Since the pandemic began, as the educators of leaders at London Business School, we find that our students increasingly look to do the right thing. What does that mean, we ask them? And how might we go about it, they ask us? In our conversations about doing the right thing we are hugely indebted to our own teacher, the late Sir Roger Scruton, who kept the flames of moral philosophy and practical wisdom burning long after those in mainstream philosophical academia had lost interest in the topic.
Roger, who was well known to many GPFO members, spoke to our hearts when he invited us to reflect on four sources of moral sentiment:
FOUR SOURCES OF MORAL SENTIMENT
1 Respect for persons, and the sense of
duty – the foundation of the moral law;
2 The pursuit of virtue – the cultivation of individual character;
3 Feelings of sympathy – the hardwired motive to behave morally;
4 The sense of piety – the disposition to revere what we regard as sacred.
“Doing the right thing” means taking all four sources into account. What makes this difficult is that these sources are often incompatible. Duty pulls us one way, and sympathy another way; piety leads us to do one thing, and virtue a different thing. The result is that we frequently find ourselves facing a moral dilemma, defined as a state of affairs in which two incompatible versions of what is right are competing for our allegiance and compliance. This is what makes the pursuit of the good life problematic, particularly in times of crisis, and gives moral philosophy its raison d’être. There are no easy answers.
Duty
The best starting point is the categorical imperative, the moral law that treats all persons as sovereign. This is Kant’s version of the golden rule, “Do unto others as you would be done to” or, better perhaps,
“Don’t do unto others as you would not want to be done to”. Whenever we set aside
our personal interests and desires, and see ourselves as just one among many equal members of the human race, we find ourselves logically compelled to agree on the basic principles of morality … what might therefore be called the “natural law”.
Virtue
It is one thing, as a person, to recognise the logic of these four rules of moral conduct, but it is quite another thing to possess the fibre to obey them. Doing the right thing demands strength of will as much as knowledge of the principles.
This is where virtue finds its role.
As individuals, we need to cultivate those facets of character and habits of behaviour that translate knowledge of what is right into commitment to act of this knowledge. We set aside the temptation to be greedy, selfish, or fearful; we choose to act justly when tempted to cheat; we are courageous when others would be cowardly; we exercise prudence when it would be easier to be careless; we are calm when those around us are intemperate; and so on.
Sympathy
We are moral beings not because logic commands it but because we are a social species, hardwired to empathise with others, feel sympathy for those in need, and drawn to alleviate suffering. This provides the mainspring for doing the right thing. Sympathy is akin to religious charity: the disposition to feel for others, to walk in their shoes, and to come to their aid. This deeply embedded instinct – accentuated by the coronavirus pandemic –motivates us to address, however imperfectly, the needs and concerns of others.
As a motive, sympathy underpins and nourishes all the other sources of moral behaviour. Without it, the moral impulse would never have formed. Concepts of duty, virtue, and care would have needed to have been invented rather than inherited.
Piety
What makes one do the right thing is not just instinct and reason, but also tradition. We are creatures of our own history as a species. Morality evolves. The respect we show towards sacred things, both natural and man-made, is a permanent reminder of our moral duty. Without some notion that our lives have meaning, that each person matters, and that the world is imbued with value, morality would have little purchase on us, and even less staying power.
Summary
In seeking to do the right thing, particularly at a time of anxiety and suffering:
• Sympathy ignites our moral sensibility;
• Duty, embodied in the moral law, structures it;
• Virtue realises it; and
• Piety is restored by it.