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Western Philosophy
21st Century Philosophers
Name
Iain King
Birth 1971
School/tradition analytic philosophy, rationalism, cognitivism, Ethics, Meta-ethics, Quasi-realism, Political philosophy, Philosophy of religion
Notable ideas The Help Principle, All-time value
Influenced by David Hume, Peter Singer, Simon Blackburn, Newton, Kant, Bentham

Iain King (born 1971) is a contemporary British moral philosopher. See also [[Analytic philosophy]] and [[Continental philosophy]] Contemporary philosophy is the period in the history of philosophy that began at the end of the nineteenth Analytic philosophy (sometimes analytical philosophy) is a generic term for a style of Philosophy that came to dominate English-speaking countries in the 20th century In Epistemology and in its broadest sense rationalism is "any view appealing to Reason as a source of knowledge or justification" (Lacey 286 Ethics is a major branch of Philosophy, encompassing right conduct and good life In Philosophy, meta-ethics (sometimes called "analytic ethics" is the branch of Ethics that seeks to understand the nature of ethical properties Quasi-realism is the meta-ethical view which claims that Ethical sentences do not express Propositions Instead ethical sentences Political philosophy is the study of questions about the City, Government, Politics, Liberty, Justice, Property, Rights Philosophy of religion is a branch of Philosophy that is concerned with the philosophical study of religion including arguments over the nature and existence of God religious The Help Principle comes in two forms The basic form is Help someone if your help is worth more to them than it is to you All time value is a hypothetical concept posited by Iain King partly in response to criticisms of Utilitarianism by Bernard Williams. David Hume (26 April 1711 25 August 1776 Scottish Philosopher, Economist, and Historian is an important figure in Western philosophy Peter Albert David Singer (born July 6, 1946 in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia) is an Australian philosopher. Simon Blackburn (born 1944 is a British academic Philosopher known for his efforts to popularise Philosophy. Sir Isaac Newton, FRS (ˈnjuːtən 4 January 1643 31 March 1727) Biography Early years See also Isaac Newton's early life and achievements Immanuel Kant (ɪmanuəl kant 22 April 1724 12 February 1804 was an 18th-century German Philosopher from the Prussian city of Königsberg Jeremy Bentham ( IPA: or) (15 February 1748&ndash6 June 1832 was an English Jurist, Philosopher, and legal and Social reformer The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom, the UK or Britain,is a Sovereign state located Ethics is a major branch of Philosophy, encompassing right conduct and good life He studied at Pembroke College, Oxford, and was latterly a Fellow of Wolfson College, Cambridge. Pembroke College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England, located in Pembroke Square. Outside philosophy, he has written on Kosovo, the Northern Ireland Peace Process, and postwar reconstruction. When discussing the History of Northern Ireland, the " peace process " is generally considered to cover the events leading up to the 1994 Provisional Irish Republican A postwar reconstruction is a reconstruction after a war See also Interwar period Marshall Plan Reconstruction

Iain King's theories of meta-ethics and ethics try to reconcile several divergent schools of thought. In Philosophy, meta-ethics (sometimes called "analytic ethics" is the branch of Ethics that seeks to understand the nature of ethical properties Ethics is a major branch of Philosophy, encompassing right conduct and good life In the manner of early enlightenment philosophers, King's stated aim is to apply the scientific revolution to ethics just as Isaac Newton applied it to physics, thereby replacing commonplace guesswork and judgement in matters of right and wrong with clear formulas for what people should do in difficult situations, all justified by deductive proof rather than opinion. The Age of Enlightenment or The Enlightenment is a term used to describe a phase in Western philosophy and cultural life centered upon the eighteenth century The period which many historians of science call the Scientific Revolution can be roughly dated as having begun in 1543 the year in which Nicolaus Copernicus published Sir Isaac Newton, FRS (ˈnjuːtən 4 January 1643 31 March 1727) Biography Early years See also Isaac Newton's early life and achievements Physics (Greek Physis - φύσις in everyday terms is the Science of Matter and its motion. In Mathematics and in the Sciences a formula (plural formulae, formulæ or formulas) is a concise way of expressing information Deductive reasoning is Reasoning which uses deductive Arguments to move from given statements ( Premises to Conclusions which must be true if the [1] He also tries to reconcile a definitive account of right and wrong with the possibility of different but equally justified opinions, for example resulting from cultural or reasonable political differences. In philosophical Ethics, value pluralism (also known as ethical pluralism or moral pluralism) is the idea that there are several values which

Contents

Influences

King's influences include deontological ethics drawn from Immanuel Kant, R. M. Hare and John Rawls; virtue theory associated with Aristotle and the philosophers of Ancient Greece; the tradition of David Hume, in particular the quasi-realism espoused by his contemporary disciple, professor Simon Blackburn; and the utilitarianism of Jeremy Bentham, John Stuart Mill, and Peter Singer. Deontological ethics or deontology (from Greek grc δέον deon, "obligation duty" and grc -λογία -logia) is an Immanuel Kant (ɪmanuəl kant 22 April 1724 12 February 1804 was an 18th-century German Philosopher from the Prussian city of Königsberg Richard Mervyn Hare ( 21 March 1919  &ndash 29 January 2002) was an English moral philosopher who held the post of White's John Rawls ( February 21, 1921  &ndash November 24, 2002) was an American Philosopher, a Professor of Virtue theory is a branch of Moral philosophy that emphasizes character rather than rules or consequences as the key element of ethical thinking Aristotle (Greek Aristotélēs) (384 BC – 322 BC was a Greek philosopher a student of Plato and teacher of Alexander the Great. The term ancient Greece refers to the period of Greek history lasting from the Greek Dark Ages ca David Hume (26 April 1711 25 August 1776 Scottish Philosopher, Economist, and Historian is an important figure in Western philosophy Quasi-realism is the meta-ethical view which claims that Ethical sentences do not express Propositions Instead ethical sentences Simon Blackburn (born 1944 is a British academic Philosopher known for his efforts to popularise Philosophy. Utilitarianism is the idea that the moral worth of an action is solely determined by its contribution to overall Utility, that is its contribution to happiness Jeremy Bentham ( IPA: or) (15 February 1748&ndash6 June 1832 was an English Jurist, Philosopher, and legal and Social reformer John Stuart Mill (20 May 1806 &ndash 8 May 1873 British Philosopher, political economist, civil servant and Member of Parliament, was an influential Peter Albert David Singer (born July 6, 1946 in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia) is an Australian philosopher.

Meta-ethics

King presents his main theory as a correction of utilitarianism, with which he identifies seven flaws. But rather than then dismissing the theory as other critics have done (see Bernard Williams on this), he seeks to correct them one by one, and thereby creates a radically different theory which enjoys all the positive attributes of utilitarianism without any of the drawbacks. Sir Bernard Arthur Owen Williams FBA (21 September 1929 &ndash 10 June 2003 has been described as the most important British moral philosopher of his time This approach forces him to construct a new meta-ethics upon which to base his account of right and wrong. In Philosophy, meta-ethics (sometimes called "analytic ethics" is the branch of Ethics that seeks to understand the nature of ethical properties

For a starting point he argues that we should all seek value because it may be there to be found and, if not, there is nothing to lose by seeking it. This rationalist argument is a humanist reworking of Pascal's Wager which advocates believing in God on the basis of probability and the precautionary principle, and is vulnerable to some of the same criticisms; it may also be circular. In Epistemology and in its broadest sense rationalism is "any view appealing to Reason as a source of knowledge or justification" (Lacey 286 Pascal's Wager (or Pascal's Gambit) is a suggestion posed by the French Philosopher Blaise Pascal that even though the Existence of God Probability is the likelihood or chance that something is the case or will happen The precautionary principle is a moral and political principle which states that if an action or policy might cause severe or irreversible harm to the public or to the environment in the King’s assertion that ‘the meaning of life is to seek value’ [1] is contentious.

From ‘seek value’, King takes two complementary routes to what he describes as the ‘DNA of right and wrong – empathy and obligation. Deoxyribonucleic acid ( DNA) is a Nucleic acid that contains the genetic instructions used in the development and functioning of all known ’[1] First, in line with David Hume and Adam Smith, he argues that value for individuals requires good social relations which, in turn, requires people to share genuine sympathy – not just mutual self-interest, but real concern for each other; hence, seeking value requires empathy. David Hume (26 April 1711 25 August 1776 Scottish Philosopher, Economist, and Historian is an important figure in Western philosophy Adam Smith ( baptised 16 June 1723 – 17 July 1790) was a Scottish moral philosopher and a pioneer of Political economy. The second draws on 20th century ordinary language philosophy and Quasi-realism to argue that empathy and obligation uniquely match all we can know about words like ‘should’ and ‘ought’. The twentieth century of the Common Era began on Ordinary language philosophy is a philosophical school that approached traditional philosophical problems as rooted in misunderstandings philosophers develop by forgetting what words actually Quasi-realism is the meta-ethical view which claims that Ethical sentences do not express Propositions Instead ethical sentences

The help principle

Empathy and obligation lead automatically to the Help Principle, which King expresses in two forms. The Help Principle comes in two forms The basic form is Help someone if your help is worth more to them than it is to you First, the basic form:

Then, after some refinement, in the final form as:

From this Help Principle he then derives a raft of ethical principles, including ways to judge actions by their consequences. King’s meta-ethical theory therefore transcends the debate about whether right and wrong concern characteristics (virtue ethics), actions (deontological ethics) and outcomes (consequentialism) – he presents it as all three, and draws an analogy with light which behaves as waves in some situations and as particles in others (wave–particle duality). Virtue theory is a branch of Moral philosophy that emphasizes character rather than rules or consequences as the key element of ethical thinking Deontological ethics or deontology (from Greek grc δέον deon, "obligation duty" and grc -λογία -logia) is an Consequentialism refers to those moral theories which hold that the consequences of a particular action form the basis for any valid moral judgment about that action In Physics and Chemistry, wave–particle duality is the concept that all Matter and Energy exhibits both Wave -like and [2]

Ethics

Ethical principles

King develops an intermediate set of principles to bridge the gap between meta-ethics and ethics, derived by deductive reasoning from the Help Principle. In Philosophy, meta-ethics (sometimes called "analytic ethics" is the branch of Ethics that seeks to understand the nature of ethical properties Ethics is a major branch of Philosophy, encompassing right conduct and good life Deductive reasoning is Reasoning which uses deductive Arguments to move from given statements ( Premises to Conclusions which must be true if the King goes to considerable lengths to show that these secondary rules and principles follow automatically from empathy, obligation and the Help Principle, to establish them as axioms of ethics rather than opinions. In traditional Logic, an axiom or postulate is a proposition that is not proved or demonstrated but considered to be either self-evident, or subject They include:

From these, he offers clear moral guidelines, some of which run against established thinking. He covers a range of areas, including:

On lying

King dismisses the common rule ‘don’t lie’ as hypocritical because most people lie quite often. Arguing that lies can sometimes serve good purposes, he derives from his axioms of ethics:

King uses a similar approach to deduce rules on making and breaking promises. [1]

On romance

King tries to establish clear rules for sexual conduct and romance. The strict requirement that these rules can apply independent of cultural settings means that the resulting norms are somewhat bland, although they do generally imply a liberal line. [1]

On decision-making in groups

King seeks a third way between majoritarian and individualistic approaches to decision-making in groups. A majoritarian electoral system is one which is based on a "winner take all" principle He derives two rules from his axioms:

He then tries to show how the two are compatible, and that the division between small and large depends on how much an individual can reciprocate help.

His conclusions have important implications when rights clash with democratic demands. A right is a legal or moral Entitlement or Permission. Rights are of vital importance in theories of Justice and deontological ethics Democracy is a form of government in which the supreme power is held completely by the people under a free electoral system King’s work suggests rights are not inalienable, and that they can occasionally be overruled when there is an overwhelming public interest. The public interest refers to the "common well-being" or "general welfare However, unlike Jeremy Bentham who famously dismissed rights as nonsense upon stilts, King provides a further justification for rights as a safeguard when facts are uncertain, through his theory of conventions. Jeremy Bentham ( IPA: or) (15 February 1748&ndash6 June 1832 was an English Jurist, Philosopher, and legal and Social reformer

On punishment

King tries to reconcile utilitarian notions of punishment with more intuitively appealing approaches, such as restorative and retributive justice. Punishment is the practice of imposing something unpleasant or aversive on a person or animal usually in response to disobedient or morally wrong behavior Restorative Justice is commonly known as a Theory of criminal justice that focuses on crime as an act against another individual or community rather than the state Retributive justice is a Theory of Justice that considers that proportionate punishment is a morally acceptable response to Crime, with He does this through the concept of all-time value, which he derives from his contention that the morality of actions is independent of the time they take place. All time value is a hypothetical concept posited by Iain King partly in response to criticisms of Utilitarianism by Bernard Williams. This enables hypothetical consequences in the past (e. g. , the deterrence effect a punishment may have had) to be treated as equivalent to the impact in the future (i. e. , the effect of the punishment). Thus, he concludes punishments for crimes should be based upon what would have been necessary to deter them, justifying a punishment should fit the crime approach, although he nuances this conclusion with caveats. [4]

On poverty reduction

King derives a proof for substantial increases in the amount of money given to alleviate lethal poverty abroad, echoing Peter Singer and the Make Poverty History campaign. Peter Albert David Singer (born July 6, 1946 in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia) is an Australian philosopher. The Make Poverty History campaign (which is written as MAKE POVERTY' HISTORY') is a British and Irish coalition of Charities, religious He calculates a typical worker in the UK should devote 0. 75% of their income to a development charities for this. The definition of charitable organization, and of charity varies according to the country and in some instances the region of the country in which the charitable organization operates [3][2]

On social justice

King argues that his Help Principle leads to three clear principles of social justice. Social justice, sometimes called civil justice, refers to the concept of a Society in which Justice is achieved in every aspect of society rather than One of these should appeal to Marxists who favour distributing wealth according to need, one to Thatcherites, Reaganites and other right wing thinkers who favour distribution according to effort, and one to pragmatists who emphasise practical issues. Marxism is the political philosophy and practice derived from the work of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. Thatcherism is the system of political thought attributed to the governments of Margaret Thatcher, British Prime Minister from 1979 to 1990 By trying to accommodate all three positions, King attempts to reconcile the radical political left, the radical right, and conservative centrism:

If everybody in the world applied the Help Principle to everybody else, then there would be only four reasons why people had different levels of wealth: because they had worked harder than others; because they needed things more; because transferring resources would diminish the value of the help given; and because of voluntary gambles. Political radicalism or simply radicalism is adherence to radical views and principles in Politics. In Politics, right-wing, the political right, and the Right are positions that uphold traditional values and/or authorities Conservatism is a term used to describe political philosophies that favour Tradition, where tradition refers to various religious cultural or nationally defined In Politics, centrism usually refers to the political ideal of promoting Moderate policies which land in the middle ground between different political extremes We can ignore voluntary gambles because of the autonomy principle - if people want to take a chance on becoming richer or poorer that is up to them. That means we should only be concerned by the first three: efforts invested, benefits to be had, and problems transferring wealth between people.

[1]

On religion

King is a humanist who argues that mapping out ethics rationally can dispel mystery from the subject and leave religion with no role in prescribing right and wrong. Humanism is a broad category of ethical philosophies that affirm the dignity and worth of all people based on the ability to determine right and wrong by appealing to universal A religion is a set of Tenets and practices often centered upon specific Supernatural and moral claims about Reality, the Cosmos Just as Evolutionary Theory squeezed mystery out of creation taking religion with it, religion can now be displaced from ethics, too. eVolution is the third Album by eLDee, it was due to be released in 2008 "Creationism" can also refer to Creation myths in general or to a concept about the origin of the soul. He backs up this claim with arguments to show the redundancy of religion in moral matters, suggesting, for example, that if ‘God is Love’, then by Occam’s Razor, we should just concentrate on love. Occam's razor (sometimes spelled Ockham's razor) is a principle attributed to the 14th-century English Logician and Franciscan Friar, [2] Citing the barbarism of the Aztec faith[3], he argues that some religions advocate bad actions, others good, so something other than religion is needed to adjudicate between them. Aztec is a term used to refer to certain ethnic groups of central Mexico, particularly those groups who spoke the Nahuatl language and who achieved political He dismisses the widespread feeling of benevolence as a basis for religion, arguing that paranoia, infatuation and depression are equally common and again, something other than religion is needed to elevate benevolence above the others. Finally, he presents the possibility of an ‘anti-God’, and suggests there is no reason to obey any God over its equal and opposite anti-God which is both valid and non-circular. In Logic, begging the question has traditionally described a type of Logical fallacy (also called petitio principii) in which the proposition [1]

Despite these attacks, King regards religion as a repository of accumulated wisdom[1] and draws on aspects of Christianity, Buddhism, Islam and Judaism to bolster his arguments. Christianity ( Greek Χριστιανισμός from the word Xριστός ( Christ)is a monotheistic Religion centered on the life and teachings Buddhism is a family of beliefs and practices For other meanings including people named 'Islam' see Islam (disambiguation. Judaism (from the Greek Ioudaïsmos, derived from the Hebrew יהודה Yehudah, " Judah " in Hebrew יַהֲדוּת Yahedut

Justifying cultural difference and the theory of conventions

Having established universal principles for right and wrong, King is forced to explain moral pluralism (ie the co-existence of equally justified accounts of right and wrong, for example in difficult cultures). In philosophical Ethics, value pluralism (also known as ethical pluralism or moral pluralism) is the idea that there are several values which For this he sets out a theory of conventions: guidelines used when people lack perfect knowledge of the world around them, which include etiquette and laws. Social norms have been defined as "the rules that a group uses for appropriate and inappropriate values beliefs attitudes and behaviors Etiquette is a code that governs the expectations of Social behavior, according to the contemporary conventional norm within a Society, Moral dilemmas arise when these conventions clash. By setting out when one convention is better than another and when these conventions should co-exist, he offers a means to tackle moral dilemmas, and defines limits for different customs to be justified by cultural diversity - for example, different table manners are allowed, while female genital cutting is not. Table manners are the Etiquette used when Eating. This includes the appropriate use of utensils. Female genital cutting (FGC also known as female genital mutilation (FGM female circumcision or female genital mutilation/cutting (FGM/C refers to [3]

Kosovo and postwar reconstruction

King spent four years administering post-war Kosovo with the United Nations, an experience which clearly influenced his work. The United Nations ( UN) is an International organization whose stated aims are to facilitate cooperation in International law, International security King describes a duty to intervene in situations like Kosovo and Iraq, but has written about the immense practical difficulties involved in Postwar reconstruction, recognising that these need to be taken into account before any action begins. For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic Iraq topics. A postwar reconstruction is a reconstruction after a war See also Interwar period Marshall Plan Reconstruction His 2006 book Peace at Any Price: How the World Failed Kosovo, co-written with Whit Mason, highlights the rule of law and addressing inter-ethnic animosity as key priorities which were neglected in the Postwar reconstruction effort. A postwar reconstruction is a reconstruction after a war See also Interwar period Marshall Plan Reconstruction The book generally identifies systematic failings rather than blaming individuals, and offers remedial lessons for future missions.

Criticisms

Publications

Notes

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Talk, Cambridge 2005
  2. ^ a b c d e f g Oxford lecture 2004
  3. ^ a b c d Stockholm 2007
  4. ^ Zaibert, Leo (2006), Punishment And Retribution, Ashgate Publishing 

External links

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