This kind of moral tailbiting strikes me as a moral perversion. Wanting to be “more moral” is the more general perversion.
One may have altruistic wants. You see people, you hear of people who could use your help, and you want to help them. You’re not wanting to “be more altruistic”, you want to make a change to their situation for the better. The evaluation isn’t about you; it’s about them and their situation.
One may even evaluate yourself as the cause of the improved situation, and thereby feel pride.
But a morality of “being more moral” becomes a content free solipsism evaluating how much you’re preoccupied with your evaluation of how moral you are. How much moral preoccupation did I exhibit today? Lots? Good boy!
Translation: “I want to act more often on my altruistic desires relative to my selfish desires. I want to have a higher emotional attachment to the states of the world my intellect tells me are of higher value.”
Except I hadn’t specified the purpose of that desire, which is to make me act more altruistically, and hence benefit those who I could help, on the margins.
This kind of moral tailbiting strikes me as a moral perversion. Wanting to be “more moral” is the more general perversion.
One may have altruistic wants. You see people, you hear of people who could use your help, and you want to help them. You’re not wanting to “be more altruistic”, you want to make a change to their situation for the better. The evaluation isn’t about you; it’s about them and their situation.
One may even evaluate yourself as the cause of the improved situation, and thereby feel pride.
But a morality of “being more moral” becomes a content free solipsism evaluating how much you’re preoccupied with your evaluation of how moral you are. How much moral preoccupation did I exhibit today? Lots? Good boy!
Translation: “I want to act more often on my altruistic desires relative to my selfish desires. I want to have a higher emotional attachment to the states of the world my intellect tells me are of higher value.”
Which is a fine example of exactly what I was talking about. It’s all about you, and nothing about the recipients of your altruistic largesse.
Except I hadn’t specified the purpose of that desire, which is to make me act more altruistically, and hence benefit those who I could help, on the margins.