Maturity as a guide to morals [Elektronische Ressource] / vorgelegt von Nils Hedstrand

Nils Hedstrand

Sujets

• Philosophie

Informations

• Publié par: ludwig-maximilians-universitat_munchen
• Publié le: 01 janvier 2007
• Nombre de lectures: 13
• Langue: English

Extrait

Maturity as a Guide to Morals


Inaugural-Dissertation
zur Erlangung des Doktorgrades
der Philosophie an der Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität
München
vorgelegt von

Nils Hedstrand
aus
München


Digitaldruckzentrum, München 2007



Referent: Prof. Dr. Wilhelm Vossenkuhl

Korreferent: PD Dr. habil. Stephan Sellmaier

12.02.2007








Mature manhood: that means to have rediscovered
the seriousness one had as a child at play.
Nietzsche, Beyond Good and Evil























2





Contents


Chapter 1. What is Maturity?
The Aim of This Book 5
Morality and Moral Judgement 14
Stage Theories and Why They Fail 20
Godnes 26
Maturity as Mental Adulthood 36

Chapter 2. Sympathy
Universal Sympathy: An Overview 50
Feelings and Emotions 52
Love ofMan 55
Hume and Sympathy Today 59
‘Sympathising’ and ‘Being Sympathetic’ 63
Affirmative Mental Attitude 68
Friendly Feeling 72
Universal Sympathy 75
Sympathy and Maturity 79

Chapter 3. Autonomy
Maturity, Autonomy, and Sympathy: An Overview 81
Kant and Autonomy Today 82
3Kupfer and Autonomy Today 85
The Slf 91
‘Self-image’ and ‘Inner Harmony’ 94
Autonomy as Authority Over Oneself 98
Autonomy, Sympathy, and Maturity 102

Chapter 4. Mature Judgement
Maturity and Mature Judgement: An Overview 113
Aristotle, Prudence, and Morality 116
Factual Judgement and Moral Judgement 121
Good Moral Judgement 132
Maturity and Morally Relevant Knowledge 134
Mature Judgement 142 Action 148

Bibliography 151

Zusammenfassung in deutscher Sprache 154














4





Chapter 1
What is Maturity?


THE AIM OF THIS BOOK
The expressions ‘mature’ and ‘immature’ appear very frequently in our daily talk
about morality: Not only do we say that a certain person, judgement, or action is
‘good’ or ‘bad’, we also say that he/she/it is ‘mature’ or ‘immature’. Interestingly, no
philosophical research has yet been done to clarify the concept of maturity and its
relevance to morality, despite its actuality and importance in everyday moral
thought.
Academic philosophy should always keep an affinity to everyday life. Philosophy
should not be done by researchers only, and philosophical texts, including doctoral
dissertations, should be understandable to anyone without any previous knowledge
of a certain philosophical terminology. In his Philosophy and Ordinary Language. The
Bent and Genius of our Tongue, Hanfling says:
[I ]f there is vagueness or inaccuracy in a philosopher’s statements, then he can be
asked to clarify his meaning in ordinary language; and we might become suspicious
1if he is unable or unwilling to do this.

With the expression ‘ordinary language’ Hanfling means a language which lacks a
special terminology. And he adds:

1 Hanfling, Philosophy and Ordinary Language p. 2.
5When people – ordinary people or philosophers - ask questions about the extent of
human knowledge, the reality of free will and the nature of happiness, we must as-
sume that the meanings of these words are to be understood in accordance with their
ordinary use. And even if these meanings are set aside in the course of a philoso-
pher’s discussions, they cannot be altogether disregarded. At least the philosopher
should be able to tell us why the ordinary meanings were set aside, and how the an-
swers that he proceeds to offer are related to the original questions with the original
2(ordinary) meanings.

We will have more to say later in this introductory section about ordinary language.
In this work we will analyse the different meanings of the everyday expression of
maturity and other related everyday expressions: morality, sympathy, autonomy,
and mature judgement. As a name for the everyday meanings of expressions we will
make use of the expression common sense.
‘Common sense’ can be used in different ways. It can mean a basic human reason or
understanding, as in the German gesunder Menschenverstand, which is the way of rea-
soning of ‘the plain man’, unschooled in logical thinking and unbiased by scientific
standpoints and by ideological concerns. Further, instead of such a basic human rea-
son, it can mean most men’s moral intuitions: Without having reflected on a certain
matter, something can seem obviously morally right or wrong to one, like a certain
distribution of goods, or the killing of an innocent person. Thirdly, it can mean the
actual moral views currently held by most people in a community.
But when it comes to important moral questions like abortion, euthanasia, or capital
punishment, most people tend to become confused and insecure, which shows that
they are not really sure of their own moral views. And people’s current views con-
cerning morality are easily influenced by the way information is presented through
newspapers, television, etc., and they tend to change very rapidly, and it is also un-
certain whose moral views are to be considered as representing ‘common sense’ – are
we to include the views of children, of people who are old and confused, of crimi-
nals, of political extremists and of religious fundamentalists, and of people suffering
from various forms of mental illness? These objections are valid also concerning

2 Hanfling, Philosophy and Ordinary Language pp. 4-5.
6moral intuition: What ‘we’, i.e., people in general, find morally right or wrong at a
first glance, before having considered the matter thoroughly, is a product not only of
our upbringing but also of current influence by authorities. And the reasoning of the
‘plain man’, although being based on an immediate experience of everyday moral
issues, tends to be burdened with prejudices and generally with unreflected dogmas
inherited from parents and other authorites due to personal relations.
In this work we will use ‘common sense’ not in the meaning of a basic human rea-
son, nor as moral intuition, nor as the actual views of most men, but instead in the
meaning of the ways in which the expressions are used in daily speech, which de-
termines their everyday meanings. The expressions relevant for the study are used in
the way in which the author understands their use in everyday life today, and in
such a way that no pretentious theoretical assumptions are connected to these uses
prior to the analysis.
Usually we have no difficulties in using a certain expression correctly, i.e., in the
right context, which means that we understand what the expression means in a prac-
tical sense. But when it comes to explaining what the expression means, i.e., how it is
actually used, we easily become confused, which shows that although we are able to
use the expression correctly, we are not aware of its exact meaning. This is not at all
surprising, since our everyday expressions are vague, i.e., they have many different
meanings, which can even be contradictory, since some of the different meanings of
an expression may exclude other meanings. As we will see, ‘maturity’ is used both as
the moral development at a certain stage of life, which means that there are different
kinds of maturity, one for each stage, and as meaning mental adulthood as such,
where maturity is just one. And we tend to use ‘autonomy’ as the capacity to care for
oneself which makes it possible for one to fulfil one’s social tasks, one’s role in soci-
ety, instead of just living from others, and this we consider a good thing, but we also
use ‘autonomy’ in the meaning of being able to question one’s social roles and the
tasks which these roles imply, and this may mean questioning one’s own responsibil-
ity and therewith one’s social ties to other people: to family members, to friends, to
working colleagues, etc., which may prove to be a danger to others.
A philosophical analysis of common sense in this sense may raise the question how
thsuch an enterprise relates to the philosophical tradition from the 20 Century which
7is called ‘ordinary language philosophy’. The term is mainly associated with the so-
called Oxford School of philosophy which existed mainly during the 1950s and
1960s. We will use Hanfling’s exposition of ordinary language philosophy from his
Philosophy and Ordinary Language.
Hanfling uses the term in a wider sense than just as meaning the philosophical
method used by Austin, Ryle, and others; he does not hesitate to include the later
Wittgenstein, and he defends this kind of philosophy as being highly valid today,
and he uses it himself to