At the end of the nineteenth century, the concept of duty was subjected to harsh criticism. First, as part of a utilitarian morality, from Bentham, the concept of duty has been replaced by that of interest, and consequently the duty towards oneself or to others have become acts committed in the name of an individual or social interest.
Gertrude E. M. Anscombe is one of the most gifted philosophers of the twentieth century. Her work continues to strongly influence philosophers working on moral philosophy. She recognizes how hollow and meaningless is the 'box' in which you try to put the concept of" duty" (in a moral sense). According to her theory, in fact, the concept of duty exists only as psychological survival, because it refers to a conception of ethics that was intrinsically tied to a certain idea of ethics which, by virtue of the beliefs and practices that characterized it, meant that it took on a special normative meaning,
The question is that the concept of moral duty is a case where we transfer an expression from one context to another without transferring the use completely, but - at most - some meaning, which is however insufficient to the intelligibility of the concept. This is the paradox that in different ways is highlighted by several authors. They share at least four points identified by James Bryant Conant:
We live an illusion of sense when we believe we can maintain some characteristics of a concept throwing away the rest.
Attraction to some forms of moral confusion is related to the desire to evade some questions of morality.
Try to keep those features of our moral concepts that give our lives the appearance of being in agreement with the original concepts, hoping not to be in any way (in theory or in practice) disturbed by our attachment to these features of the concept.
Forcing some of our moral discourse to maintain an ‘aura’ of evaluation strength while being drained of meaning. "
The idea is to show how a work of resumption of some concepts, and possibly rejection of others, could enrich the moral life and make it more intelligible to themselves. In this line of philosophy that believes it is necessary to draw attention to the context of affirmation of the statements, Cora Diamond inserts the work by Anscombe, as representative of the idea that in the case of some concepts, such as that of moral duty, would be the loss or the 'neglect’ to give intelligibility to our moral world.
I shall begin my considerations focusing on the fact that:
I – It is not easy to handle the complexity of the ethical issues of science, for the
presence of opposing views: "ethical truth", "rigorous science value-free", "ability to understand without judging," "uncompromising ethics of reason" Cultures are often dominated by material interests that may cause adverse effects. Hence the search for firmer ethics, based on the truth and dignity of man, watching with growing attention the socio-cultural forces that address these difficulties ;it is necessary to have a kind of scientific knowledge capable of enhancing certain acquisitions such as recognition of the limits of science; overcoming the scientistic dogmas of truth, objectivity, neutrality; openness to dialogue with the different types of knowledge (philosophy, ethics) awareness of non-transparency of some of its ends and the management of priorities and resources; need to involve the civil community to choices, decisions and projects; necessity of putting as priority the welfare of humanity before all other interests.
A positive and dynamic vision of techno-scientific commitment, centered on a ‘need’ to be guided by purposes, meanings and values, attentive to the consequences and addressed at the service of people, society and nature. It stands up well to comparisons, after Karl Popper showed the groundlessness of the old rationalism and has emerged that willingness guides reason to more valid solutions. Indeed, it "saves" to intelligence the necessity to consider all possible solutions, advancing through choices and decisions, mistakes and corrections. This is an ethical principle of high epistemological and heuristic value, since it indicates that moral commitment and scientific research involve similar logic and procedures. There are also epistemological principles which are of ethical value: the conjectural science that recognizes its own limits; fallibility that recognizes its mistakes, the discussion that evaluates the pros and cons of each reason and the approximation that tries to reduce the imperfection of each approach.
II -In idealism is generally implied an ethical conception highly rigorous, such as in the thought of Fichte that is focused on the moral duty of man to bring the world to the ideal principle from which it originates.
In a broader sense, the term encompasses several philosophical systems, as Platonism, which favor the ideal dimension than the material one, thus affirming that the only true essence of reality is of a spiritual nature.
How can we determine what is morally right to do for a certain agent? "
• Depending on the teleological theory an act is "right" if and only if it produces or will produce a preponderance of good over evil at least equal to that of any other alternative available. In other words, in this theory, the purpose of the action is placed on top of the duty and intention of the agent.
• According to the theory of ethics, however, the mode of action is the action itself, or in assessing an action it can not be ignored the intention of the agent. It follows that the duty and intention are placed before the end of the action.
III -Edward Moore can be considered a utilitarian because he wants to give priority to those behaviors that lead to an increase in the welfare of society, only that such actions will not lead to pleasure, but to ideals such as wisdom, knowledge, friendship and aesthetic enjoyment, which have an intrinsic value:
"The most valuable things that we can know or imagine are certain states of consciousness that can roughly indicate such as the pleasure of human relationships and enjoyment of beautiful objects. However, utilitarianism of Moore does not seem to solve the underlying problem of hedonistic utilitarianism. For example, one of the authors belonging to Anglo-Saxon ethical intuitionism, William David Ross (1877-1971) highlights that utilitarianism ignores the personal character of the duty.
Finally, virtues such as justice, benevolence, duty that the moral principles of common sense proposes as absolute and obvious and the realization of which is considered a priority, actually are not as such, because there are circumstances in which the full implementation is impossible. By contrast, the principle that imposes the action that increases the well-being is the only truly self-evident, because it does not meet the limits in its application. It is easy to understand and is flexible because it can consider the empirical features of the circumstances in which it acts . So, the ethical beliefs of moral common sense must be followed because in any case represent an asset of settled collective moral conscience. However, only utilitarianism can make those beliefs certain and rational, because the traditional morality offers them in raw form, without justifying them.
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