Introduction to Moral Philosophy

Welcome to the first week of Dinner and Dialogue! This post covers what was discussed at the Baptist Student Union on Thursday, September 16, 2016.

ORIENTATION

As we kick off this semester, here's the overall framework for what we'll be learning: we're going to be examining moral philosophy, morality, and ethics. Today we're going to go over some foundational ideas and concepts so that we can all be on the same page for the rest of the year.

The first thing that I'd consider one of the biggest takeaways you can have from this semester is the power of inquiry and especially this question: "What do you mean by that?" This question is SO important! Terms always need to be defined and understood. In fact, I'd say that many arguments and debates result from a misunderstanding of the basic terms that are used.

For example, if I'm having a discussion with someone about the existence of God and they say, "Well I don't believe in God," what should I do? Rather than immediately trying to convince them that God exists, suppose I ask, "What do you mean by 'God'?" If they respond with, "You know, that mean ol' bully in the sky who hates everyone and wants to send them all to hell!" then I should be glad that I didn't launch into an argument to convince them that "god" exists. Instead, I can now explain the God that I know rather than talking about a "god" in general that we haven't defined.

So ask questions and especially "What do you mean by that?"

INTRO TO MORALITY

Accordingly, let's go ahead and define a couple terms:
- "Morality": principles concerning the distinction between right and wrong or good and bad behavior.
- "Moral Philosophy": a branch of philosophy dealing with both argument about the content of morality and the meta-ethical discussion of the nature of moral judgment, language, argument, and value.

Here's a question: do you think morality exists in the world? Basically all of us will answer "yes." Nearly everyone in the world knows that the idea of right and wrong is real. If people don't, you can probably convince them pretty quickly by simply punching them in the throat! They'll immediately try to convince you that you did something "wrong" and they deserve some form of "justice." Anyway, the point being that the idea of morality is pretty much a universal concept.

Now when someone makes a moral claim like, "not paying attention to Matthew when he's talking is wrong," the natural follow-up question is "why?" Moral claims deserve justification. That's one of the main things we'll be studying this semester: whether or not there's adequate justifications for moral claims.

FAMILIES OF MORAL PHILOSOPHY

Now when it comes to moral philosophy, there's two main families: Moral Objectivism and Moral Nonobjectivism.

Moral Objectivism: a family of theories that maintain that at least some moral claims, beliefs, and principles are objectively true and others are objectively false - that is, they exist independently from opinion.

Moral Objectivism includes the following ideas:
- Divine Command Theory: the idea that morality originates from God
- Natural Law Theory: the idea that morality originates from natural laws
- Moral Egoism: the idea that morality originates only from what's in your self-interest

Moral Nonobjectivism: a family of theories that maintain that no moral claim, belief, or principle is either objectively true or objectively false (or objectively better justified than another) - that is, morality either doesn't exist or it originates from opinion.

Moral Nonobjectivism includes the following ideas:
- Moral Nihilism: the idea that morality doesn't exist
- Moral Relativism: the idea that morality originates from the individual
- Moral Subjectivism: the idea that morality originates from the individual

An additional category that doesn't fit well in the two main families is Consequentialism.

Consequentialism: the idea that morality is determined by the consequence

The well-known expression of Consequentialism is Utilitarianism which we'll spend a week on.

THINKING THROUGH MORALITY

How do we determine morality? (Answers from the group: God, the Bible, parents, culture, logic, experiences, etc.) Everyone comes from a starting place in how they understand morality. When having discussions with others, you have to keep this starting point in mind and perhaps direct the discussion to it.

Suppose I was having a debate on homosexuality with someone and I was using the Bible as my starting point and they were using just their own ideas. My Bible verses aren't going to mean a whole lot to them. I need to address the root problem.

Or, if someone thinks that morality is relative and I don't, they're not gonna give a rip about my view because they'll just say it's only my personal standard. I'm probably going to have to address their presupposition that morality is relative rather than hammering them with my moral views.

Can/should we impose our views of morality on others? (Group consensus: IF there are absolute moral truths, we should inform people of them. IF there are no absolutes, then there's no logical basis for imposing our views on other people)

OUR WORLDVIEW

Finally, here's the worldview that will be central to our discussions this semester: God is the Authority and He sets the standard of morality and right and wrong. Now, this does not mean we have to ignore logic and reasoning. They happen to work in harmony. God has the whole thing rigged. But going forward, our stance is that God is right, God is always right, Scripture is right, Scripture is always right. We, as believers, have to be strong on this issue. God. Is. Right.