The central concern: justifying the constraints ethics and the law impose on us
Luis Buñuel (film director): "When I was younger, my so-called conscience forbade me to entertain certain images--like fratricide, for instance, or incest. I'd tell myself these were hideous ideas and push them out of my mind. But when I reached the age of sixty, I finally understood the perfect innocence of the imagination...I was free to let my imagination go wherever it chose, even if it produced bloody images and hopelessly decadent ideas. When I realized that, I suddently accepted everything. 'Fine,' I used to say to myself. 'So I sleep with my mother. So what?' Even now, whenever I say that, the notions of sin and incest vanish beneath the great wave of my indifference."
Marquis de Sade
Which ethical and legal constraints are justified, have authority? Which are legitimate, and which, rather, make us unfree? Examples of ethical and legal constraints:
promises: we are constrained to keep our word
privacy: we are constrained not to invade the privacy of others in various ways
criminal law: we are constrained not to rape, murder, steal property, etc.
political obligations: we are required to serve in the military, pay taxes
social taboos: no incest, no adultery
justice and equality
Different conceptions of what makes ethical and legal demands legitimate
religion: constraints are legitimate if set down by God
appeal to nature: constraints are legitimate if they proscribe conduct that is "unnatural"
tradition and shared practices, customs, conventions: constraints are legitimate if they have been traditionally imposed.
rational principles
utility
consent
Kant's natural rights theory [vs. Sade: "we should, at whatever the price, prefer the most minor excitation which enchants us, to the immense sum of others' miseries, which cannot affect us", "because there is no possible comparison between what others experience and what we sense." Rejects idea that one has a right not to be raped or tortured.]
Rejection of (some) ethical and legal constraints (Marx, Nietzsche)
Practice vs. Principle
Burke v. Paine
Hegel v. Kant
Universalism vs Relativism. Are there natural wrongs? Malum in se vs malum prohibitum.
Francois Truffaut's The Wild Child (PN1997.E542, Jupiter campus library)
French Revolution as focal point
Pre-French Revolution authority
How to establish legitimate authority (or justify imposing ethical and legal constraints) after the Revolution
