I have recently finished Nick Hornby’s How To Be Good and reviewed it on epinions.
It reminded me of my own struggle to define what it means to me to act ethically, which began in my third year of university with a Philosophy course – the Introduction to Moral Reasoning.
I discovered then that I was a utilitarian, and that this makes certain demands on one’s behaviour. I was particularly struck by the notion that gross inequities around the world are un-justifiable and wrote an essay (now lost) that made what was to me a convincing argument that I should sell my goods and distribute the balance to the poor (or work only in order to maximise my income available to give away). Peter Tatchell, the gay rights activist, wrote recently about his struggle to do this – living in London on £7,000 a year (only a preview of his article is available for free).
Needless to say I don’t have the courage to do this myself. Like most liberals I content myself with donating at least 1% of my income to charity – there is a campaign to encourage more people to do this – and doing a little voluntary activism on behalf of my local park. But is this really enough? What is enough?
It is this question that Nick Hornby’s book raises, but does not answer.
By an odd coincidence, a similar struggle with conscience is published in the well-known community website, Fray, this week – a story of a man who tries to help a disabled man but ends up regretting his initial generous impulse when he feels more is being demanded of him than he can bring himself to give.motorola 1.99 vt3 ringtonein rd haubstadt 47639 warrington 1141ringtone 21028ge3-a melody2c 22east pa norrington 22free ringtone download nokia 2312313302312333232i download free nokia ringtoneaudiovox cdm 105 ringtonebarrington 1239 street halifax Map
Interesting point about giving away what you earn and have.
However, I think it is also interesting that fundamentally there should be no such thing as charities. Why do we pay a small fortune in tax to things such as hospitals, education etc. etc. only to be stopped in the street and ask to spare more money for our local hospitals, schools, the homeless etc. etc.
I think it is hard enough to look after oneself these days without having to carry the burden of looking after the rest of the world. Personally I believe that’s why we elect governments, but if they can’t handle the job, then there is obviously something completely wrong with the way human race works.
Comment by Chris Brock — 6 March 2002 @ 2:35 pm
“there is obviously something completely wrong with the way human race works” – well, indeed.
But if you know that the government doesn’t do enough to help the people either of your own nation or of the world community I feel you can’t just stand by idly and shrug – you have a moral duty to do something yourself even if you feel someone else should be doing something instead. My question being – how do you know if you have done enough?
Comment by David — 6 March 2002 @ 3:14 pm
The fundamental flaw with utilitarianism is that one can nevery truly know when s/he is maximizing utility. Without the aide of a crystal ball – a utilitarian is no better equiped to handle ethical questions than the not utilitarian.
Phrases like “how can such and such an act hurt anyone” or “the world would surely be a better place if I did such and such” go straight to the problem.
We can do our best to maximize utility – but we just never know – heck you might feel good about giving 50 cents to a hungry person so they can buy themselves a taco (and i’m sure they might feel pretty good about it too), but it could be that the consumption of that toco results in the creation of just enough extra methane gas in the bowel of the starving person to push the environmental equalibrium out of whack ultimatly resulting in an unstoppable greenhouse gas effect that would eventually destroy the world….
hmmmmm
Comment by chachi — 19 March 2002 @ 3:29 am
I agree that this is difficult to do, but who said ethical judgement was easy? I just think that if you are going to follow some kind of rule to justify action or inaction, a utilitarian principle is the best option available.
Comment by David Brake — 19 March 2002 @ 9:10 am