PHILOS 2YY3 Lecture Notes - Lecture 5: Relativism
1 Nov 2017
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A social convention rests on tacit agreement. People adhere to a certain principle so that others will also adhere to it: (money, property, promising) 4 elements of conventions: contribute to mutual bene t, need not result from explicit agreement, each believes others obey, given belief, each has reason to obey. In state of nature: no moral conventions, no right and wrong, out of self-interest, we develop conventions to manage con icts and live with each other, we bargain and compromise, actual not hypothetical agreement. Hume"s tacit convention theory of morality: most of morality a result of convention. Moral duties and obligations depend on conventions. Sympathy leads us to approve/disapprove apart from convention (e. g. , kindness in state of nature: initially motivated by self-interest, habit develops and obligations seem natural. Judging person vs. judging action: appeal to person"s own morality when we judge him or her, appeal to our morality when we judge situation/act, hitler example:
