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U of A PHIL 200 - Arguments against Desire Satisfaction Theory and two theories of human nature
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PHIL 200 1st Edition Lecture 13Outline of Last Lecture I. The Case against desire satisfaction theory (1-2d)Outline of Current Lecture II. The case against desire satisfaction theory (2e-2g)III. Two theories of human natureCurrent LectureII: The case against Desire Satisfaction Theory (2e-2g)2e) Autonomy, againAll the citizens of Huxley’s Brave New World got exactly what they wanted. They were conditioned to want only certain things—things that they would be able to achieve/get.So their fully informed, self-regarding desires were satisfied, but would you say their lives were better forit?2f) The Paradox of Self-Harm/SacrificeWhat if your desires are to harm or sacrifice yourself (i.e., your well-being)? According to the Desire Satisfaction Theory, that’s not possible! Satisfying your desire to make yourself worse off actually makes you better off . . . This makes DST look pretty crazy (no other theories generate the paradox)2g) Unusual DesiresSome people have serious desires to commit suicide. Others have serious desires just to steal things (Feinberg’s example). Neither of these have anything to do with benefiting the life of the person who has the desire.Do you have any really strange desires like this, with no connection to your well-being?The problem is this:A strength of DST is that it doesn’t criticize our desires, doesn’t hold them up to another standard—if it did, then we would lose the personal authority, relativistic part which is attractive to many.These notes represent a detailed interpretation of the professor’s lecture. GradeBuddy is best used as a supplement to your own notes, not as a substitute.The strength is its main weakness, though: it seems like we can independently evaluate some desires we have. III: Two theories of human natureA total theory of human nature incorporates the following:1.) where origins are and what our place in the world is2.) a theory about our (human) nature3.) a theory about what has gone wrong with humans4.) a theory about what the good life is (how we should live and can improve our lives)-Example theory of what Christianity has to say-1.) God created the worlds, then created us in his image2.) we are, to a large extent, free in our actions, though we do tend towards sin3.) our sinful nature keeps us apart from God4.) we have to receive God’s mercy so we can go to HeavenQuick look at what Christianity might recommend for the related issues D. Barrett brought up:-given our freedom and sinful nature, we should be pretty hands on with parenting, expecting that adequate parenting will make a big difference in the kinds of adults children turn out to be-we should educate people about the way the world is, and their relationship to God-we should be more forgiving, given our inherent sinful nature, and we should expect rehabilitation to beeffective given our freedom- we should be helpful to the poorTwo theories:Social Constructionism There are three main parts:-there is no human nature, we are blank slatesWe are all born blank and the same. All of our traits are learned or otherwise observed through culture. Nothing-over very, very little is innateWe are, for instance, not born with any mean or evil intentions. All that is a product of our environment, which we learn. Notice the contrast with the Christian viewpoint about nature-we are, in our natural kind of state, “noble savages”Before there was anything like government and cities, we were more like the situations wild animals are in, we were actually much better humans than we are now. In such a natural state there is no greed or violence or war, just peace and cooperation. It is only with civilization that the bad qualities of human life appear. The savage, outside of civilization is actually the noble, good human. -we have a serious kind of free willArgument from Equality:1. acceptable theories of human nature must account for the basic equality of all humans2. only the blank slate theory can account for the basic equality of all humans3. so the blank slate theory is the only acceptable theory of human


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U of A PHIL 200 - Arguments against Desire Satisfaction Theory and two theories of human nature

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