School of Historical and Philosophical Studies - Theses
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ItemMorality and advantage( 1962)Until very recently, contemporary British philosophy had either ignored, or given scant attention to, a very old and deep rooted tradition in Western ethical writing which maintains that there is a link between virtue and advantage to the agent, and between vice and disadvantage to the agent. Or, to put it another way, that goodness and happiness are connected, as also are vice and unhappiness. Or, to put it differently again, that morality is connected with the development and perfection of human capacities, and with the satisfying of the needs and wants which are fundamental to human nature, while immorality involves the frustration of such capacities, wants and needs.
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ItemThe concept of advice( 1964)In this thesis I hope to show how the concept of advice is related to other facets of moral language, and what considerations for ethical theory stem from a close analysis of the concept. The purpose of the present study is not so much to develop or defend one account of moral language above all others, but to show how careful and systematic examination of this concept can expose shortcomings in some accounts of moral language. Although the bulk of the thesis is critical in approach, certain positive conclusions will be urged on the basis of this examination.
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ItemMoral appraisal & human needs( 1974)
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ItemClarifying the distinctions between ethical theories : with special attention to consequentialism and deontologism( 2005)My overall project is to clarify the distinctions among ethical theories. In doing this I am improving our ability to assess which moral considerations are legitimate. I firstly give an account of the traditional distinctions among ethical theories. I explain how specific ethical theories have been grouped together, which makes evident the significance given to the distinction between Consequentialist and Deontologist theories. I then argue that the Consequentialist/Deontologist distinction is problematised by considerations in action theory. The specific consideration in action theory (which I argue is true) is that there is no principled way to determine where an act ends and a consequence begins. Thus, since the distinction between acts and consequences can be vague, so too is the distinction between the ethical theories of Consequentialism and Deontologism, which relies on this distinction. In the following chapter 1 elucidate the usefulness of the concepts 'Consequentialism' and 'Deontologism' by analysing the relationship between the concepts they are constructed upon: goodness and rightness. I argue that to hold a state-of-affairs good to exist entails that one also holds that one ought to (it is right to) bring this state-of-affairs about. Hence, goodness entails rightness. However, this claim is heavily qualified. Moreover, I affirm that it is perfectly intelligible and coherent that an act can be considered right independently of the value of a state-of-affairs. Finally, I catalogue a number of intelligible and coherent characteristics of ethical theories, and demonstrate how the existence of such moral considerations will greatly complicate moral theorising. My intention here is to appreciate the complexity of our moral experience, rather than impose a false order. Giving too much significance to the Consequentialism/Deontologism distinction is an imposition of false order. Hence, I argue that the Consequentialism/Deontologism distinction is not the fundamental distinction between ethical theories, rather it is one distinction among many.
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ItemTerra nullius : Lacanian ethics and Australian fictions of origin( 2005)The fiction of terra nullius, that Australia was 'no-one's land' at the time of British colonisation, was confirmed in law in 1971. At precisely this moment it had begun to fail as the ballast of white Australian identity and the fulcrum of race relations between Indigenous and non-Indigenous. Where white Australia had historically produced a gap, an empty centre from which the white Australian subject could emerge, fully formed, there was now a presence. The emergence of the Aboriginal subject into this empty space inaugurated the anxiety of white Australia that has characterised the period from the 1970s to the present. During these decades of anxiety, the story of this nation's origin-the story of 'settlement'-has retained its pivotal part in the inscription and reinscription of national meanings. Each of the three novels analysed in the thesis is a fictional account of the story of 'settlement published during the closing decades of the twentieth century. Of all the contemporary Australian fiction written about 'settlement' and the race relations conducted in its midst, these texts have been chosen because each is emblematic of a particular national fantasy, and, as is argued in this thesis, a particular orientation, to the tale it tells. The structure of each fantasy-of the frontier, of captivity, of the explorer and of the Great Australian Emptiness- offers particular opportunities for the refantasisation of that national story. The thesis asks how each novel is oriented towards the national aim of not failing to reproduce a satisfactory repetition of the story of national origin and the inevitable failure of that project. All of these questions are framed by an overarching one: what is an ethics of interpretation? The thesis offers a Lacanian response. Interpretation, for Lacan, is apophantic; it points to something, or lets it be seen. It points beyond meaning to structure; it alms to show an orientation not to a 'topic' but to a place. Lacanian psychoanalytic theory offers an ethics of interpretation that includes and accounts for that which exceeds or escapes meaning, and it does this without rendering that excess irrelevant. That something remains constitutive yet enigmatic, making interpretation, in turn, not merely the recovery and rendering of meaning but also a process which seeks to understand the function of this enigmatic structural term. Through its theory of repetition and the pleasures that repetition holds, Lacanian theory offers an approach to analysing the pleasures for the non-Indigenous Australian reader in hearing again the fictions of the nation's founding. It now seems possible for a white Australian encountering any such retelling to ask how our pleasure is taken, and to see the intransigence of our national story, its incapacity to respond to its many challengers, as a particular mode of enjoyment that is too pleasurable to renounce. A Lacanian ethics of interpretation opens up the question: what are the possibilities of re-orientating ourselves in our relation to our founding story such that we did not simply repeat what gives us pleasure?
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ItemConsume with care : ethics,economics and over-consumption in the industrialized world( 2004)Over-consumption in the industrialised world is a significant factor affecting global sustainability, both at the level of environmental impact and at the level of social equity. In mainstream research on sustainability and sustainable development, it has long been acknowledged that although it is in principle possible to reduce resource consumption in the industrialised world to the degree required via technological innovation and new patterns of service delivery, in practice, widespread value change will be required to support and facilitate this. However, discussion of precisely what such value change might consist in, and entail, has been largely confined to environmental philosophy, and is conspicuously absent from mainstream sustainability discourse. In this work I bring the former to bear on the latter. This almost exclusive focus on supply-side strategies (technological and service innovation, and so on) in the mainstream sustainability literature hints at the perspective upon which it is based: rational egoism. Would taking a different perspective reveal other, further options? I begin by presenting the arguments for seeking what I call 'complex sustainability': deep environmental sustainability and social equity. This perspective, because it is based upon ethical concern for human and more-than-human others, allows us to directly investigate an entirely different kind of strategy: consumer demand reduction. There is relatively little discussion of demand reduction in the sustainability literature, probably because consumer demand is so tightly linked to the central cultural and economic role of consumption in the industrialised world. The issue of value change cannot be avoided here! The task of this work is to explore the relatively neglected cultural and economic possibilities for demand reduction; such possibilities both enable a critical perspective on, and provide a complement to, supply-side strategies pursuing sustainability. I focus in particular on the integration of ethical value change with economic theory and practice. The ethical heart of the thesis is the development of an understanding of 'a good life' that is compatible with demand reduction. In developing this understanding, I use and extend the work of philosopher Raimond Gaita in order to explain the links between ethics, meaning in life, and love for particular human and more-than-human others. I want 'consume with care' to urge primarily that our consumption be guided by love and ethical concern for the others it affects rather than by its dangerous practical consequences for ourselves (although the latter - more common - warning remains relevant). Where the most important aspect of a good life is that it be meaningful, the role played by consumption will be secondary, although still important; development theorist Manfred Max-Neef's account of human need is shown to be useful in this connection. This framework for a 'good life under complex sustainability' is then descriptively expanded through a discussion of friendship and frugality as important 'post-consumer' virtues. Finally, I demonstrate that of the major types of economic solutions proposed to the 'sustainability problem', ecological economics is conceptually much the best aligned with my proposed framework for a good life under complex sustainability.
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ItemThe concept of [To Metrion] in the ethical theory of Plato's later dialogues( 1961)This thesis is an attempt to analyse and evaluate the concept of T?) ,ui G zon in the ethical theory of the later dialogues commonly attributed to Plato. While painstaking research has been undertaken by scholars on the text of the dialogues and the basic notions of Plato's philosophy, surprisingly scant attention has been given to the concept of [To Metrion]. Reference to this neglect has been made pertinently and cogently by Joseph Souilhe. In speaking of the the and,LI. 05 with which [Metrion] is closely associated, as being among the most frequent terms running through the dialogues of Plato, Souilhe comments: ...est-il curieux qu'un certain nombre de commentateurs, et non des moindres, aient semble' les negliger. It is important to observe at the outset the limits of our enquiry as defined in the first pars-- graph. The significance of an investigation of this kind is apparent if it is conceded:- (a) that the later dialogues express the maturity of Plato's thought, (b) that ethics remained his chief interest and concern even though his later writings are set in a wider philosophical context than his earlier, and (c) that [To Metrion] rescued from vagueness and ambiguity, came to be a ruling concept in his thought. It is essential for the successful prosecution of this enquiry to be faithful to the text of the dialogues. While in no way depreciating the value of what others have said about Plato, there is always the possibility of "reading into him" thoughts which are not truly his. In this respect, it should be mentioned that historically the doctrine of 'the mean' has been linked with the name of Plato's illustrious successor, Aristotle. But it would not be proper to allow the writings of Aristotle to exert undue influence in arriving at conclusions in the present study. For this reason, the text of the dialogues will be frequently quoted in the following pages. Then too, while readily conceding the orderliness of Plato's thought, it is necessary to guard against the presumption that the dialogues provide a unified system of meanings. This standpoint cannot be accepted without question and qualification. To extract from what purports to be "laissez-faire" conversation a system of rigid, inflexible concepts from which irrefutable deductions are drawn does despite to the dialogue method and to the platonic quest. It is true that the absence of formal argument is more pronounced in the earlier than in the later dialogues, but even in these latter, if systematisation is attempted, it must be undertaken with extreme caution. A prominent platonist has very aptly remarked:2 "Passages taken out of the context in which they occur, and then subjected to the manipulation of formal logic, can, of course, be interpreted in ways which would yield a single system of meanings, but the result might be a mere travesty upon what the interpreter was proposing to explain." If, through remembering this, the ends of our enquiry appear somewhat loose and untidy, faithfulness to the spirit of the man whose work we study is at least observed. Brief mention must here be made as to what we shall regard as 'later' dialogues and some indication of chronological ordering. A considerable amount of effort has been expended by scholars on these issues, and their investigations are far from trivial. It is obviously important to know the placement of an author's particular work in relation to his total output; and to assess,as ire- the case of Plato, 'the philosophic contribution of a dialogue in relation to the maturity of his thought. However, it will not be possible within the compass of this study to enter into argumentation on these issues. It is generally agreed that the so-called 'Socratic' dialogues belong to the early period of Plato's life, the "Republic" to the years of his maturity, and the "Laws" to his old age. Here we follow the list proposed by A.E. Taylor,3 as "post-Republic" or "later" dialogues:- 'Theaetetus', 'Parmenides', 'Sophist', 'Politicus', 'Timaeus', 'Philebus', 'Laws', and in that chronological order.4 The focus of this study will be largely upon the short digression in the "Politicus" where the subject of 1 j f cxt'2httkh t cnh is discussed, though chiefly on the "Philebus" where the concept of [To Metrion] in its ethical relationship is elucidated. It may well be that a major reason for the failure of Plato scholars generally to give due attention to this concept is the comparative neglect of the study of this latter dialogue. While excellent research has been undertaken in years now long past by Badham, Paley, Poste and Bury, and in more recent years by Taylor and Hackforth,5 the "Philebus" has remained for too long a kind of backwater in Plato studies. This may be partly due to the difficulty of placing a dialogue with a paramount ethical interest in this later period of Plato's thought, if it is supposed that in the wider philosophic context of the later dialogues, Plato's ethical emphasis had lessened. In this light the "Philebus" is viewed as a kind of "Socratic reversion", an anachronism. Then too, if it is assumed that Plato is at his best in the "Republic", the concessions to 'the world of becoming' in the "Philebus" may be interpreted as a regrettable 'falling away' from the pristine standards of 'pure idealism'. However, in the opinion of the present writer, the "Philebus" is one of the most significant of the platonic dialogues and represents some of the finest and most mature thought of its author. While it is abundantly clear that Plato has broadened his terms of reference in his later writings, the "Philebus" alone (though evidence elsewhere can be adduced) leaves us in no doubt as to the continued primacy of ethics in his philosophy. Further, by the time of writing this dialogue, in the maturity of his years, he-had uncovered, examined and to a degree elucidated the fundamental principle which lay at the centre of his philosophy and without which his ethical theory would lack life and meaning, viz., the concept of [To Metrion].
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ItemMoral rules( 1973)The thesis presented here contains the results of research carried out over the last two years. It has been necessary to limit my attention to one particular ethical problem, even though many other problems seem to require at least as much attention as is given here to the nature and function of moral rules. In presenting this thesis, it is my hope that it will in some way contribute to a broader programme of research into the problems of moral judgement. The Bibliography covers a broader field of literature than is directly concerned with the subject of this thesis. It is to be hoped that further research will extend beyond the limitations of my work, into other arias of ethics, so that problems raised in the literature but not dealt with in my thesis can also be given the attention warranted. I wish to record my very special thanks to my Supervisor Dr Mary A. McCloskey who has been my teacher, friend and guide throughout the entire period of my research.
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ItemEvolving autonomy : the mutual selection of social values( 2005)As essential preconditions for intelligent social action, the evolution of human reason and autonomy has considerable significance for the efficacy of moral and political systems. The synergistic co-evolution of these two faculties are shown to enhance the power of human agency in a manner consistent with organic selection processes, such as those proposed and elaborated by Baldwin and Piaget. The superior adaptability of human agents is manifested in the capacity to conceive and judge actions for their pragmatic value as means and ends that can be designed to alter the course of social evolution through co-operative institutions. Moral and political ideas based on the extension of natural co-operation are thereby construed as adaptive strategies that progressively reduce the influence of natural selection in determining human nature, while still requiring the continual growth of reason and autonomy as the indispensable conditions for maintaining and enhancing well-being. As an evolutionary stable strategy, reciprocal altruism is founded upon inherited categories and constraints in the pragmatism of human reasoning which restrict the feasibility of alternative moral and political systems. However, by acknowledging the evolutionary constraints and conditions which maintain and enhance human agency, those systems can be progressively and adaptively reconstructed in accordance with principles and norms of rational coherence and moral reasonability as modelled by the concept of an organic social contract. The hypothetical contract effectively models the dialectical process of social and moral adjustment suggested in Dewey's evolutionary account of reflective thought. By examining the essential conditions of agency in their ecological and dynamic dimensions, Gewirth's argument for establishing categorical rights to those conditions are modified to reflect the organic nature of the conditions which govern the development of adaptive moral agency. Finally, those adaptive concerns are found to be most accurately addressed by Sen's approach in attempting to rectify the inherited inequalities in agents' functional capabilities.