Morality and Rationality as a Motivation (Book Notes: What Price the Moral High Ground?)

Are we rational? Are we moral? Well, most people like to think of themselves as rational and moral, but obviously that isn't always true. People are motivated to act so that they continue to see themselves as rational and moral - but does that entail necessarily acting rationally and morally?

In What Price the Moral High Ground? Ethical Dilemmas in Competitive Environments, Robert H. Frank writes:

No matter how rationality and morality are defined, both concepts have considerable motivational force. Most people seem to want to think of themselves as moral and also to think of themselves as rational.

When a person’s behavior is characterized by others as immoral or irrational, she usually responds in one of two ways: by changing her behavior, or by changing her beliefs about rationality and morality. Instances of moral behaviors being adopted to win approval from others are familiar. Less common are cases in which people choose immoral behaviors to bolster their sense of rationality...

At first it seems like it would make the most sense to change our behaviors when we find that those behaviors are inconsistent with standards of morality and rationality — but it’s also possible to alter those standards in order to make them consistent with our behavior. Which makes the most sense?

Should our behavior be measured against our standards, or should our standards be measured against our behavior? In theory, the former should make the most sense — but in practice, don’t many people do the latter?

Frank’s final observation is quite interesting: whereas people are willing to act irrationally in order to be or appear more moral, they are not willing to act immorally in order to act or appear more rational. Why is that? Does it suggest that morality is more important for people than rationality?

 

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