Some extra notes, part IV

Lesson Four: Autonomy and morality

Purpose: By now, you should have begun to consider autonomy in the context of your personal lives, and explored some of its positive and negative aspects. Today’s lesson will reinforce those different perspectives with a particular focus on how the actions and privileges of one individual or collective may infringe on the autonomy/freedom of another.

1. Read the following quote (in light of the examples given) and come up with an explanation of its meaning. Be prepared to explain the logic behind your reasoning, with reference to the examples.

Example #1: Menachem-Mendl’s parents respect his privacy to use his room as personal space: they will not enter his room, thus granting him autonomy to behave in it according to his own principles. By doing this, they limit their ability to check on his behavior at all times. Outside his bedroom, Menachem-Mendl is expected to behave according to the rules of the household.

Example #2: Shayna-Chaya rides her bike to school every day. To a certain extent, she is allowed to cycle however she pleases- in the middle of the street, at varying speeds, on the route of her choice- but she is also limited by traffic laws for the sake of her own safety and for the safety of drivers, pedestrians, and other cyclists sharing the street.

“The freedom of one individual begins when the freedom of another individual ends.”

– Herbert Spencer (paraphrased), English anthropologist, liberal political theorist, 1820 – 1903.

Recall our explanation of freedom within the context of autonomy:

- Autonomy is a person’s (or collective’s) ability to choose a moral/principled structure that governs behavior and guides decision-making processes. In other words, it is the ability to self-govern, either on an individual level or group level.

Whereas…

- Freedom is the flexibility within that structure to decide which decision to make and when.

In light of this discussion, and in order to frame the coming discussion, the central question for this class is: how do we know when our free actions are moral or not? Who is more important- the individual or the collective?

2. Many students wrote in last lesson’s classwork responses that given all the autonomy in the world, we would actually tend to back down from our moral principles and revert to purely selfish motives.

These responses seem to indicate that although many students consider humans to be either naturally good, or neither good nor evil, they nevertheless feel that given ultimate freedom, humans would be destructive. So is it laws that keep them in place?

Consider: in your homes, in what sorts of ways do your parents limit their autonomy? What would happen if they didn’t do this? Would you still behave “morally”? Would you still commit to maintaining order for the good or the entire family dynamic rather than simply for yourselves? Recall: Hobbes vs. Locke.

-Should we then define “morality” as actions that support the greatest amount of good for the greatest number of people?

3. “Greater good” – what benefits the majority number of people in a given situation. For example, I might feel compelled to throw my sandwich wrapper on the ground because it’s convenient for me, but I know that for the sake of the greater good, it is more important that I sacrifice my selfish tendency and put society’s needs before my own. Therefore, I put my wrapper in the garbage because I hope that this will help preserve the environment for the coming generations.

When we consider the positive uses of autonomy, how do we characterize the ideal principles that would structure our behavior: for the greater good, or for personal reward?

-Are there any cases in which an individual’s personal benefit outweighs the greater good?

Those students who handed in their Primo Levi assignments last week tended to argue that standards for morality shift depending on circumstances- that selfishness is “fair” if a person’s survival is at stake, or on an even less urgent level, if their surroundings have caused them extreme physical stress.