games decision 2 - bis

Reasoning, deliberating, choosing in Aristotelian Ethics

Irene Binini SNS 8 luglio 2014

Ancient Ethical Theories

Common features of ancient Ethics: - A theory of human actions in which

- At least some actions are up to the agent - Human beings have the possibility of choosing between

several alternatives

- Rationality has a fundamental role in determining human choices

- Socrates’s, Plato’s intellectualism: knowledge is a sufficient condition to motivate human actions

- To know what is good is enough motivation for good actions


actions do not depend only on the agent’s knowledge and theoretical rationality A theory of action: 1. must take account of the agent’s desires and wants 2. must consider not only human actions, but also

human decisions

«decision» / «pro-hairesis»: borrowed from the legal context

(Cfr. Nielsen, Aristotle’s theory of decision, 2006)


The first philosophical use of «Decision»

The ethimology of «decision»

Pro-hairesis

αἴρεσις CHOICE

3 POSSIBLE MEANINGS: 1) TEMPORAL 2) PREFERENTIAL 3) TELEOLOGICAL

1) What has been previously chosen, what is chosen in advance 2) What is chosen instead of something else, what is preferred among some

options

3) What is chosen in the light of some goal, what is chosen to reach something


(see Nielsen, Aristotle’s

theory of decision, 2006)

What, then, or what kind of thing is it, since it is none of the things we have mentioned? It seems to be voluntary, but not all that is voluntary to be an object of choice. Is it, then, what has been decided on by previous deliberation? At any rate choice involves a rational principle and thought. Even the name seems to suggest that it is what is chosen before (Nic Eth III.2.1112a15)

CHOICE ≠ DECISION

Temporal process Momentaneous

Also called «deliberation» peak of the process of choosing


1°: Decided is what is previously chosen

In «real life» we don’t have to decide between merely good or merely bad actions:

Eth Nic III.1: during a storm, a man have to decide between throwing his cargo overboard and save his life or saving his goods. Neither action is good «by itself»


Deliberation: the process of choosing

Choosing/deliberating

- To perceive the particular situation

- To see the available alternatives

- To calculate costs and benefits of each,

in respect to an end (satisfaction of a desire)

- To identify what are the suitable means to

reach that end

- To end up with a decision



Theoretical reason isn’t of help here. This is a task of PRACTICAL RATIONALITY

Deliberation as a calculation: “For the person who deliberates seems to investigate and analyse in the way described as though he were analysing a geometrical construction” (Nic. Eth III.3.1112b20) “We said before that there are two parts of the soul - that which grasps a rule or rational principle, and the irrational; let us now draw a similar distinction within the part which grasps a rational principle. […] Let one of these parts be called the scientific and the other the calculative; for to deliberate and to calculate are the same thing” (Nic. Eth. VI 1139a3 and ff.)




How rationality is involved in decisions?

Human Soul

Vegetative part Appetitive part Rational part

Calculative, deliberative part

Scientific, theoretical part

Works with abstract principles, general laws

Linked with irrational parts of the soul: perception, desires. Exercised in the concrete context of action, in accordance to real facts, not to abstract theories. Its task is the calculation of pros and cons of each action. Strenghtened with experience.

Nutrition, growth

Motion Sensation Desires Emotions

2°: Decided is what is chosen instead of something else

Pro-hairesis



2) A decision is the choice of the preferred alternative • In order to make a decision, we need to have at least two alternatives • The preferences for an action instead of another can’t be previously given.

They must be speciefied in the moment of action, depending on context Irene Binini SNS 8 luglio 2014

Pro-hairesis



3) What is chosen in the light of some goal, what is chosen to reach

something Task of practical reasoning: to find the right means to attain a

certain goal. But what is this goal?


3°: Decided is what is chosen in the light of some goal

Eudaimonia: happiness, flourishing, living well Every voluntary action is made on the basis of a decision. Every decision is a choice made for the sake of happiness. “Now such a thing, happiness, above all else, is held to be; for this we choose always for self and never for the sake of something else, but honour, pleasure, reason, and every virtue we choose indeed for themselves, but we choose them also for the sake of happiness, judging that by means of them we shall be happy. Happiness, on the other hand, no one chooses for the sake of these, nor, in general, for anything other than itself” (Nic. Eth. I 7 1097b1 ff.)


3°: Decided is what is chosen in the light of some goal

1. External goods

2. Goods of the body

3. Goods of the soul

• Do we choose happiness as a goal?

• If every goal of human action is for the sake of happiness, do we choose our goals, or we only choose means?

• Is rationality involved just in the decision of means? If so, are our goals irrational?


Happiness and its constituents

Health, honour, good reputation, wealth, political power, beauty, prosperity, culture, knowledge, pleasure, friendship, virtue, …

«We don’t choose happiness, we want or desire it»

Did Aristotle have a merely instrumental view of reason?

«If reason cannot influence our choice of ultimate end, it follows that all our ends are irrational, and human beings mere slaves to their passions. Had Aristotle believed this, it would not only put him in the otherwise incongruous company of Hume and most modern economists and social scientists, it would also completely contradicted his own account of the role of intellect in human activity» (see Cammack, 2013)

«Reason is, and ought only to be slave of the passions, and can never pretend to any other office than to serve and obey them» (Hume, Treatise on Human Nature, II.iii.3)

Is decision about goals possible?


Possible solution:

«Happiness» is just a formal, «empty» end

The task of reason is

1) To give content to it: to specify what we identify as a «happy life»

2) To seek to suitable means to attain that life

Is decision about goals possible?


see Wiggins,

Deliberation and

practical reason, 1975

• Cammack, Daniela, Aristotle's Denial of Deliberation about Ends (2013). Polis 30.2 (2013); American Political Science Association 2013 Annual Meeting.

• Nielsen, Karen, Aristotelian theory of decision, dissertation thesis (2006). Available at: https://www.umass.edu/.../Nielsen-Aristotles%20Theory%20of%20Decision.pdf

• Parry, Richard, Ancient Ethical theories, The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, (Fall 2009 edition)

• Sorabji Richard, Necessity, Cause and Blame. Perspectives on Aristotle’s Theory (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1980)

• Wiggins, David, Deliberation and practical reason, in Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society, New Series, Vol. 76, (1975 - 1976)

• von Wright, Georg Henrich, Truth Knowledge and modality, Blackwell, 1984

Bibliography


games decision 2 - bis

Education

decision irene binini

good actions irene binini

theory of human actions

aristotles theory of

bad actions

philosophical use of

deliberation peak

theory of action