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95831
Sat, 12/19/2009 - 15:42
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http://m.oananews.org//node/95831
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Political systems must first clarify their moral basis: philosopher
TEHRAN, Dec. 17 (MNA) - Yale University professor Stephen Darwall believes the most important question concerning the relationship between ethics and politics is that what are the distinctive ethical ideas in which the justification of political systems must be grounded.
Darwall made the remarks in an e-mail interview with the Mehr News Agency conducted by Hossein Kaji and Javad Heiran-Nia last week.
Following is the text of the interview:
Q: What are the most important questions about the relationship between ethics and politics?
A: To my mind the most important question concerning the relationship between ethics and politics is: What are the distinctive ethical ideas in which the justification of political systems must be grounded? Because politics by its nature concerns the putatively legitimate direction of people's conduct, it requires the right kind of justification. For example, it is not a sufficient argument for political legitimacy that some good end will be achieved by a regime, since the most that can show is that it might be desirable for us to recognize a regime as legitimate, not that it really is legitimate or has the authority it purports to have. I would argue that any plausible argument must ultimately be based on the equal dignity of persons, where this latter is understood as an authority every person has to be, as John Rawls put it, "a self-originating source of valid claims."
Q: Some thinkers have focused on the point that the Kantian ethics is for personal spheres and the utilitarian ethics is for public spheres such as political environment. Do you agree with this viewpoint?
A: I understand why someone might think of utilitarianism as more appropriate at the level of political policy or administration than at the individual ethical level, since utilitarianism seems especially implausible there. But I think it is implausible at that level also, largely because it permits tradeoffs of welfare that are incompatible with the natural rights that derive from the equal dignity of persons. Of course, that is much easier to say than adequately to defend, and utilitarians advance theories of rights also, but I think that they cannot be ultimately satisfactory.
Stephen Darwall is Andrew Downey Orrick Professor of Department of Philosophy, Yale University. He was president of American Philosophical Association. He is author of many books such as “Impartial Reason”, ”Philosophical ethics” ,”Welfare and Rational Care” and “The Second Person Standpoint: Respect ,Morality, and Accountability”.
Darwall made the remarks in an e-mail interview with the Mehr News Agency conducted by Hossein Kaji and Javad Heiran-Nia last week.
Following is the text of the interview:
Q: What are the most important questions about the relationship between ethics and politics?
A: To my mind the most important question concerning the relationship between ethics and politics is: What are the distinctive ethical ideas in which the justification of political systems must be grounded? Because politics by its nature concerns the putatively legitimate direction of people's conduct, it requires the right kind of justification. For example, it is not a sufficient argument for political legitimacy that some good end will be achieved by a regime, since the most that can show is that it might be desirable for us to recognize a regime as legitimate, not that it really is legitimate or has the authority it purports to have. I would argue that any plausible argument must ultimately be based on the equal dignity of persons, where this latter is understood as an authority every person has to be, as John Rawls put it, "a self-originating source of valid claims."
Q: Some thinkers have focused on the point that the Kantian ethics is for personal spheres and the utilitarian ethics is for public spheres such as political environment. Do you agree with this viewpoint?
A: I understand why someone might think of utilitarianism as more appropriate at the level of political policy or administration than at the individual ethical level, since utilitarianism seems especially implausible there. But I think it is implausible at that level also, largely because it permits tradeoffs of welfare that are incompatible with the natural rights that derive from the equal dignity of persons. Of course, that is much easier to say than adequately to defend, and utilitarians advance theories of rights also, but I think that they cannot be ultimately satisfactory.
Stephen Darwall is Andrew Downey Orrick Professor of Department of Philosophy, Yale University. He was president of American Philosophical Association. He is author of many books such as “Impartial Reason”, ”Philosophical ethics” ,”Welfare and Rational Care” and “The Second Person Standpoint: Respect ,Morality, and Accountability”.
