Archangels & Proles: R. M. Hare's Useful Ethical Characters

In this "Philosophy Drive" (more like "Park"), I talk about R. M. Hare's vivid "Archangel" and "Prole" characters. In later videos, I'll dive deeper into some of the more specific uses for these excellent illustrative devices!

[Ahrlin]

I know this video is 8 years old now but I recently read a summary of Hare's work and you've explained this really well. Good video. The interesting thing for me is when the system would be misused, e.g. someone highly narcissistic considering themselves an archangel without merit, and acting accordingly with (predictably bad) consequences.

[pattonpatterns]

The common view is that you allow your kid to graduate up the angelic ladder and test the tougher rungs when he shows that he's ready to do so. The general idea is that people who let their kids climb too early are reckless, and people who don't let their kids climb at all are overbearing. Our driver's license test isn't a height measurement.

[wallaroomonkey]

It strikes me that the journey to mastery in many domains includes something analogous to the prole->archangel transition. For instance when learning how to program, I worked very hard to make sure that my coding decisions were "by the book" and in line with what I was being taught in my courses. Then at some point I could do that easily, and so I started messing around with my imposed rules. Could I get a better result in some cases by doing odd things that DIDN'T follow the rules?

[Skurvyk]

Stan is one of the coolest dudes to be friends with, No foolin'

[Jcolinsol]

In my experience, the negative behaviors of "the prole" are usually imbued, not innate.

You mention treating kids like proles! Well why do you think the kid grew up to be a prole? It's because you treated him like one, and gave him a bunch of rules to follow. He was never offered agency over his behavior in the first place, which naturally makes him short sighted, selfish, and ignorant.