Transcript Powerpoint

Integrity and Moral Voice:
Some Preliminary Considerations
Lawrence M. Hinman, Ph.D.
Professor of Philosophy
University of San Diego
Larry at EthicsMatters dot net
July 29, 2016
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Table of Contents
• Understanding Moral Differences
• Gilligan on Moral Voices
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Part One.
Understanding Moral Differences
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The Standard Model
Moral disagreement is often viewed as a zero-sum game: for
one person to be right, the others have to be wrong.
The argument culture that dominates applied ethics
exemplifies this. A tremendous amount of energy is
expended on showing how others are wrong.
Furthermore, the implicit premise is that our moral beliefs
cohere according to an inner logic best delineated by a
traditional ethical theory—deontological, consequentialist,
etc.
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An Alternative Model:
Integrity and Moral Voice
In the following model, I would like to suggest that moral
difference is not necessarily best understood as moral
disagreement.
To this end, we will explore Carol Gilligan’s account of moral
voice, which avoids sacrificing the subtle texture of the
moral life to a univocal standard of correctness.
We all have moral voices, voices that represent our
individual identity, those beliefs and practices that are at
the core of who we are.
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Difference and Disagreement
Moral
Voices
#1
Moral
Voices
#2
Moral
Voices
#3
Minimal
Requirement:
Human
Rights
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Voice and Moral Minimums
There needs to be some moral floor below which we cannot
sink, a moral minimum. This may well be best articulated
through a notion of basic human rights.
Above and beyond this, we have individual moral identities,
which reflect much more specifically and individually who
someone is. Such identities are not solely moral in
character, but typcially contain a moral component.
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Examples of Moral Voices
• Gandhi
• Nonviolence Speech (Ben Kingsley)
• A soldier of peace
• Dalai Lama
• Optimism in the face of adversity
• Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
• “I have a Dream”
• Maya Angelou
• Letter to My Daughter
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Part Two.
Gilligan and Moral Voices
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Gilligan’s Initial Research
• Gilligan began with an interest in moral development.
• She had been a teaching assistant for Erik Erikson.
• She was particularly interested in the issue Kohlberg raised:
why do some individuals recognize a higher moral law, while
others simply are content to obey the rules without question?
• Here initial research project was directed toward draft resisters
during the Vietnam war.
• Nixon cancelled the draft just as her project was getting started.
• She switched to study women who had made difficult moral
choices about abortion.
• Not originally concerned about gender issue.
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Gilligan’s Critique
Introduction
In light of the differences between the scores of males and
females on the Kohlberg scale, one could draw either of
two conclusions:
• females are less morally developed than males, or
• something is wrong with Kohlberg’s framework.
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Gilligan’s Critique
Introduction
Gilligan began to look
more closely at the
responses she was
receiving in her work,
and began to suspect
that Kohlberg’s
framework did not
illuminate the
responses she was
encountering. It was
like trying to put round
pegs into square holes.
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Gilligan’s Concept of Voice
The metaphor of “voice” replaced orientation
and theory.
• Concrete and specific
• Allows harmony without imposing sameness
• Not competitive or combative but collaborative
• Combines both emotion and content
• Voices may be described in a wide vocabulary that
has nothing to do with right or wrong, true or false
• Voices may be different without excluding one
another.
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Differences between Men’s Moral Voices
and Women’s Moral Voices
Men
Women
Justice
Rights
Treating everyone fairly
and the same
Apply rules impartially to
everyone
Responsibility toward
abstract codes of
conduct
Care
Responsibility
Caring about everyone’s
suffering
Preserve emotional
connectedness
Responsibility toward real
individuals
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Differences between Men’s and Women’s
View of the Self
Men
Women
Autonomy
Freedom
Independence
Separateness
Hierarchy
Rules guide interactions
Roles establish places in
the hierarchy
Relatedness
Interdependence
Emotional connectedness
Responsiveness to needs of
others
Web of relationships
Empathy & connectedness
guide interactions
Roles are secondary to
connections
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Differences between Men’s and Women’s
View of Moral Safety
Men
Women
Sense of gender identity Sense of gender identity
grounded in initial act of
grounded in initial act of
separation from mother
identification with mother
Threatened by anything thatThreatened by anything that
threatens sense of
undermines sense of
separation
identification
Being at the top of the
Experience top of hierarchy as
hierarchy is appealing
isolated and detached
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Stages of Women’s Moral Development
Concern for individual survival
• Transition from selfishness to responsibility
Goodness equated with self-sacrifice
• Transition from self-sacrifice to giving themselves
permission to take care of themselves
Goodness seen as caring for both self and
others
• Inclusive, Nonviolent
• Condemns exploitation and hurt
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Part Three.
Four Models of the Place of Gender in
Ethics
Justice
Men
Rights
Treating everyone fairly
and the same
Apply rules impartially to
everyone
Responsibility toward
abstract codes of
conduct
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How do we understand Gilligan’s claims?
Four possible models:
Separate but equal
• Men and women have different but equally valuable moral
voices
Superiority thesis
• Women’s moral voices are superior
Integrationist thesis
• Only one moral voice, same for both men and women
Diversity thesis
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The Separate but Equal Thesis
Separate but equal: Men and women have
different but equally valuable moral voices
Criticisms:
• Reinforces traditional stereotypes
• Hard to retain the “...but equal” part
• Suggests that men and women have nothing to learn
from one another, since each has its own exclusive
moral voice
• Devalues men with a “female voice” and women with
a “male voice”
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The Superiority Thesis
Superiority thesis
• Women’s moral voices are superior
Criticisms
• Inversion of traditional claims of male superiority
• Exclusionary
• Demands that one side of the comparison be the loser
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The Integrationist Thesis
Integrationist thesis
• Only one moral voice, same for both men and women
• Morality is androgynous
Criticisms
• Loses richness of diversity
• Tends to be assimilationist in practice, reducing other
voices to the voice of the powerful majority
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The Diversity Thesis
Diversity thesis
• Suggests that there are different moral voices
• Sees this as a source of richness and growth in the
moral life
• External diversity
- Different individuals have different, sex-based moral voices
• Internal diversity
- Each of us have both masculine and feminine moral voices
within us
- Minimizes gender stereotyping
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Two Models of Internal Gender Diversity
There are two ways of thinking about the relationship
between masculinity and femininity within each individual
• Exclusive
• Inclusive
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Exclusive Models of Internal Gender
Diversity
Traditionally, we have thought of gender in exclusionary
terms
• The more masculine a person is, the less feminine that
person is
• The more feminine a person is, the less masculine that
person is
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Exclusive Models of Internal Gender
Diversity
In this model, which is the most common
traditional model, an increase in masculinity
is bought at the price of a decrease in
femininity, and vice versa.
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The Bem Scale
In Sandra Bem’s
conceptualization
of gender, an
increase in
femininity is not
bought at the price
of a decrease in
masculinity and
vice versa
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Conclusion
Thinking about gender in Bem’s framework allows us to to
appreciate both the feminine and the masculine moral
voices within each of us and to avoid traditional
stereotypes.
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