On Hare - by Jesse Pavelka

Hare is correct in stating that it is a good thing that we have all (well most of us, psychopaths excluded) acquired the basic moral sentiments that are generally bestowed on us by our parents and were discussed by both Plato and Aristotle. I agree that it is not enough to have simply "like and dislike" but wonder who exactly is suggesting this. He seems to be taking aim at what he terms "intuitionists", but if that is the case then it seems he is mischaracterizing what exactly they seem to be saying. Like and dislike are childlike terms, and I doubt anyone would seriously say that those constitute a complete moral education. Rather, I believe Hare's opposition would term the idea the "difference between right and wrong," which the author acknowledges later in the paragraph. However, he misrepresents this description as his opponent's ultimate view of a moral education. I consider myself an opponent of Hare, and I do not believe that a view of right and wrong is ultimate, but I do believe it is sufficient for some basic analysis of most moral situations.

In the following paragraph, Hare gives an example of when he lied and felt guilty simply due to the fact that he had lied, regardless of his belief that he ought to have done it. I could not disagree more with his concept of guilt. When one feels guilty, it is because one believes that s/he has done something that ought not to have been done. At the very least, there is some ambivalence about whether the action was right or wrong. Hare claims that he felt guilty for telling a lie, but has no doubts that he ought to have told it. This is contradictory. A lie detector will expose deception based on the physiology of fear; it cannot detect a sense of guilt. If you do something which you believe you ought to do, you don't feel guilty; perhaps it is regret, or something else altogether. I can certainly imagine situations where I would feel no guilt about telling a lie (I am no psychopath). For instance, I would feel no guilt about lying to save an innocent victim from a knife-wielding killer. Similarly, many non-Jews during World War II lied to the Gestapo about the location of Jewish families; I can't fathom having any guilt if I was in the same situation.