UNIVERSITY OF THE EAST

COLLEGE OF ARTS AND SCIENCES-MANILA

DEPARTMENT OF HUMANITIES AND PHILOSOPHY

LECTURE NOTES IN ETHICS

CLASS OF DR. ALLAN C. ORATE

MODULE 8
Ethical Theory of Conventionalism
M8. TOPIC OVERVIEW

We sometimes hear older people complaining about the present ways of the society. In the
past they use to wear long skirts, but now young girls dare to walk on the street with only a piece
of cloth in their body. “Kita na ang kaluluwa,” they say. “Ang OA naman ni Lola,” is the usual
response. But aside from the question of decency, we are now faced with much deeper
controversial issues about morality such as live-in, divorce, pre-marital sex, abortion, human
experimentation, worker’s strike, terrorism. To remedy these issues, we resort to social consensus
in the form of civil legislation such as the Reproductive Health Bill, Family Code, Law of
Engagement, Labor Code. The ethical theory that relies on the agreement of people in the society
as the foundation of moral law and duty is called Conventionalism.

M8. OBJECTIVES

At the end of the lessons, the students are expected to:

1. Compare and contrast conventionalism with other ethical theories.
2. Exemplify some human acts to which conventionalism is employed.
3. Evaluate the moral quality of an act based on conventional ethics.
4. Apply the principles of conventionalism to ethical reasoning and decision-making.

M8. READINGS

M8. Reading 1. The Ethics Center, “Ethics Explainer: Social Contract,” in

https://ethics.org.au/ethics-explainer-social-contract/
M8. Reading 2. Katherina Nieswandt, “What is Conventionalism about Moral Rights and Duties,”
in https://philarchive.org/archive/NIEWIC
M8. Reading 3. Open Education, “Meta-Ethics – Introduction to Philosophy – Conventionalism,”
in https://openeducationalberta.ca/saitintrophil/chapter/meta-ethics/

LECTURE NOTES IN ETHICS PREPARED BY DR. ALLAN C. ORATE 1

 M8. VIDEOS

M8. Video 1. McCombs School, “Social Contract Theory: Ethics Defined,” in

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UY3aMtMkoEU
M8. Video 2. Dr. Brad Musil, “Moral Conventionalism,” in
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lN3CFHbTRLI

M8. LECTURE

THOMAS HOBBES

Also called Social Contract Theory, the ethical theory of Conventionalism is proposed
by the English philosopher Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679). Once served as a tutor to Charles II,
Hobbes was one of the leading intellectuals of his times together with Bacon and Galileo. He was
fond of talking about his premature birth being a result of his mother’s fear at the approach of the
Spanish Armada, as he remarked, “Fear and I, like twins, were born together.” The philosophy by
Hobbes were very radical. His theory of political absolutism was denounced by his contemporaries
as immoral, irreligious and inhuman. But as a person, he was, on the whole, gentle, well-mannered
and considerate.

Hobbes’ ethical theory advocates the view that good and evil are not inherent in man nor
in the world. They are concepts and expressions of political power made and consented by people
to direct the conduct of their lives in the society for mutual safety and protection. This view is
found in the controversial book by Hobbes, Leviathan. Although primarily concerned with
political theory, Leviathan traces the evolution of human society and the creation of civil laws in
bringing about morality through the agreement of people. It analyzes four major concepts essential
to morality: nature, society, social contract and sovereign power.

NATURE AND SOCIETY

Morality for Hobbes is a creation of people in the society. Society itself is made by a group
of men agreeing with one another to make one. Society refers to a group of people who, by
common consent, are living the same way of life, inhabiting the same geographical area, sharing
the same culture and tradition, speaking common language and governed by the same law under
one sovereignty.

Everyone of us in this present generation was born in a fully functioning society, and
everyone will die in it to be taken over by the next generations. The previous generations had
passed away. But in the beginning, there was no society. It was the time when human beings lived
in the state of nature.

The state of nature was people’s original way of life before they came together to form a
society. In the state of nature, there was no human organizations, not even smallest tribes or
villages. Since every individual existed for himself alone, there was a “war of every man against
every man.” Each one lived only for the sake of his own survival against the same self-interested
survival of others. People are in constant quest for power to satisfy their basic needs to live.

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 In the chaotic state of nature, every person was entitled for the right of nature, that is, the
right to preserve one’s own life. According to the right of nature, every individual has the liberty
“to use his own power, as he will himself, for the preservation of his own nature, that is to say, of
his life; and consequently, of doing anything, which in his own judgment and reason, he shall
conceive to be the aptest means.” By this right, nothing is prohibited that people believe to be for
their own self-interest. One is allowed, for instance, to harm or kill other persons, if by means of
it he could save his own life.

In the state of nature, there was no morality—no good or bad, right or wrong, justice or
injustice. And by the right of nature, acts done by men are neither moral nor immoral. The only
law is the law of nature, that is, the inherent drives in all human beings for self-preservation.
Every man, by his own will and reason, necessarily abides with the law of nature, in the same way
as every physical object, by its natural disposition, follows the law of universal gravitation. Every
individual is innately inclined to do what he thinks is necessary for the preservation of his own
life, and avoid from doing those which he believes are detrimental to his continued existence.

CREATION OF SOCIETY AND MORALITY

The law of nature, which all men are inherently disposed to abide, prescribes particular
acts by means of which human life may be most effectively protected, and it prohibits acts that
endanger life. Since in the state of nature, all human beings lived in confrontation against one
another, the most effective means for self-preservation is to seek peace by escaping from the state
of nature and put an end to the “war of every man against every man.” People found it necessary
to protect themselves from one another by consenting to the rules of mutual protection by means
of leaving the dangerous and insecure state of nature. And they can only leave this state by
establishing, through collective agreement, a society where they could live harmoniously and
cooperate for common benefits of protection and survival.

The fundamental moral principle is that everyone does everything for the interest of his
own life. Now that society has been created, the law of nature for self-preservation is interpreted
to mean the particular precepts of civil laws made by people in the society for the sake of further
preservation of their lives. Thus, morality is constructed by people by means of associating the
concept of good to the particular conducts they prescribe in the society, and the concept of evil to
those they prohibit.

The particular laws of morality operating in the society are derived from the supreme axiom
of self-preservation. But, strictly speaking, according to Hobbes, they are not “laws” which are
created, but simply “conclusions and theorems” which are “discovered” by people for the sake of
their own conservation and defense within the society. Once discovered, these moral theorems are
embodied in the particular commandments and prohibitions of the civil law with which the citizens
ought to abide.

The desire for self-preservation dictates people how to treat themselves: not to engaged in
drunkenness and intemperance, to avoid arrogance and pride. It also decrees how to treat others.
The supreme law of human relation is derived from the fundamental principle akin to the negative
expression of the Golden Rule which is in fact a rule for mutual self-preservation: if everyone
would not wish to destroy his own life, then he should not harm or take away the life of others.

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This is precisely the reason why people established a society—to protect themselves against one
another.

From the axiom of self-preservation, moral duties are derived such as social justice, equity,
modesty, mercy, truthfulness in words and deeds, avoidance of hatred and contempt. They are all
basically meant for living in the society conducive to human life. Or particularly, the law on
ownership of private land property is enforced as a way of protecting the means of food production
in agricultural communities and a way of settling disputes that threaten life.

SOCIAL CONTRACT

After society was created, according to Hobbes, people started to be born and to live within
it for the necessity of survival. No human beings could exist outside of society. Society pre-existed
them and shall further exist after them.

The society that creates laws of morality is a political one—the state. People are subject to
these laws as legitimate citizens of the state. Every individual citizen voluntarily renounces to the
state his inherent right of nature. One gives up his own interest under that of the state, for the belief
that by so doing, his life would be more protected and preserved than to live alone in the dangerous
state of nature.

In the formation of the state, people established a sovereign or a ruling power under which
they willingly submit themselves. The sovereign may be made up of only one person, or may be
constituted by an assembly of people who are united in one common will as if constituted by one
person “of whose acts a great multitude, by mutual covenants one with another, have made
themselves everyone the author, to the end he may use the strength and means of them all, as he
shall think expedient, for their peace and common defense.”

The sovereign governs over the people in the state and create rules of conduct for them. It
also creates penal codes to be inflicted to those who disobey the law. The voluntary and implicit
act of the individual renouncing his right of nature to the sovereign and consenting to abide by its
laws and to accept its sanctions constitute the social contract.

Social contract is more than a consent; it is a covenant as if every man should say to every
man: “I authorize and give up my right, to this man, or to this assembly of men, on this condition,
that thou give up thy right to him, and authorize all his actions in like manner.” By social contract,
every individual in the society implicitly agrees to live by the laws which the sovereign establishes
and to which they have the moral duty to conform.

There are two reasons for the binding force of the social contract: Firstly, people ought to
obey the law because they agree to do so being members of the society. And secondly, one’s failure
to conform to the law is against his self-interest because it is likely to bring him harsh penalties
imposed by the sovereign.

SOVEREIGN POWER

For Hobbes’ political philosophy, the power of the sovereign is absolute, as suggested by
the title of his book, Leviathan, that refers to the terrifying power of a great sea monster, mentioned

LECTURE NOTES IN ETHICS PREPARED BY DR. ALLAN C. ORATE 4

in the Bible (Job 14). The sovereign power has to be absolute in order for it to cause terror to
people and make them faithfully observe the laws at all cost. Laws “without the sword are but
words, and of no strength to secure a man.” Man by nature seeks only his own survival by his own
power. Within the society, his own interest would clash against those of others, and even against
that of the state. The sovereign, therefore, must be supremely powerful to bring all people to
obedience to the law for their common peace and safety in the society.

By social contract, the individual rights of the people for self-preservation are collected in
one absolute will of the sovereign. Their respective powers are relegated to the sovereign to
constitute one supreme power. The social contract makes the will of the sovereign the will of the
people; and his judgment, their judgment. In theory, therefore, whatever acts the sovereign
prescribes or prohibits for people in the society by way of law, is said to have emanated from the
people themselves. They agree with the precepts of the civil law and are morally bound to abide
with them.

Since society creates morality through the prescriptions and prohibitions of the civil law
enforced by the sovereign, it means that whatever is legal is moral; and illegal, immoral. There is
only one supreme law of nature, that is, self-preservation. But because there are many different
societies, there are various particular expressions of moral laws according to the ways people in
one society perceive how their lives are best preserved. Also, society, through the determination
by the sovereign power, keeps on creating laws when needed, modifying them when defective,
and discarding them when obsolete.

There are many moral issues in the societies today. Abortion, pornography and divorce are
allowed in some Western countries but not in the Philippines. Chewing bubble gum and not
flushing the toilet bowl are illegal in Singapore, but they are amoral in our country.
Conventionalism solves this obvious differences, even contradiction, in moral judgments by
appealing to the changing and relative application of civil law.

SOURCES

Barcalow, Emmett. Moral Philosophy: Theories and Issues. 2nd ed. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth
Publishing Company, 1998.

Hobbes, Thomas. Leviathan. In Great Books of the Western World, Vol. 23. ed. Robert Maynard
Hutchins. Chicago: Encyclopedia Britannica Inc., 1952.

Oliver A Johnson. Ethics: Selections from Classical and Contemporary Writers. New York:Holt,
Rhinehart and Winston, Inc., 1958.

Kant, Immanuel. Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals. London: Hutchinson University

Library, 1948.

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