The Rational and the Moral Order The Social Roots of Reason and Morality

by Baier, Kurt

• ISBN13: 9780812692648
• ISBN10: 0812692640
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1999-01-08
• Publisher: Open Court

Summary

'The Rational and the Moral Order' is a significant book providing a comprehensive theory of morality. The opening chapter is simply marvellous. Baier provides a cogent response to Hume's conundrums on practical reasoning: logical entailment, he argues, is not the correct model of the relation between reasons and that for which they are reasons. Indeed, the giving of reasons is, in part, a social enterprise, and there is no necessary connection between rationality and self-interest.

Just as the giving of reasons is a social enterprise taught to succeeding generations, so too is the moral enterprise, for a moral order is a social order of some sort. It is a social order that encourages a critical stance toward, and permits the correction of, its mores. Moral precepts can be sound or unsound, and yet can be relative to a moral order.

In the concluding chapter Baier shows how his theoretical framework can be used to confront some of the moral problems people face, problems which have also exercised contemporary philosophers. Though there are many philosophers who believe that killing is worse than letting anyone die, there are few that defend the view other than by raw intuition. Baier deploys the resources of his theory of morality in support of this widely shared but poorly defended viewpoints.

"Along the way, Baier deals with virtually all the problems that have taxed moral philosophers for a very long time -- rationality, responsibility, morality's relation to law, the good life, prisoner's dilemma, moral motivation, and others. The Rational and the Moral Order is careful, insightful, and convincing." --Theodore M. Benditt, University of Alabama

Table of Contents

Preface	xiii
Acknowledgments	xv
Introduction: Three Problems for Ethical Theory	1	(3)
The Rationality Problem	4	(3)
The Motivation Problem	7	(9)
Morality and Sanctions	16	(5)
Book One: The Order of Reason
PART ONE: A THEORY OF REASON	21	(66)
The Concept of Reason	23	(34)
The Right Conception of the Concept of Reason	23	(3)
Reason in Philosophy and Common Sense	26	(2)
The Dominant Conception	28	(1)
Hume's Demotion of Reason in Practice	29	(2)
The Dominant Conception of Theoretical Reason	31	(3)
A Fresh Start	34	(1)
Rationality	35	(2)
Evaluation from the Rational Point of View	37	(3)
Other Evaluative Terms from the Concept of Reason	40	(3)
The Typology of Reason	43	(6)
Why Follow Reason?	49	(4)
The Concept of Reason	53	(4)
The Form of Directive Reasons	57	(30)
Introduction	57	(6)
The Dimensions of Directive Reason-Statements	63	(21)
The Constituent: That Which Constitutes the Reason, That Which the Reason-Statement Is About	63	(1)
The Context of Explanation	63	(2)
The Context of Justification	65	(1)
The Context of Deliberation	65	(1)
The Target	66	(3)
The Force	69	(1)
Monotonic and Nonmonotonic Reasons	69	(1)
Defeating Force	70	(6)
Requiring and Permissive Reasons	76	(2)
Sanctions	78	(1)
Margin of Victory	79	(1)
The Group	79	(2)
The Scope and the Range	81	(3)
Abstract and Concrete Reason-Statements	84	(3)
The Form of Directive Reason-Statements	84	(3)
Book One: The Order of Reason
PART TWO: A THEORY OF PRACTICAL REASON	87	(108)
Practical Reasons and Motives	89	(30)
Internalism versus Externalism	89	(2)
Different Types of Behavior and Their Explanations	91	(18)
The Haunted Organic Machine	92	(1)
The Prisoner in His Body	93	(1)
Simon, The Single-Motivation Agent	94	(2)
Emma, The Multiple-Motivation Agent	96	(2)
Motivating Beliefs	98	(6)
Custer, The Decision Maker	104	(5)
The Peculiarities of Reason Explanations	109	(3)
Reasons and Considerations	112	(7)
The Ground of Practical Reasons	119	(36)
Subjective and Objective Practical Reasons	119	(11)
Practical Reasons and the Good	130	(3)
Points of View	133	(2)
One's Own Good	135	(5)
One's Own Point of View	140	(4)
Flawed Conceptions of the Good Life	144	(11)
Society-Anchored Reasons	155	(40)
Abandoning the Simplifying Supposition	155	(2)
The Rational Limitations of good Will	157	(5)
Prisoner's Dilemma	162	(11)
Altruism	173	(13)
Sen's Version of Increased Altruism	175	(11)
Conditional Good Will	186	(9)
Book Two: The Moral Order
PART ONE: A THEORY OF MORALITY	195	(94)
The Social and the Moral Order	197	(28)
The Concept of Morality	197	(1)
A Moral Order	198	(4)
Mores and the Moral Order	202	(12)
Individual and Social Moralities	214	(6)
Moralities and Morality	220	(5)
The Moral Enterprise	225	(64)
The Divine Command Theory	225	(4)
Is Out Inquiry Possible?	229	(4)
The Design of the Enterprise of Society-Anchored Reason	233	(29)
Enterprises: Their Natures and Ends	234	(3)
The Nature of the EnterpriseR	237	(1)
The Structure of the EnterpriseR	238	(3)
The End of the EnterpriseR	241	(5)
The Function of the EnterpriseR	246	(4)
Society-Anchored Reason in the Real World	250	(12)
The Moral Enterprise	262	(11)
The Nature of the EnterpriseM	263	(2)
The Structure of the EnterpriseM	265	(4)
The End and the Function of the EnterpriseM	269	(4)
Some Corollaries	273	(8)
The Moral Domain	281	(3)
Why Be Moral?	284	(5)
Book Two: The Moral Order
PART TWO: FROM THEORY TO PRACTICE	289	(102)
The Design of Our Moral Code	291	(52)
Introduction	291	(2)
The Form and Status of Moral Precepts	293	(5)
The Basic Terminology of Our Moal Code	298	(4)
Natural (or General) Morality	302	(8)
Natural Duties and Natural Wrongs	302	(4)
Types of Natural Duty	306	(3)
Intrinsic and Extrinsic Duties	309	(1)
Institutional (Artificial) Morality	310	(8)
The Role of the Principle	310	(2)
Institutionally Created Duties	312	(3)
Obligations	315	(3)
Responsibility and Desert	318	(8)
Justice and Equity	326	(17)
Justice	327	(11)
Equity	338	(5)
Applications	343	(48)
The Moral Life	343	(7)
Wrongful Death	350	(8)
Transplant	358	(33)
Killing and Letting Live	359	(9)
Moral Comparisons between Killing and Letting Die	368	(4)
Another Kind of Moral Comparison between Killing and Letting Die	372	(9)
Judging Particular Cases	381	(5)
Morally Wrong---Absolutely; Other Things Equal; all Things Considered	386	(5)
Notes	391	(36)
Bibliography of Publications Cited	427	(8)
Index	435