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Thought Experiment 83: The Golden Rule

3/6/2017

2 Comments

 
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I love this week's thought experiment so much. Not because of the characters in it, or because of the (ahem) thrust of their actions, but because we're using the experiment to examine commonly received wisdom to see whether a bumper sticker motto is empty or not. Let's take a look.

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     Constance had always tried to observe the golden rule of morality: do as you would be done by, or, as Kant rather inelegantly put it, "Act only on that maxim through which you can at the same time will that it should become a universal law."
     Now, however, she is sorely tempted by something that would seem to go against that principle. She has the chance to run off with the husband of her best friend, taking their entire family fortune with them. On the face of it, that would not be doing as she would be done by.
     But, she reasoned, things are more complex than that. When we lock up a criminal, we are not saying we should also be locked up. We are saying that we should be locked up if we were in the same circumstance as the criminal. That proviso is crucial; context is all.
     So, the question she should be asking herself is this: can she "will that is should become a universal law" that people in her circumstances should run off with their best friend's husband and fortune? Put like that, the answer seems to be yes. She's not saying adultery and asset-stripping are usually good, only that in her specific circumstances they are. So that's settled then: she can run away with a clear conscience.

Sources: The Analectics of Confucius (5th century BCE); Groundwork for the Metaphysics of Morals by Immanuel Kant (1785).

Baggini, J., The Pig That Wants to Be Eaten, 2005, p. 247.
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Obviously Constance is crazy. But that's the point. As Baggini says in his explanation of this thought experiment:

"The problem Constance's situation highlights is not just a sophisticated joke at the rule's expense. It goes to the heart of what the principle actually means. For either one of two extreme interpretations, the principle is either ridiculous or empty."

So what do you think? Can the golden rule actually be tarnished? Does rule-based morality ever work? I'll post my response on Friday, but please share your thoughts below in the meantime.
2 Comments
John A. Johnson
3/7/2017 12:11:31 am

To my mind, both the categorical imperative and golden rule are poorly worded. I double-checked Kant's original German to make sure nothing was lost in translation to English. "Handle nur nach derjenigen Maxime, durch die du zugleich wollen kannst, dass sie ein allgemeines Gesetz werde." Not really. The English translation, "Act only according to that maxim by which you can at the same time will that it should become a universal law" is not quite accurate, as the word "should" does not appear in the original German. (If it did we would see the word "sollen." But either way, we have the bizarre idea that people can will universal (or general, another meaning of allgemeine) laws into existence.

Pray tell, how does a person bring into existence a universal law by an act of will? Can I will into existence universal laws of chemistry and physics such as PV=nRT? Clearly not. If there are universal moral laws, that is, laws that apply to everyone equally and are true independently of human thought (like PV=nRT), wouldn't we have to discover them rather than will them into existence?

So many people have declared that Kant was a great thinker and writer. On the topic of epistemology I might agree, but not on the topic of morality. One might go easy on him by interpreting the categorical imperative as a clumsy expression of something like the golden rule. But I can't cut him that kind of slack. He was a professional philosopher who should have written more clearly.

Some version of the so-called golden rule can be found in every culture of the world. There are many lists on the Internet pointing to the presence of the golden rule across cultures, religions, and philosophies, e.g., http://www.religioustolerance.org/reciproc2.htm . Some versions, I think, are better worded than others. One of my favorites is the Yoruba "One going to take a pointed stick to pinch a baby bird should first try it on himself to feel how it hurts."

I have nothing against the spirit of the golden rule, but I do not like how it is worded in Christianity, “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” (Luke 6:31). This wording assumes that others want to be treated the same way you want to be treated. To the extent that people are similar, this works, but what if I want to be treated in ways that you do not want to be treated? What if I love Brussels sprouts and would like nothing more than to have you bring me a bowl of them every day, but if you hate Brussels sprouts should I bring you a bowl every day because that's how I would like to be treated?

I strongly prefer the platinum rule ("Treat others the way they want to be treated") in combination with the silver rule ("Do no harm"). (The silver rule prevents us from harming others when they say that is what they want.) A woman following the platinum+silver rules would never harm her best friend by running off with her husband.

Wording principles clearly is important. I say that we scrap the golden rule for the platinum+silver combo, which preserves the spirit of the golden rule without introducing the unwarranted assumption that everyone wants to be treated the same way.

Reply
@EdGibney link
3/7/2017 10:44:04 am

Thanks so much John. It's like you got my memo on research that I needed to do. : ) I'm a big fan of the platinum rule so I will be quoting from this at length in my post on Friday.

Reply



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