DOCSLIB.ORG

The Authority Theory of Promises

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
The Authority Theory of Promises The Authority Theory of Promises Item Type text; Electronic Dissertation Authors Habib, Allen Nabil Publisher The University of Arizona. Rights Copyright © is held by the author. Digital access to this material is made possible by the University Libraries, University of Arizona. Further transmission, reproduction or presentation (such as public display or performance) of protected items is prohibited except with permission of the author. Download date 28/09/2021 03:16:04 Link to Item http://hdl.handle.net/10150/195954 THE AUTHORITY THEORY OF PROMISES by Allen Nabil Habib A Dissertation Submitted to the Faculty of the DEPARTMENT OF PHILOSOPHY In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY In the Graduate College THE UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA 2006 2 THE UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA GRADUATE COLLEGE As members of the Dissertation Committee, we certify that we have read the dissertation prepared by Allen Nabil Habib entitled The Authority Theory of Promises and recommend that it be accepted as fulfilling the dissertation requirement for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy _______________________________________________________________________ Date: October 23, 2006 Professor Thomas Christiano _______________________________________________________________________ Date: October 23, 2006 Professor David Schmidtz _______________________________________________________________________ Date: October 23, 2006 Professor Houston Smit Final approval and acceptance of this dissertation is contingent upon the candidate’s submission of the final copies of the dissertation to the Graduate College. I hereby certify that I have read this dissertation prepared under my direction and recommend that it be accepted as fulfilling the dissertation requirement. ________________________________________________ Date: October 23, 2006 Dissertation Director: Professor Thomas Christiano 3 STATEMENT BY AUTHOR This dissertation has been submitted in partial fulfillment of requirements for an advanced degree at the University of Arizona and is deposited in the University Library to be made available to borrowers under rules of the Library. Brief quotations from this dissertation are allowable without special permission, provided that accurate acknowledgment of source is made. Requests for permission for extended quotation from or reproduction of this manuscript in whole or in part may be granted by the head of the major department or the Dean of the Graduate College when in his or her judgment the proposed use of the material is in the interests of scholarship. In all other instances, however, permission must be obtained from the author. SIGNED: Allen Nabil Habib 4 TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT……………………………………………………………………….. 6 CHAPTER ONE: PROMISES AND PROMISSORY OBLIGATIONS…………..8 1.1 Introduction …………………………………………………………………8 1.2 The Paradigm Promise ……………………………………………………11 1.3 Discursive Obligations …………………………………………………….18 1.4 Theories of Promissory Obligation ……………………………………….20 1.4.1 The Coordinative Facility of Promises ………………………………21 1.5 The Natural Law View ……………………………………………………26 1.6 After the Natural Law, Prudentialism, Conventionalism and Expectationalism …………………………………………………………..29 1.7 Summary of Following Chapters …………………………………………35 CHAPTER TWO: PROMISES TO THE SELF………………………………….37 2.1 Introduction ……………………………………………………………….37 2.2 Promises to the Self ……………………………………………………….38 2.3 Vows, Pledges and Oaths ……………………………………………….…40 2.4 Vows ………………………………………………………………………..43 2.4.1 Wedding Vows ………………………………………………………..44 2.4.2 Promisee Conditions …………………………………………………48 2.4.3 Wedding Vows as Promises to Others ………………………………52 2.4.4 Wedding Vows as Promises to the Spouse ………………………….57 2.4.5 Wedding Vows as Promises to the Self ……………………………...61 2.4.6 Vows of Rectification …………………………………………………66 2.4.7 Vows of Rectification as Promises to Others ………………………..68 2.4.8 Vows of Rectification as Promises to the Self ……………………….71 2.5 Pledges ……………………………………………………………………...74 2.5.1 Pledges of Comportment as Promises to Others ……………………76 2.6 Oaths ……………………………………………………………………….79 2.6.1 Oaths as Promises to Others …………………………………………84 2.6.2 Oaths as Promises to the Self ………………………………………..90 2.7 Expressivism ……………………………………………………………….94 2.8 Self Promises and the Promisee Release Condition ……………………..102 5 TABLE OF CONTENTS-CONTINUED CHAPTER THREE: PRUDENTIALISM, CONVENTIONALISM AND EXPECTATIONALISM………………………………………………………….114 3.1 Introduction ………………………………………………………………..114 3.2 Hobbes and Prudentialism ………………………………………………..115 3.2.1 Hobbesian Promises ………………………………………………….116 3.2.2 Hobbesian Obligations ………………………………………………..119 3.2.3 Hobbesian Promissory Obligations ………………………………….121 3.2.4 The Hobbesian Sovereign …………………………………………….122 3.2.5 Critiques ……………………………………………………………….126 3.2.6 Hobbes and Promises to the Self ……………………………………..130 3.3 Rawls and Conventionalism ………………………………………………132 3.3.1 Rawls and Promises to the Self ………………………………………135 3.4 Scanlon and Expectationalism ……………………………………………142 3.5 Summary …………………………………………………………………...150 CHAPTER FOUR: THE AUTHORITY THEORY OF PROMISES……………154 4.1 Promises as Reflexive Commands ………………………………………..154 4.2 Practical Authority: Executive and Command ………………………….158 4.3 Reflexive Command Authority ……………………………………………161 4.4 The Rescinding Problem …………………………………………………..168 4.4.1 Second-Order Authority ………………………………………………170 4.4.2 The Transfer of Second Order Authority ……………………………173 4.5 Arguments for Promises as Reflexive Commands ……………………….179 4.5.1 The Argument from Executive Authority ……………………………179 4.5.2 The Argument from Shared Features ………………………………..182 4.5.3 The Argument from Discursive Obligations …………………………185 4.5.4 The Argument from Exclusionary Reasons ………………………….186 4.6 Benefits of the Authority View …………………………………………….192 4.6.1 Prudential Theories ……………………………………………………193 4.6.2 Other Problems for Prudential Theories …………………………….194 4.6.3 Conventionalism ……………………………………………………….200 4.6.4 Other Problems for Conventionalism ………………………………..202 4.6.5 Expectationalism ………………………………………………………210 4.6.6 Other Problems for Expectationalism ……………………………….211 4.7 Summary ……………………………………………………………………216 REFERENCES……………………………………………………………………219 6 ABSTRACT The primary aim of the dissertation is to introduce a new theory of promissory obligation, the authority theory. The authority theory holds that promises are obligatory because they are commands we give ourselves, as authorities over ourselves. I motivate the theory by arguing that traditional views of promising can’t explain promises we make to ourselves. In the first chapter I introduce and detail the notion of a promissory obligation. I briefly recount some of the history of the Western philosophical views of promissory obligations, focusing on the Natural Law tradition from the Stoics, through the Roman and Medieval writers, into the 17th Century. In the second chapter, I introduce the notion of a promise to the self. I argue that vows, oaths and pledges are best explained as self promises. I then counter two important objections to self promises: That self promises can’t be obligatory because the promiser can release herself from the promise; and that such instances of putative promise are best explained as expressions of acknowledgement of prior obligations. In the third chapter I offer arguments that the current crop of theories of promising are unable to account for self promises. I categorize three modern approaches to promising: prudentialism, which grounds promissory obligation in the potential harm a promise-breaker might suffer for his transgression; expectationalism, which grounds the obligation in the expectations that promises raise in promisees, and conventionalism, 7 which grounds the obligation in the convention of promising. I argue that none of these approaches can accommodate promises to the self, and that a new approach is indicated. In the final chapter I introduce the new theory. I explain how it is that we have the authority to issue commands to ourselves, and I argue for the probity of such self commands by reference to the existence of such reflexive authority in other venues, most notably in the armed forces. I also list the advantages the authority theory has over its competition, apart from its ability to explain self promises. I conclude by outlining a future research project in examining the meta-ethical implications of reflexive authority. 8 CHAPTER ONE PROMISES AND PROMISSORY OBLIGATIONS 1.1- Introduction Few moral judgments are more intuitively obvious, and more widely shared, than that promises ought to be kept. In part, it is this fixed place in the intuitive and social realms that makes promises so interesting to philosophers, as well as a host of social scientists and other theorists.1 In philosophy, promises are of interest to a variety of different thinkers, and for different reasons. The primary body of work is in ethical theory, and this is so because promises are commonly taken to impose moral obligations. Thus an explanation of how such obligations attach, and how they function, is necessary for a complete moral theory. The result is a body of literature that spans the ages, and a bibliography that includes most of the important ethical traditions and thinkers in the western canon. Just as a sample, commentary on the source and nature of promissory obligations is put forward: 1 For an anthropological survey that could serve as a starting point to work on promises in other fields, see Man, The Promising Primate, by Peter Wilson (Yale:1983). 9 in the Ancient
Load more

Recommended publications
  • An Ethical Defense of Global-Warming Skepticism —William Irwin and Brian Williams Adam Smith on Economic Happiness —Douglas J
    REASON PAPERS A Journal of Interdisciplinary Normative Studies Articles An Ethical Defense of Global-Warming Skepticism —William Irwin and Brian Williams Adam Smith on Economic Happiness —Douglas J. Den Uyl and Douglas B. Rasmussen Direct and Overall Liberty: Areas and Extent of Disagreement —Daniel B. Klein and Michael J. Clark Violence and Postmodernism: A Conceptual Analysis —Iddo Landau Providing for Aesthetic Experience —Jason Holt Why Has Aesthetic Formalism Fallen on Hard Times? —David E. W. Fenner Austro-Libertarian Publishing: A Survey and Critique —Walter E. Block Discussion Notes Left-Libertarianism—An Oxymoron? —Tibor R. Machan Rejoinder to Hoppe on Indifference Once Again —Walter E. Block with William Barnett II Review Essay Review Essay: Edward Feser’s Locke and Eric Mack’s John Locke —Irfan Khawaja Book Review James Stacey Taylor’s Practical Autonomy and Bioethics —Thomas D. Harter Vol. 32 Fall 2010 Editor-in-Chief: Aeon J. Skoble Managing Editors: Carrie-Ann Biondi Irfan Khawaja Editor Emeritus: Tibor R. Machan Editorial Board: Jordon Barkalow Walter Block Peter Boettke Donald Boudreaux Nicholas Capaldi Andrew I. Cohen Douglas J. Den Uyl Randall Dipert John Hasnas Stephen Hicks John Hospers William T. Irwin Kelly Dean Jolley N. Stephan Kinsella Stephen Kershnar Israel M. Kirzner Shawn Klein Leonard Liggio Eric Mack Fred D. Miller, Jr. Jennifer Mogg James Otteson Douglas Rasmussen Ralph Raico Lynn Scarlett David Schmidtz James Stacey Taylor Edward Younkins Matthew Zwolinski Reason Papers Vol. 32 Editorial The editorial to volume 26 of Reason Papers began with this: Reason Papers was founded in 1974 by Professor Tibor R. Machan, who edited the first twenty-five volumes.
    [Show full text]
  • Course Syllabus
    Freedom Political Theory Project Course Description: Freedom has been called the greatest political concept of the modern world. But what is freedom? And if freedom is important, what should we do about it? Does freedom conflict with other important values, such as gender equality or distributive fairness? Can political systems that claim allegiance to freedom also make room for other values? Is the best society the one that cares only about freedom? Format: This is a demanding, reading intensive freshman seminar. As a seminar, classroom discussion is of the utmost importance. Be sure to complete all the readings before class meets each week, and come to class ready to join in the conversation. In this class, we are a team. So join in. Presentations: Each week, seminar will be opened by a brief presentation prepared by a team of two students. When it is your turn to present, your mission is NOT to teach the whole class, or to become world-class experts on the issues at hand. Rather, each presentation team is expected to study the assigned readings carefully, briefly summarize the main points, and to identify a few fundamental questions or challenges posed by the readings that they found most interesting (or confusing!). Requirements: 1. Students are expected to attend in each seminar, and to participate actively. We will allow one excused absence during the semester. Any additional absence will be penalized by a grade unit deduction from your final grade (so, if you had an A++, your final grade would be reduced to a measly A+, though of course if you had a B-, that would become a C+.
    [Show full text]
  • SOY Volume 14 Issue 2 Cover and Front Matter
    Downloaded from VOLUME 14 NUMBER 2 SUMMER 1997 https://doi.org/10.1017/S0265052500001771 Social Philosophy https://www.cambridge.org/core & Policy The Welfare State . IP address: CONTENTS 170.106.33.22 DAVID SCHMIDTZ Guarantees , on DAVID T. BEITO "This Enormous Army": The Mutual Aid 25 Sep 2021 at 21:17:23 Tradition of American Fraternal Societies before the Twentieth Century STEPHEN DAVIES Two Conceptions of Welfare: Voluntarism and Incorporationism HOWARD HUSOCK Standards versus Struggle: The Failure , subject to the Cambridge Core terms of use, available at of Public Housing and the Welfare-State Impulse THEDA SKOCPOL The G.I. Bill and U.S. Social Policy, Past and Future DANIEL SHAPIRO Can Old-Age Social Insurance Be Justified? PETER J. FERRARA Privatization of Social Security: The Transition Issue JAMES M. BUCHANAN Can Democracy Promote the General Welfare? H. TRISTRAM ENGELHARDT, JR. Freedom and Moral Diversity: The Moral Failures of Health Care in the Welfare State https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms LAWRENCE M. MEAD Citizenship and Social Policy: T. H. Marshall and Poverty ALAN WOLFE and Identity Politics and the Welfare State JYTTE KLAUSEN RICHARD A. EPSTEIN The Problem of Forfeiture in the Welfare State CAMBRIDGE . UNIVERSITY PRESS Downloaded from https://doi.org/10.1017/S0265052500001771 Social Philosophy & Policy https://www.cambridge.org/core ISSN 0265-0525 Editor Ellen Frankel Paul Associate Editors: Fred D. Miller, Jr., and Jeffrey Paul Managing Editor: Harry Dolan Social Philosophy and Policy Center . IP address: Editorial
    [Show full text]
  • Classical Liberalism Redefined?: the Intellectual Origins and Development of British Neoliberalism 1929 - 1955
    Classical Liberalism redefined?: The intellectual origins and development of British Neoliberalism 1929 - 1955 Elliott Banks MA by research University of York History December 2017 Abstract Neoliberalism is often viewed as a global intellectual movement detached from the ideas and politi- cal economy of the individual nation-state. However, the origins of what has subsequently been de- scribed as neoliberalism were heavily based on the intellectual traditions of the nation-state. Early British neoliberalism drew heavily on the thoughts and ideas of British classical liberal philosophers and political economists to justify their arguments on why the economy should be free to operate under market conditions. British neoliberalism rather than being detached from the intellectual tra- dition of British classical liberalism embraced some core tenets with the early neo-liberal theorists seeking to update and modernise the classical pillars of the British liberal tradition whilst recognis- ing the flaws of nineteenth-century laissez-faire liberalism and capitalism. The goal of this was to create a new type of liberalism and deliver a distinctive alternative to the prevailing collectivist movements of the 1930s and 1940s which would ultimately have influence in the 1970s and 1980s with the government of Margaret Thatcher and beyond. !2 Table of Contents Abstract 2 Table of Contents 3 Acknowledgements 4 Declaration 5 I 12 II 28 III 42 IV 60 V 76 Bibliography 81 Appendix One: Free trade posters during the 1906 Election Campaign 85 Appendix II: The Land 87 !3 Acknowledgements I would like to thank my academic supervisor Dr Chris Renwick for all of his assistance in the writ- ing of this thesis, his patience during our countless meetings helped to clarify my thoughts on this very complex subject.
    [Show full text]
  • The Fallacy of a Priori Statism
    THE FALLACY OF A PRIORI STATISM Alan G. Futerman* & Walter E. Block** I. INTRODUCTION In this Article, we attempt to undermine the intellectual case for statism and defend anarchism. Part II addresses the fallacy of a priori statism, and Part III presents the justification for anarchism. The burden of Part IV is to deal with objections. We conclude in Part V. II. A PRIORI STATISM In the field of epistemology, the a priori, in Kant’s view,1 corresponds to that knowledge which is independent of experience2 and, according to John Stuart Mill, before experience.3 Statism may be defined as the doctrine holding the government as a solution to virtually every problem.4 Statists place the government * © Alan G. Futerman, University of the Latin American Educational Center, Rosario, Argentina, [email protected]. ** © Walter E. Block, Harold E. Wirth Endowed Chair and Professor of Economics, College of Business, Loyola University New Orleans, and senior fellow at the Mises Institute. Columbia University (Ph.D., Economics, 1972). 1. IMMANUEL KANT, CRITIQUE OF PURE REASON 127 (Paul Guyer & Allen W. Wood trans., Cambridge University Press 1998) (1781). 2. The a priori is knowledge that is absolutely “independent of all experience.” Id. at 136, quoted in Bruce Russell, A Priori Justification and Knowledge, STAN. ENCYCLOPEDIA PHIL. (May 19, 2014), https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/sum2017/entries/apriori/. 3. John Stuart Mill explains: We cannot acquire any genuine knowledge a priori, then. Mill holds that knowledge can be obtained only by empirical observation, and by reasoning which takes place on the ground of such observations.
    [Show full text]
  • THE AUTHORITY THEORY of PROMISES by Allen Nabil Habib A
    The Authority Theory of Promises Item Type text; Electronic Dissertation Authors Habib, Allen Nabil Publisher The University of Arizona. Rights Copyright © is held by the author. Digital access to this material is made possible by the University Libraries, University of Arizona. Further transmission, reproduction or presentation (such as public display or performance) of protected items is prohibited except with permission of the author. Download date 25/09/2021 04:21:25 Link to Item http://hdl.handle.net/10150/195954 THE AUTHORITY THEORY OF PROMISES by Allen Nabil Habib A Dissertation Submitted to the Faculty of the DEPARTMENT OF PHILOSOPHY In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY In the Graduate College THE UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA 2006 2 THE UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA GRADUATE COLLEGE As members of the Dissertation Committee, we certify that we have read the dissertation prepared by Allen Nabil Habib entitled The Authority Theory of Promises and recommend that it be accepted as fulfilling the dissertation requirement for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy _______________________________________________________________________ Date: October 23, 2006 Professor Thomas Christiano _______________________________________________________________________ Date: October 23, 2006 Professor David Schmidtz _______________________________________________________________________ Date: October 23, 2006 Professor Houston Smit Final approval and acceptance of this dissertation is contingent upon the candidate’s submission
    [Show full text]
  • Prehistoric Myths in Modern Political Philosophy Appendix
    PREHISTORIC MYTHS IN MODERN POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY APPENDIX 55200_Widerquist_Appendix.indd200_Widerquist_Appendix.indd 1 225/11/165/11/16 110:320:32 AAMM 55200_Widerquist_Appendix.indd200_Widerquist_Appendix.indd 2 225/11/165/11/16 110:320:32 AAMM CONTENTS Appendix to Chapter 2 Does This Book Have Anything to Say to Indigenous Peoples and Indigenous Rights Movements? 5 Appendix to Chapter 5 Ancient History 8 Lord Shaftesbury 9 The Baron de Montesquieu 10 Adam Smith 11 David Hume 12 Appendix to Chapter 6 Utilitarianism 15 G. W. F. Hegel 18 Friedrich Nietzsche 20 Henry David Thoreau 21 Herbert Spencer 22 Henry George 22 Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels 24 Emile Durkheim 27 Henry Sumner Maine, John Robert Seeley, and Henry Sidgwick 27 Peter Kropotkin 29 3 55200_Widerquist_Appendix.indd200_Widerquist_Appendix.indd 3 225/11/165/11/16 110:320:32 AAMM 4 Prehistoric Myths in Modern Political Philosophy Appendix to Chapter 7 Will Durant 31 J. R. Lucas 31 Theodor W. Adorno and Jürgen Habermas 32 Gregory S. Kavka 33 George Klosko 35 Dudley Knowles 36 Robert Nozick 37 David Schmidtz 37 Tibor Machan 38 Loren Lomasky 38 Jan Narveson 39 Murray Rothbard 39 Hillel Steiner and Michael Otsuka 40 Rawls and Rawlsianism 41 Elias Canetti 43 Alasdair MacIntyre 43 Carole Pateman, Charles Mills, and Patricia Williams 44 Appendix to Chapter 8 Societies without Statehood or Landownership 46 Biological Evolution and the Violence Hypothesis 57 References 64 55200_Widerquist_Appendix.indd200_Widerquist_Appendix.indd 4 225/11/165/11/16 110:320:32 AAMM APPENDIX TO CHAPTER 2 A. Does This Book Have Anything to Say to Indigenous Peoples and Indigenous Rights Movements? This book is not directly about indigenous peoples.
    [Show full text]
  • Property in Land
    Article Property in Land Robert C. Ellicksont CONTENTS INTRODUCTION ............................................. 1317 I. THE CASE FOR INDIVIDUAL OWNERSHIP OF LAND .................. 1322 A. Three Simple Land Regimes .............................. 1323 B. Small Events: The Relative Ease of MonitoringBoundaries ........ 1327 1. The Genius of Individual Land Ownership ................ 1327 2. Technologiesfor Marking, Defending, and Proving Boundaries . 1328 C. Medium Events: A Simple Way to Promote Cooperative Relations ... 1330 II. THE ADVANTAGES OF GROUP OWNERSHIP OF LAND .................. 1332 A. When Returns Increase with Parcel Size ..................... 1332 1. Efficient Boundaries ................................. 1332 2. Large Events ..................................... 1334 B. Three Pioneer Settlements ............................... 1335 1. Jamestown ........................................ 1336 2. Plymouth .......................................... 1338 3. Salt Lake City ...................................... 1339 t Walter E. Meyer Professor of Property and Urban Law, Yale Law School. I thank participants in workshops at the Harvard, University of Toronto, and Yale Law Schools for comments on a preliminary draft. I am especially indebted to Betsy Clark, Jim Coleman, Rob Daines, Harold Demsetz, Henry Hansmann, Jim Krier, Tony Kronman, John Langbein, Eric Rasmusen, Roberta Romano, Richard Ross, David Schmidtz, Peter Schuck, Jim Scott, Steve Shavell, Paul Stephan, Ed Zelinsky, and, as always, Carol Rose. Simon Frankel, Robin Kelsey,
    [Show full text]
  • 1 Politics 9503A/Philosophy 9119A: Central Problems in Political Theory
    Politics 9503A/Philosophy 9119A: Central Problems in Political Theory September-December 2020 Tuesday Zoom meetings 3:30-5:20 Charles Jones, 661-2111 x85060, [email protected], SSC 4129 Zoom Office Hours: Wednesdays 1:30-3:00 & by appointment This course examines some central problems in political theory: political authority, property and the market, distributive justice and equality, liberty, and democracy. We will study both classic works and recent scholarship on these issues. By the end of the course, students will be able to: (1) Describe the problem of political authority and explain (and evaluate) the main arguments in its favour, (2) Assess the case for and against private property rights, (3) Explain the pros and cons of markets in goods and services as a means of organizing an economy, (4) Describe the problem of distributive justice (‘who should get what?’) and explain the relative merits of competing approaches to this problem, (5) Evaluate the value of equality and sufficiency as competing goals of just distribution, (6) Explain the arguments on both sides of the debate between distributive egalitarians and relational egalitarians in their answers to the question, ‘What is the point of equality?’, (7) Identify the competing conceptions of liberty in the history of political theory and adjudicate between them, (8) Evaluate the case for and against ‘libertarian paternalism’ as an approach to public policy, and (9) Outline the most important arguments against and for democracy as a form of public and private decision-making. Texts Course readings will be posted on the OWL site. There is one book to purchase: Elizabeth Anderson, Private Government: How Employers Rule Our Lives (and Why We Don’t Talk about it), Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2017.
    [Show full text]
  • The Ethics and Economics of Wealth Creation PHIL 332, Fall, 2016
    Course Syllabus Business Ethics: The Ethics and Economics of Wealth Creation PHIL 332, Fall, 2016 Instructor: Dr. Matt Zwolinski Office Hours: MW: 9:45 AM – 10:45 AM; 2:30 PM – 4:00 PM Office: F167A Course Website: http://ole.sandiego.edu [Blackboard] Phone: 619-260-4094 Email: [email protected] Required Books: Matt Zwolinski, Arguing About Political Philosophy, 2nd edition (Routledge) Matt Ridley, The Rational Optimist: How Prosperity Evolves (Harper Perennial) Daron Acemoglu and James Robinson, Why Nations Fail: The Origins of Power, Prosperity, and Poverty (Crown) Jonathan Rauch, Government’s End: Why Government Stopped Working (Public Affairs) Other readings on Electronic Reserve at Copley Library Core Requirements: This course fulfills the Core Curriculum requirement for Ethics. Content: We live in one of the wealthiest nations on the planet, during the wealthiest period of human history. For many of us, this wealth is so commonplace that we take it for granted and think of it almost as though it were an inevitable fact of nature. But for most of human history, wealth was not the normal condition of mankind. Poverty was. And, even today, desperate, crushing poverty is still all that many individuals and communities will know over the course of their lives. How did our world become so much wealthier today than it was 500 years ago? And what explains the fact that some nations are so much wealthier than others? This course will explore various ethical and economic issues involved in the creation of wealth. Our readings will be drawn from economists such as Adam Smith, Frédéric Bastiat, and Ronald Coase, and from philosophers such as John Locke, John Rawls, and Robert Nozick.
    [Show full text]
  • Are Price Controls Fair?
    Are Price Controls Fair? David Schmidtz* The neoclassical economic model predicts that price controls lead to deadweight losses. In experimental auction markets, actual deadweight loss is greater than what the neoclassical model predicts, because access on the buyer side under price controls is more random in practice than what the neoclassi- cal model predicts. The randomness that accounts for losses being larger than predicted further implies not only that price controls are no general cure for unfair access but that price controls can be a source of such unfairness. * Work on this Article has been supported by a grant from the John Templeton Foundation. The opinions expressed here are those of the author and do not necessar- ily reflect the views of the Templeton Foundation. I’m also grateful to the Property and Environment Research Center in Bozeman for welcoming me as Julian Simon Fellow in the summers of 2012 and 2013, and to the Earhart Foundation for support in the fall of 2013. This Article began with readings and discussions of Friedrich Hayek and Adam Smith over a period of years. The catalyst was a guest lecture by Vernon Smith in my class on ethics and economics, and a series of classroom dem- onstrations by experimental economist Cathleen Johnson of some of Vernon Smith’s classic auction experiments. During a debriefing by Johnson in which she projected auction results on screen, we could see in real time the emerging pattern, or rather the emerging randomness, of the distribution of successful buyers under the price control treatment. It struck me then that this was the very arbitrariness that some of our contemporary theories of justice say we should resent.
    [Show full text]
  • Duties of Rescue: a Moderate Account
    Duties of Rescue: a Moderate Account The Harvard community has made this article openly available. Please share how this access benefits you. Your story matters Citation Nishimoto, Craig Takeshi. 2013. Duties of Rescue: a Moderate Account. Doctoral dissertation, Harvard University. Citable link http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:11181182 Terms of Use This article was downloaded from Harvard University’s DASH repository, and is made available under the terms and conditions applicable to Other Posted Material, as set forth at http:// nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:dash.current.terms-of- use#LAA DUTIES OF RESCUE: A MODERATE ACCOUNT A DISSERTATION PRESENTED BY CRAIG TAKESHI NISHIMOTO TO THE DEPARTMENT OF PHILOSOPHY IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY IN THE SUBJECT OF PHILOSOPHY HARVARD UNIVERSITY CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS September 2013 © 2013 Craig Nishimoto All rights reserved. Advisor: Selim Berker Craig Nishimoto Duties of Rescue: A Moderate Account ABSTRACT Peter Singer’s famine-relief argument forces attention upon a class of requirements that make demands of an interesting kind. These are requirements to rescue another when hardly anything is at stake for the would-be rescuer and yet the utmost is at stake for the would-be rescuee. It is common to regard such requirements as moral duties, with all the significance that this implies. Since, however, the circumstances in which such duties apply can apparently repeat ad infinitum, the cumulative costs of compliance threaten to become shockingly great. I argue that there is a deep and legitimate challenge here that should neither be dismissed nor combined with superficially similar puzzles.
    [Show full text]