justice

记录哈佛公开课 《Justice》

chapter 5 Hired Guns

chapter 6 Mind Your Motive

Why we have a categorical duty to resprct the dignity of persons and not to use prople as means merely even for good ends.

It’s our rational capacity that makes us distinctive,that make us special,that sets us apart form and above mere animal existance. It mkes us something more than just pyhsical creatures with appetites.

We ofen think of freedom as simply consisting in doing what we want or in the absence of obstacles to getting what we want.

When we like animals,seek after pleasure or the satisfaction of our desires or the avoidance of pain,when we do that we aren’t really acting freely.

We’re really acting as the slaves of those appetites and impulses.I didn’t choose this particular hunger or that particular appetite,and so when I act to satisfy it,I’m just acting according to natural necessity.

freedom is the opposite of necessity.

You’re obeying a prompting that you yourself haven’t chosen or created.

To act freely is to act autonmously,and to act autonomously is to act according to a law that I give myself not according to the physical laws of nature or the laws of cause and effect

To act freely is not to choose the best means to a given end; it’s to choose the end itself for its own sake.

Resprecting human dignity means regarding persons not just means but also as ends in themselves.And this is why it’s wrong to use people for the sake of other peoples’ well-being or happiness.