‘[According to Kant] “It is wrong to act on any maxim
of which it is true that, if everyone accepted and acted on this maxim, or
everyone believed that if it was permissible to act upon it, that would make it
impossible for everyone successfully to act upon it.”
...
Turn next to lying. Herman writes that [Kant’s
statement] “seems adequate for maxims of deception ... Universal deception
would be held by Kant to make speech and thus deception impossible.”
Korsgaard similarly writes “lies are usually
efficacious in achieving their purposes because they deceive, but if they were
universally practiced they would not deceive ...” ’,
so Parfit, and he continues:
‘But no one acts on the maxim “Always lie”. Many liars
act on the maxim “Lie when that would benefit me”.’
So far so good. It’s not only true for liars but for
all deceivers like corrupt people, people who give themselves bonuses which
they don’t deserve, and so on: If everyone benefits at the cost of others, no
one benefits. Then you can better stop deceiving, for everybody would be better
off if no one deceives. However, if only some deceive, the deceivers are better
off and the victims are the losers, even when they don’t notice it.
But here we have a problem that looks like the liar’s
paradox: “All Cretans are liars, said Epimenides, himself a Cretan”. For if
everybody lies, it’s almost sure that everybody knows it. Then we’ll give what
someone says the opposite meaning of what it actually means. But then the opposite
meaning becomes the factual meaning of the words. However, it remains possible that
everybody is basically a liar but doesn’t lie always but most of the time. It
would living together make quite complicated, if not impossible.
What when only some people lie (at least sometimes
they do) or only some people are corrupt (sometimes)? Then lying or being
corrupt can be effective. But how far does it go? Take the case of corruption.
If in a society nobody is corrupt with the exception of only a few, these few
are better off and as a whole this society flourishes, as practice shows. But
to the extent that corruption grows, a society becomes worse off (in the sense
that most people it in are worse off), and in a very corrupt society, everybody
suffers, with the exception of some “happy few”, and the society tends to fall
apart or to be ruled by the “happy few” who are the most efficacious in their corrupt
practices. But where are the limits that divide societies that are well off
because there is only little corruption from societies that are rather well off,
because corruption is present but not disturbing, and these from societies that
are undermined by corruption? It’s like the Sorites’ paradox: How many grains
of sand make a heap? Or how many grains of sand must we remove from a heap of
sand till it is no longer a heap?
Parfit tells us that ‘no one acts on the maxim “Always
lie”. Many liars act on the maxim “Lie when that would benefit me”.’ That’s a
philosophical answer but practice shows that deceiving like corruption can become
endemic in a society. Then in the end nobody will profit by deceiving (I am
convinced that also the “winners” of deceiving would be better off if they
would stop deceiving). Nevertheless everybody continues, for who stops first
will lose anyway.
Find here be way of illustration the Corruption
Perceptions Index 2015 by Transparency International: https://www.transparency.org/cpi2015#results-table
Reference: Derek Parfit, On what matters. Volume One. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011.
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