John T. Noonan, Jr. / Abortion Is Not Morally Permissible 758

Mary Anne Warren / Abortion Is Morally Permissible 766 Jane English / The Moderate Position: Beyond the

Personhood Argument 775 Further Readings 787

13. Substance Abuse: Drugs and Alcohol 788

John Stuart Mill / On Liberty 790 Gore Vidal / Drugs Should Be Legalized 794 William Bennett / Drugs Should Not Be Legalized 797 Yoshida Kenko / On Drinking 803 Bonnie Steinbock / Drunk Driving 806 Further Readings 819

Contents xi

14. Our Duties to Animals 821

George Qrwell - / Shooting an Elephant 823 Immanuel Kant / We Have Only Indirect Duties

to Animals 830 ----PererSinger / Animal Liberation: All Animals

Are Equal 832 Carl Cohen / The Case Against Animal Rights 850 Mylan Engel, Jr. / The Immorality of Eating Meat 856 Further Readings 890

15.pur Duties to the Environment 891

Sophocles / On Mankind's Power over Nature 897 Robert Heilbroner / What Has Posterity Ever Done

for Me? 898 Garrett Hardin / The Tragedy of the Commons 903 David Watson / We All Live in Bhopal 921 William F. Baxter / People or Penguins: The Case for

Optimal Pollution 928 Further Readings 936

PREFACE

This is a book integrating literature with philosophy, while also cov- ering both classical and contemporary ethical theory and applied topics. Literature often highlights moral ideas, focusing on particu- lar people in their dilemmas, awakening our imagination to new possibilities, and enabling us to understand the moral life in fresh and creative ways. Good literature compels us to rethink and revise our everyday assumptions. It sets before us powerful particularities, which serve both as reinforcers and counterexamples to our sweep- ing principles. Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin chal- lenged the assumptions of ante-bellum America and created great sympathy for the abolitionist cause. Arthur Koestler's Darkness at Noon and George Orwell's Animal Farm and 1984 brought clearly home to millions the dangers of totalitarianism. Dostoevski's Crime and Punishment made us aware of the haunting voice of con- science that could overturn our best rationalization. William Gold- ing's Lord of the Flies is like a picture worth a thousand arguments on why we need morality. William Styron's Sophie's Choice faces us with the tragedy of moral choice when all options are unac- ceptable. Aldous Huxley's Brave New World highlights the paradox of freedom and welfare better than any political philosophy book I've ever read. Victor Hugo's bishop of Digne encountering Jean Valjean is a more eloquent statement on the virtuous person than anything ever published in professional journals on virtue ethics. Tolstoy's short stories on greed and love leave their indelible marks on our souls. And so it goes. Good literature is the contemporary equivalent of the parables of the New Testament. It makes the abstract concrete, brings it home to the heart, and forces us to think with innovative imagination.

Yet, acknowledging the element of truth in Kant's rejection of

xiv Preface

the empirical and the need for examples in ethics, particularity often is one-sided and passion-ridden. If it leaves us merely with gut reac- tions to a particular tragedy, it tends toward bias and irrationality. One needs cool-headed philosophical analysis to play a sturdy role in sorting out the ambiguities and ambivalences in literature, to abstract from particulars and universalize principles, to generate wide-ranging intellectual theories. To paraphrase Kant, the pas- sionate imagination of literature is blind without the cool head of philosophy, but the cool head of philosophy is sterile and as frigid as an iceberg without the passions of life, conveyed in literature.

I have endeavored to join forces, to unite literature and philos- ophy in the service of ethical understanding. Most sections of this work open with literary pieces.

This work is divided into four parts: I. The Nature of Morality. The central problems: What is moral-

ity? What is it for? What is its scope and force? I use Golding's Lord of the Flies, Melville's Billy Budd, and Styron's Sophie's Choice to highlight central themes, followed by philosophical essays that delve more systematically into the nature of morality, the nature of good and evil, and, relating to the scope and force of morality, moral relativism and objectivism. One might wonder why the latter issue comes in so soon, but there may be no issue more in dispute among young people today than this topic. Hence its prominence.

II. Moral Theories. The three classic ethical theories: utilitarian- ism, deontological ethics, and virtue ethics. Following the chapter on virtue ethics, I have included essays on particular virtues and vices, such as Tolstoy's "How Much Land Does a Man Need?" and "Where Love Is, There Is God," Kant's "Jealousy, Malice, and Ingrat- itude," Helen Keller's "Three Days to See," and Vice Admiral Stock- dale's "The World of Epictetus."

III. Moral Issues. Why be moral? What is the meaning of life? What is important about freedom, autonomy, and self-respect? I have included Plato's classic discussion of "The Ring of Gyges," James Rachels' exposition of ethical egoism, followed by my critique of eth- ical egoism, and writings by Epicurus, Epictetus, Camus, Frank', Bud- dha, Nozick, Sartre, Martin Luther King, Jr., and Thomas Hill.

N. Applied Ethics. Contemporary issues such as sex, love, and marriage; abortion; substance abuse; animal rights; and the envi- ronment. I have chosen issues that relate primarily to personal, rather than social, morality.

Preface xv

There are fifteen chapters and eighty-six articles in all. Short intro- ductions open each part and chapter. Each reading is introduced with an abstract and most essays conclude with questions for fur- ther reflection.

Many people have helped with this project. Robert Miller, Phi- losophy Editor at Oxford University Press, first proposed the idea of this anthology and gave enormous support to it. My colleagues in the English Department (an umbrella department for philosophy at West Point—we have seventeen philosophers in the English Department, which must be a record—plus a lot of English faculty who are addictive philosophers). This book is dedicated to all the members of my department, who are as collegial, honorable, and unpretentious colleagues as any I have had the pleasure of work- ing with. Captain Jowell Parks and Lieutenant Colonels Janice Hud- ley, Mike Owens, Al Bishop, and Mike Burke all made excellent suggestions along the way. Colonel Peter Stromberg, our head, has supported my work with wonderful generosity. Mylan Engel con- tributed an original essay on vegetarianism for this volume. Robert Audi, Margarita Levin, Robert van Wyk, Bonnie Steinbock, and sev- eral anonymous reviewers offered good advice, as did my wife, Trudy, who has been my deepest friend and inspiration for over thirty years.

United States Military Academy

L. P. P. West Point, N.Y.

January 1999

The Moral Life

Introduction On the Nature of Morality

Morality is about good and evil, and right and wrong action. What exactly are these? It is not always easy to say. Various religions and philosophies differ. What is the good? Religious people identify it with God, the source of all being and value. Plato thought the good was a transcendent, indefinable mystery, the source of all being and value. It is the absolute truth, higher even than God and discover- able by reason and intuition. Plato's follower, the Cambridge philoso- pher G. E. Moore, modified Plato's formula, omitting the transcen- dent dimension. The good, he thought, was a nonnatural, indefinable property like the color yellow. It was not the source of all reality, only of morality and aesthetic reality. On the other hand, Jeremy Ben- tham (chapter 4), William James, and Richard Taylor (chapter 2) deny there is anything mysterious or transcendent about goodness. They hold that the good is a definable, natural property. It refers to pleas- ure or the object of desire—good is a functional term which refers to the satisfaction of our desires, the pleasure we feel when satisfied. Variations on this basic hedonism appear in the literature; the human good for Mill consists not just in any kind of pleasure but in certain qualities of pleasure—a deep sense of well-being or happiness spread over a lifetime, not necessarily a life of ecstatic rapture, "but moments of such, in an existence made up of few and transitory pains, many and various pleasures, with a decided predominance of the active over the passive, and having as the foundation of the whole, not to expect more from life than it is capable of bestowing." 1

1John Stuart Mill, Utilitarianism (1863, chapter 2). Mill elaborates on his functional hedonism: "Happiness is a life in which exist free action (includ-

2 Introduction

For Nietzsche (chapter 2) goodness has nothing to do with pleasure or happiness ("Only the Englishman wants that") but power, the sense of dominating, of being in control, of being the alpha male in the pack. Goodness derives from the will to power that we all deeply crave. As such it is hierarchical and inegalitarian. But the envious mediocre masses detest this natural good, and so are determined to crush it. Morality, according to Nietzsche, is the herd's attempt to institutionalize mediocrity and protect the sheep from the more excellent wolves. The priests, both religious and secular moralizers, invent the soft moral virtues (pity, patience, peace, kindness, for- giveness, and tolerance) in order to protect themselves from their betters. Helping the worst off, redeeming the worthless, forgiving the criminal, maintaining the lives of sick bodies and diseased souls— the criminals, the stupid, and the mediocre. The ideas of good and evil must be understood in the clash between the superior overmen, and the priests who represent the masses. Right and wrong action, then, become a kind of politically correct ideology which, ironically, proves the Nietzschean point of the will to power. For the moralists invent good and evil in order to empower themselves and their clien- tele against their superior enemy.

Where does the truth lie in these matters? One thing everyone engaged in the debate recognizes: morality is both personal and social It is personal in that it has to do with how we should live our lives, what we should strive to become. It is social in that it recognizes that we are not hermits or gods, independent beings with no need for each other. We are centers of conscious striving, desire, who have wills of our own but have to adjust the pursuit of our goals in the light of other people's desires and interests. How to reconcile and adjust these twin forces, the personal and the social, is the central domain of ethics. It is the central concern of this anthology. Many works of ethics emphasize the broader areas of social policy or social ethics: just-war theory, economic relations, punishment, political arrangements, and institutional justice. There is a place for that. But what I want us to focus on in this work is the more personal dimension of ethics: its raison d'etre, its funda-

ing meaningful work), loving relations, and moral character, and in which the individual is not plagued by guilt and anxiety but is blessed with peace and satisfaction."

Introduction 3

mental purposes. We want to build from the ground up, for unless we get our foundations firmly laid, our structure will be in danger of capsizing. We will first study the nature of morality, beginning with a sizable selection from William Golding's moral allegory, Lord of the Flies. After a commentary, we will examine the philosophi- cal analogue to Golding's work, Thomas Hobbes's Leviathan, writ- ten three hundred years earlier. After this we raise one of the most crucial questions about morality: is it universally valid or only rel- ative to individual choice or one's culture?

In Part II we progress to the three classic moral theories: utili- tarianism, which aims at maximizing good consequences, usually defined in terms of pleasure or happiness; deontological ethics, which focuses on the individual act (its inherent rightness or wrong- ness) and the individual (his or her inherent dignity or value); and virtue ethics, which focuses on character, the kind of qualities we should inculcate, the kind of people we should become. But all of these theories recognize the role of virtue and vice—morally sig- nificant character traits. So in the fourth chapter of Part II we exam- ine several classic virtues and vices.

In Part III we consider theoretical issues that are implicit in our study of the nature of morality and moral theories, enlarging on what was said earlier. If the first two parts constituted the founda- tions and formal structure of moral theory, Part III deals with the materials in our building. First we examine the idea of the self in relation to others. Sometimes we can flout moral rules when it is in our perceived interest to do so. Should we do so? Why should we be moral whenever we can enhance personal gain by disre- garding morality's requirements? This problem is related to the sec- ond—what really is important about life, what, if anything, gives it meaning? Or is it merely "a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing"? Here we look at various worldviews about the nature and destiny of humanity: Epicureanism, Stoicism, The- ism, Buddhism, Existentialism, and others. In chapter 10 we exam- ine the importance of freedom and autonomy.

Finally, in Part IV we examine seven practical moral issues. Con- tinuing our metaphor of the house, these constitute the inner dynam- ics, the plumbing, electricity, and furniture. In chapter 11 we exam- ine the meaning of human sexuality in relation to love and marriage. What does morality permit and forbid? Why is adultery wrong? Is monogamous marriage really a moral good? Should we need

4 Introduction

licenses to have children? Chapter 12 analyzes the difficult problem of abortion. In chapter 13 we consider the use and abuse of drugs and alcohol. Chapter 14 deals with our duties to animals and takes up the issue of vegetarianism. Chapter 15 considers our duty to the environment.

I have generally included readings which take opposing stands on the issues at hand, though sometimes I have simply included a reading to stimulate thinking, say on LaFollette's claim that the gov- ernment should require people to obtain a license to have children or Engel's claim that moral people already hold beliefs that com- mit them to being vegetarians. The main purpose of this work is to help you think through the difficult and exciting personal dimen- sions of what morality is about. Hence the use of literature to sup- plement philosophical analysis.

Literature particularizes general problems, brings them home to us, enlivening the imagination so that we see and feel nuances that are vital to resolving difficult moral issues, possibilities that we might not have considered in our abstract thinking about moral dilem- mas. But it is no substitute for philosophical analysis, so while many chapters begin with a literary work, the philosophical essays are where most of the necessary argument takes place.

Part I

The Nature of Morality Good and Evil

In this part of our work we consider three fundamental questions relating to morality: What is the purpose of morality? What are good and evil? Is morality essentially relative or are there objective moral truths? We begin each chapter with a literary selection and then go on to provide a philosophical analysis. Let us look briefly at the first of these questions.

What is the purpose of morality? What is morality for? It seems to have many purposes. These include enabling us to reach our goals in socially acceptable ways, enabling us to resolve conflicts of inter- ests fairly, developing certain kinds of positive character, promoting human happiness, enabling society to survive. You can probably think of others. But just as a picture is worth a thousand words, a good story may do more to illuminate the purpose of morality than a thousand disquisitions on the subject. So we begin our book with a sizable selection from William Golding's Lord of the Flies, a mod- ern allegory on the nature and purpose of morality. A group of British private school boys are marooned on an island; detached from the constraints of civilization, they turn into savages. Whether or not human nature is as depraved as Golding makes it out to be, the sig- nificance of the book lies in the fact that it illuminates the need for and purpose of ethical codes. After Golding's novel, I give an analy- sis on its meaning for our understanding of morality. This is followed by a selection from Thomas Hobbes's classic work Leviathan (1651),

6 The Nature of Morality

which, in seventeenth-century prose, poignantly sets forth a similar message to Golding's.

These three chapters center on the foundational problems of moral philosophy. It is imperative that we think clearly about them before we tackle normative theories and applied ethics. Let us turn now to one of the great moral allegories of our time, William Gold- ing's Lord of the Flies.

CHAPTER 1

What Is the Purpose of Morality?

Lord of the Flies A Moral Allegory

WILLIAM GOLDING

William Golding is considered one of the most profoundly insightful writers of our age. His works explore the human condition and the need for moral consciousness. In this work, published in 1954, Golding describes a situation in which the veneer of civilization is stripped away from chil- dren and a primordial evil emerges out of the depths of the human heart.

An indeterminate number of schoolboys, ranging in age from six to twelve, are cast adrift on an uninhabited island in the Pacific, after being evacuated from England during the next world war. They are forced to create their own social system. All begins well, as Ralph is democratically chosen leader of the group and appropriate rules are agreed upon: keep the fire going, use proper sanitation, obey proper authority and orderly procedures in the assembly. Bereft of modem technology, they must reinvent simple tools or use tools for innovative purposes: eyeglasses to focus the sun's light to start a fire, sticks for spears. They construct shelters and build a fire on the top of the mountain in order to sig- nal their presence to passing ships. They miss simple con- veniences: scissors to cut their long, knotty hair, tooth- brushes, sanitary facilities, and clothes.

For a while the constraints of civilized society prevent total chaos. While the youngest children, "littluns," are frightened and homesick, the older boys entertain them. They seem ready to make the best out of their fate, and recognize the necessity of substantive and procedural rules. Only he who has the white conch, the symbol of authority, may speak at an assembly, and the democratically chosen leader is in- vested with limited powers. Even the sadistic Roger, while taunting little Henry by throwing stones near him, manages to keep the stones from harming the child.

From Lord of the Flies by William Gerald Golding. Copyright 1954 by William Gerald Golding, renewed 1982. Used by permission of Faber and Faber and Coward-McCann, Inc., a division of Penguin Putnam Inc.

8

Golding/Lord of the Flies 9

Here, invisible yet strong, was the taboo of the old life. Round the squatting child was the protection of parents and school and policemen and the law. Roger's arm was con- ditioned by a civilization that knew nothing of him and was in ruins. (p. 78)

After some initial euphoria at being liberated from the adult world of constraints into an exciting world of fun in the sun, the children come up against the usual banes of social existence: filth, competition for power and status, neg- lect of social responsibility, failure of public policy, and esca- lating violence. Two boys, Ralph, the son of a naval officer, and Jack, the head choirboy, vie for leadership and a bitter rivalry emerges between them. As a compromise, a division of labor ensues in which Jack's choirboy hunters refuse to help Ralph and a few others in constructing shelters. Piggy, the bespectacled asthmatic, acts as the wise and rational counselor, and Simon, an epileptic, is portrayed as possess- ing special spiritual insight, but these qualities, rationality and spirituality, are tested by the Lord of the Flies. Free- loading soon becomes a common phenomenon as the ma- jority of children leave their tasks to play on the beach. San- itation becomes a problem, as the diarrheal children defecate all over the beach. Neglect of the fire causes it to burn out, which, in turn, results in failure to be rescued by a passing ship. We enter the novel as Jack returns with his choirboy hunters, having slain their first pig, only to be reprimanded by Ralph for not tending the fire.

The hunters were more silent now, but at this they buzzed again. Ralph flung back his hair. One arm pointed at the empty horizon. His voice was loud and savage, and struck them into silence.

"There was a ship." Jack, faced at once with too many awful implications, ducked

away from them. He laid a hand on the pig and drew his knife. Ralph brought his arm down, fist clenched, and his voice shook.

"There was a ship. Out there. You said you'd keep the fire going and you let it out!" He took a step towards Jack who turned and faced him.

10 What Is the Purpose of Morality?

"They might have seen us. We might have gone home—" This was too bitter for Piggy, who forgot his timidity in the agony

of his loss. He began to cry out, shrilly: "You and your blood, Jack Merridew! You and your hunting! We

might have gone home Ralph pushed Piggy on one side. "I was chief; and you were going to do what I said. You talk.

But you can't even build huts—then you go off hunting and let out the fire—"

He turned away, silent for a moment. Then his voice came again on a peak of feeling.

"There was a ship—" One of the smaller hunters began to wail. The dismal truth was

filtering through to everybody. Jack went very red as he hacked and pulled at the pig.

"The job was too much. We needed everyone." Ralph turned. "You could have had everyone when the shelters were finished.

But you had to hunt—" "We needed meat." Jack stood up as he said this, the bloodied knife in his hand.

The two boys faced each other. There was the brilliant world of hunting, tactics, fierce exhilaration, skill; and there was the world of longing and baffled common-sense. Jack transferred the knife to his left hand and smudged blood over his forehead as he pushed down the plastered hair.