Summary
Title: Being Good
Author: Simon Blackburn
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0192853775
Pro:
• Easy to read, engaging, and very informative
• Helpful for even non-philosophers and non-students
• Blackburn doesn’t talk down to the reader
Con:
• None
Description:
• Introduction to ethics, ethical system, and ethical problem solving
• Explains advantages and disadvantages of different ethical theories
• Explores relationship between religion and ethics
Book Review
To begin with, Blackburn acknowledges that there have been serious challenges to the whole project of even trying to think ethically. Because of this, people have been uncertain whether or not it is worth getting involved with ethical thinking:
- ...the present volume grew from a parallel conviction that most introductions to ethics failed to confront what really bothers people about the subject. What bothers them, I believe, are the many causes we have to fear that ethical claims are a kind of sham.
He counts seven issues which bring ethical thinking into question: the “death” of god and religion, relativism, evolutionary theory, egoism, determinism, unreasonable demands and false consciousness.
With each, he explains why they do not make ethics “impossible” after all. First, he explains how religion’s declining influence does not harm ethical thinking — indeed, abandoning the idea that a god is necessary to define ethics may be helpful because it frees us to make independent choices, rather than to simply be automatons. Relativism is a more serious challenge, but when taken to its logical conclusion relativism refutes itself and removes the arguer from the conversation altogether.
Egoism is the idea that all acts are selfish and, hence, there are no ethics in the first place. But this is ultimately an error:
- The reason this is a trick is that it empties the view of all content. It kidnaps the word ‘self-interest’ for whatever the agent is concerned about. But just for that reason it loses any predictive or explanatory force. With this understanding of interest or self-interest you could never say, ‘Watch, the agent won’t do this but will do that because, like all agents, she acts out of self-interest.’ All you can do is wait to see what the agent in fact does, and then read back and boringly announce that this is where her interest lay.
What this sort of explanation reduces to, then, is a series of ad hoc explanations for what already has happened in order to support a pre-defined worldview.
What this sort of explanation reduces to, then, is a series of ad hoc explanations for what already has happened in order to support a pre-defined worldview.
After he goes through all seven problems and explores issues which draw ethical attention — like birth and death — he addresses several ethical theories which people use in their efforts to arrive at genuine ethical decisions. He covers deontology, utilitarianism, rights theories and Kant’s categorical imperative. Thinking ethically isn’t done randomly or in a vacuum, but is instead part of a process. Different sorts of processes generally fall into one of the above categories.
When faced with an ethical problem, how do you seek a solution? Do you try to maximize the good for the most people? Do you try to identify universal laws and then try to follow them? Do you seek the advice of authority figures or authoritative books?
In the end, though, he argues that none of them ultimately do the job they are supposed to. All might offer reasons (little ‘r’) for being good, but none offer the elusive Reason (big ‘R’) for being good. This Reason is something that anyone, at any time, should be willing to agree with.
Because of this, he recommends people actively engage in ethical dialogue in an effort to arrive at a common point of view for making ethical decisions. Certainly there is no guarantee that such sharing will be successful, but at least there is a chance — and without a dialogue, there is no chance at all. This alone makes it the most rational option available to us.
This is a very good introduction to the entire range of ethical issues. Very rarely will you find a short, easy-to-read book that covers ethical challenges, ethical issues and ethical solutions in a way that even non-philosophers can enjoy and learn from. And Blackburn doesn’t talk down to the reader — this is not an “Ethics for Dummies” book. He respects the ability of the reader to understand important dilemmas and to follow him as he charts possible courses through the rocks and shoals of ethical thinking.
