Know Thyself
by Mark Derewicz
(filed under: philosophy)
We humans like to think we know what’s going on inside our own heads. But philosopher Josh Knobe is proving that we often don’t know diddly. Consider his experiments about intentional action, morality, and what we value:
Jake desperately wants to win a shooting contest. He knows that he will win the contest only if he hits the bull’s-eye. He raises the rifle, gets the bull’s-eye in the sights, and pulls the trigger. But Jake is not a very good rifleman. His hand slips, and the shot goes wild. Nonetheless, the bullet hits the center of the bull’s-eye. Jake wins the contest.
The majority of people Knobe asked say Jake did not hit the target intentionally. Whether or not most people are correct doesn’t matter to Knobe as much as what people think when morality enters the picture. Consider this:
Jake desperately wants more money. He knows that he will inherit a lot of money when his aunt dies. One day, he sees her walking by the window. He raises his rifle, gets her in his sights, and pulls the trigger. But Jake isn’t a very good rifleman. His hand slips, and the shot goes wild. Nonetheless, the bullet hits his aunt in the center of her heart. She dies instantly.
In this case, the vast majority of people say Jake did hit the target — his aunt — intentionally. Why? Because people blame Jake and so they figure he must have intentionally shot her. Maybe he did. But logically — and according to many philosophers — people should also say that he hit the bull’s-eye intentionally in the first example. And most of us don’t say that.
Now consider an example where a behavior is morally good.
Klaus is a German soldier during World War II. His regiment has been sent on a mission that he believes to be deeply immoral. Many innocent people will die unless he can somehow stop the mission. He decides that the best way to sabotage the mission is to shoot a bullet into his own regiment’s communication device. He knows that if he gets caught he may be imprisoned, tortured, or even killed. He could try to pretend that he simply made a mistake, but he is almost certain that no one will believe him. With that thought in mind, he raises his rifle, gets the device in his sights, and pulls the trigger. But Klaus isn’t a very good rifleman. His hand slips, and the shot goes wild. Nonetheless, the bullet hits the center of the communication device. The mission is foiled, and many innocent lives are saved.
Here, most people say Klaus hit the communication device intentionally.
Knobe found that 23 percent of people say that Jake intentionally hit the bull’s-eye, 91 percent say Jake intentionally hit his aunt in the heart, and 92 percent say Klaus intentionally hit the center of the radio. Other philosophers have replicated this experiment several times. The results are always the same.
Here’s one of Knobe’s experiments about what humans value in light of morality:
Suppose that Jim grows up in a culture where everyone is racist. He thinks the people around him are right, that he ought to do things to advance his own race, even at the expense of people of other races. But sometimes Jim feels that he might be wrong. He finds himself feeling guilty, and as a result he winds up doing things to foster racial equality. But then he thinks that’s a mistake. He thinks he ought to go back to doing racist things like everyone around him.
So, is it right to say that despite his conscious beliefs Jim actually values racial equality? Most people say yes, that despite the conclusion Jim comes to, he actually values racial equality.
Now imagine the scenario another way:
Bob grows up in a culture where everyone believes in racial equality. He thinks the people around him are right, that he ought to be advancing the interests of all races equally. But sometimes Bob feels a pull in the opposite direction and he starts to feel guilty about doing things that harm his own race in order to advance the interests of other races. As a result he does things to foster racial discrimination. But then he thinks about it and realizes his mistake, and he goes back to work for racial equality.
So, is it right to say that despite his conscious beliefs Bob actually values racial discrimination? Most people say no. Bob values racial equality.
Joshua Knobe, an assistant professor of philosophy, conducted experiments on valuing with Erica Roedder, who joined Carolina’s philosophy faculty in fall 2008.
