Filial Obligations: English and Sommers Filial Obligations English versus Sommers Stanley Kass’s Dilemma Stanley Kass is pleased, at 50, to have achieved a secure job and stable family. After much hard work, he and his wife bought a house that allows their two children each to have rooms of their own. His father and older brother both died years ago, and he very much regrets that they never had a chance to develop relationships with his two daughters. His mother is alive and comes to visit occasionally. Though he has always had a close relationship with her, he cannot say that he actually likes or respects her. It’s not that she ever wronged him; they just have nothing to talk about. That situation is even worse now that his mother has suffered a series of strokes that have left her quite disoriented. Stanley faced a moral dilemma. His mother has been unable to live in a senior citizen home. She tried, but she was miserable there. Neither he nor she can afford anything else institutionally, and the obvious solution is to have her live with his family. They did try that for a few months, and though it was not a disaster, it was a severe strain both on himself and on his family. His mother often wanders around aimlessly. She has to be protected from herself, and the children feel uncomfortable around her. If Stanley does not ask his mother to live with the family, she would have to remain in the institution where she was very unhappy. Does Stanley have a moral obligation to have his mother come live with his family? If so, what is the basis for this obligation? English’s View • We can have obligations based on love and friendship that are not based on “owing.” – What kind of obligation is this? • Are considerations of justice, entitlement, and “owing” inappropriate in friendships? • “ Is it true that in America friends split the bill at restaurants? Ethics 1
Filial Obligations: English and Sommers Parents and Children “The relationship between children and their parents should be one of friendship characterized by mutuality rather than one of reciprocal favors.” Obligations Based on Love The parental argument, “you ought to do x because we did y for you” should be replaced by • “We love you and you will be happier if you do” or • “We believe you love us and anyone who loved us would do x.” How “Others” View American Culture • One of the most successful Philosophy Club events ever • “Others”—students from other cultures— highlighted two issues of American culture – Lack of real, deep friendships – Lack of respect for parents and the elderly Ethics 2
Filial Obligations: English and Sommers Sommers: Special Duties • Disagrees with English on filial duty • Also challenges standard ethical theories: “Kantianism and utilitarianism…seem better designed for telling us what we should be doing for everyone impartially than for explaining something like filial obligation.” Sommers’ Examples • Elderly man ejected by son-in-law • Live-in housekeeper and babysitter rebuffed by children • Proud elders graduating; children absent Historically Accepted • Aristotle: obligation to parents like an obligation to repay a debt • Aquinas: “making a return for benefits received • Even utilitarian Sidgwick: “all are agreed that there are such duties. Ethics 3
Filial Obligations: English and Sommers …and then there is Peter Singer • Ready to dine with friends; sick father calls • Singer: “to decide impartially I must sum up the preferences for and against going to dinner with my friends, and those for and against visiting my father. Whatever action satisfies more preferences, adjusted according to the strength of the preference, this is the action I ought to take.” Ethical Pull • For modern utilitarians and Kantians, all persons count equally. “ Equal-pull thesis” • Sommers: special relations require differential pull. – Determined by particular features of relationship – Also by social conventions which establish expectations – Failure to meet conventional expectations is an affront to dignity. A Duty of Gratefulness • Much more complicated than keeping a promise, paying a debt • “…include such things as being grateful, loyal, attentive, respectful, and deferential” • Melden: the fact that there is love and affection that unites members of the family…in no way undercuts the fact that there [are also] rights and obligations.” Ethics 4
Filial Obligations: English and Sommers The Sentimentalist Objection (p. 726, middle) • To carry out some obligations also requires certain feelings . • But we cannot be obligated to have feelings. • Sommers: this ignores – that persons who lack feelings for their parents may be culpable for that very lack – the extent to which people are responsible for their characters . David Cash and Sherrice Iverson • Cash sees his friend Strohmeyer molest 7- year-old Sherrice Iverson in Nevada casino. Strohmeyer then killed her. • Cash: "I'm not going to get upset over somebody else's life. I just worry about myself first." All the publicity has made it easier for me to “score with women.” Responsible for His Character? • Strohmeyer gets life in prison. No law against what Cash did. (Should there be?) • Cash becomes nuclear engineering student at UC-Berkeley. Many protest and want him expelled. • Even assuming Cash could not stop Strohmeyer, is he blameworthy for his emotional response? • Are we responsible for our characters? Ethics 5
Filial Obligations: English and Sommers Virtue Ethics Approach • There are “appropriate emotional responses to situations” • Even aside from action, indifference is not an appropriate response to the suffering of one’s parent or child. • Contrast with Kantian duty Ethics 6
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