Moral Equality and Natural Inferiority--论文代写范文精选

我认为拥有尊重智力低下是一个更艰巨的任务,特别是当这种自卑与一些表型特征结合,比如种族或性别。康德的工作重点,广阔的知识是否自卑的问题，提供了一个重要障碍关于道德尊重。下面的essay代写范文进行详述。

God has ordained different decrees and orders of men, some to be High-Honorable, some to be LowDespicable... yea, some to be born slaves, and so to remai n during their lives, as hath been proved.

However, I wish to raise a question in moral psychology concerning the wherewithal it takes to have moral respect for a group of people d eemed to be subst antially inferior intellectually in virtue of their group membe rship—say, race or gende r. T hese days, of course, we roundly reject t h e idea that intellectual inferiority tracks race or gen der. But there is a philosophical matter of great importance here because it has often seeme d that substantial intellectual inferiority as such presents no problem with regard to having the proper moral respect for individuals so classified. So, a fortiori, we do not have a problem when such inferiority tracks gender or, as I shall focus upon, race. Page 2 The issue of wheth er considerable intellectual inferiority on the part of a group is a significant barrier to having m oral respect for them is nicely raise d by Kant’s work. As is well known, Kant made it unequivocally clear in his anthropological writings that h e took blacks to be quite inferior intellectually. 

However, it has recently been argued with great force by Thomas Hill and Bernard Boxill, in “Kant and Race”,1 that however wrong Kant was regarding the racial inferiority of blacks, his moral theory remains unscathed, because the moral duty to respect persons in virtue of being such is not defeated by intellectual inferiority. It is the view that individuals are worthy of moral respect in virtue of their personhood (and therefore regardless of their intellectual inferiority) that is invoked to maintain that the intellectually inferior do not present a problem when it comes to the matter of being shown moral respect. 

I shall argue that having respect for the intellectually inferior is a far more difficult task than one might suppose, especially when this inferiority is linked to some well-defined phenotypical feature such as race or gender and, moreover, the inferiority is great enough. Kant, it seems, took the inferior of blacks vis à vis Europeans to be rather like the difference between a Mercedes-Benz and a Ford Pinto, which is not just a difference in degree but also in kind. I draw upon this analogy in Sections II and III. While Kant’s work shall be the focus, the issue of whether or not vast intellectual inferiority presents a significant barrier to moral respect arises for all moral theories.

Conclusion: Hearing the Moral Challenge 
Nowadays, of course, most of us reject out of hand Kant’s assessment of the inherent and inescapable inferiority of blacks or, for that matter, any other ethnic group. Not only that, most of us also stay clear of a Jefferson or Mill type view of ethnic groups. So the very idea of an entire race being childlike, whatever the modality might be, is simply viewed as untenable. But this was not the world view of three formidable intellectuals, namely Kant, Jefferson, and Mill. In this essay, I have raised a question in moral psychology that takes seriously their world view. Interestingly, the difference between Kant, on the one hand, and Jefferson and Mill, on the other, with regard to inferiority brings into to sharper relief the concerns of this essay. 

Where we have demonstrable and unshakable intellectual inferiority on the part of a people, as Kant supposed was the case with blacks, then we have seen that showing such individuals the proper moral respect will stand as a most formidable task. But suppose that what we have, instead, is the contingent inferiority of which Jefferson and Mill speak. The suggestion on the part of both (in Kantian language) is that in cases of this sort we should raise the people in question to the level where they can be shown the proper moral respect. 

The question that naturally presents itself is this: How plausible is it to suppose that human beings in general have the moral wherewithal it takes to meet this moral challenge? Some will rule this question out of court on the grounds we have a moral duty to rise to the occasion, however difficult this may be for us to do. True, but one of the ways in which we can fail to meet our moral duties is by giving insufficient attention to the details that must be addressed in order to accomplish the task. On a traditional view of marriage, everyone knows that infidelity is to be avoided. Yet, many illuminating pages have been written on how it is possible to achieve precisely this goal; and people continue to learn how not to do what they know they morally ought not to do and, moreover, want not to do. We better understand that there are precautionary steps to take if we are to succeed at avoiding infidelity. 

Why? Because not withstanding our good intentions and our undying love for our spouse, the passing of time makes it is far too easy for things to go awry if we are not cautious in our interactions with other others and if we are not careful to keep the romantic flame between ourselves and our partner burning high. So it would be absolutely stunning if something so complicated as elevating a people, à la Jefferson and Mill, to the point that they could be shown the proper moral respect were something that could be achieved without attending to the matter in great detail. It is obvious that there is a fundamental conceptual difference between those who are irrevocably inferior and those whose inferiority is merely owing to the circumstances of their lives. But this fundamental difference need not resonate experientially at the outset with those who happen upon such individuals. In the face of barbarism, what are the moral markers in terms of behavior or whatever that make moral elevation is possible? Then, what social structures have to be in place in order to underwrite the elevation continually? Needless to say, the answer to this last question would depend in part on how much time such moral elevation would take. 

A generation? Several generations? From a different direction, what would count as evidence that progress is being made? How would the initial lack of appropriate responsiveness on the part of those being elevated be dealt with? Accordingly, how would one avoid an attitude of superiority? Just as no insight into avoiding fidelity is to be had merely by saying that married individuals have a moral duty to do so regardless of the circumstances, it is equally true that no insight into bringing about the moral elevation of a people is to be had simply by asserting and reasserting that one is morally obligated to do so regardless of the difficulties that it involves.

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