DOCSLIB.ORG

Text of Scanlon’S Contractualism – What It Is and Why It Faces the Aggregation Problem

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Text of Scanlon’S Contractualism – What It Is and Why It Faces the Aggregation Problem The Aggregation Problem for Scanlonian Contractualism An Exploration of the Relevance View, Mixed Solutions, and Why Scanlonian Contractualists could be, and perhaps should be, Restricted Prioritarians Abstract In this thesis, I discuss the aggregation problem for T. M. Scanlon’s (1998) “contractualism”. I argue that Scanlonian contractualists have the following two options when it comes to the aggregation problem. First, they can choose to limit aggregation directly via a specific version of the Relevance View, “Sequential Claims-Matching”. Second, Scanlonian contractualists can adopt a so-called “mixed solution” of which I propose a specific version. My mixed solution does not limit aggregation. Rather, it either avoids some of the (for Scanlon at least) counterintuitive results in certain cases, or at least makes these same results look a lot less counterintuitive by putting them into perspective thanks to a plausible plurality of precisely specified values. The stakes between these two options are as follows. The first option justifies Scanlon’s intuition in one vs. many cases of which his “World Cup Case” is one example, but it comes at the cost of a seemingly quite limited range of application: any version of the Relevance View only works in cases in which we have no more than two groups of competing claimants. The second option has the exact opposite implications: my mixed solution cannot justify Scanlon’s intuition in one vs. many cases, but it could be applied to any case with any number of groups of competing claimants. In this choice between pre-theoretical intuition and (practical) feasibility, I would urge Scanlonian contractualists to choose feasibility. Keywords Aggregation • Contractualism • Scanlon Aart van Gils PhD (Philosophy) September 2019 Table of Contents DECLARATION 5 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 6 SCANLONIAN CONTRACTUALISM: WHAT IT IS AND WHY IT’S ALL ABOUT AGGREGATION 9 INTRODUCTION 10 §1. SCANLON’S CONTRACTUALISM: ITS KIND AND ITS DISTINCTIVE FEATURES 12 §2. ACT-CONTRACTUALISM VS. RULE-CONTRACTUALISM 26 CONCLUSION 31 THE NUMBER PROBLEM AND THE AGGREGATION PROBLEM FOR SCANLONIAN CONTRACTUALISM 33 INTRODUCTION 34 §1. THE NUMBER PROBLEM 41 §2. THE AGGREGATION PROBLEM 46 §3. WHY A SOLUTION TO THE AGGREGATION PROBLEM HAS PRIORITY 50 §4. AGGREGATE RELEVANT CLAIMS 53 CONCLUSION 57 SEQUENTIAL CLAIMS-MATCHING: A (MORE) PRECISE VERSION OF THE (LOCAL) RELEVANCE VIEW 59 INTRODUCTION 60 §1. VOORHOEVE’S PPP – NON-ARBITRARILY ESTABLISHING RELEVANCE 60 §2. (MORAL) DEMANDINGNESS AND JUSTIFYING PPP FOR SCANLON’S CONTRACTUALISM 61 §2.1. Scanlonian Contractualism and (Moral) Demandingness 62 §2.2. Justifying PPP within Scanlonian Contractualism 65 §3. SCHÖNHERR’S OBJECTION: PPP IS QUESTION-BEGGING 72 §4. PRIVITERA’S OBJECTION: PPP IS IMPLAUSIBLE IN THREE(+)-GROUPS-CASES 74 §5. TOMLIN’S OBJECTION: AMBIGUOUSLY ‘ANCHORING’ CLAIMS 75 §6. SEQUENTIAL CLAIMS-MATCHING 77 §6.1. Ambiguity 1: How Should We Match Claims in Sequential Claims-Matching? 81 §6.2. Ambiguity 2: Partial Leftovers 84 §7. STRONGEST DECIDES: AN ALTERNATIVE VERSION OF LOCAL RELEVANCE 86 CONCLUSION 88 2 A (NON-) FATAL DILEMMA FOR RELEVANCE AND A PRIORITARIAN ‘ESCAPE’ 90 INTRODUCTION 91 §1. HORTON’S ‘FATAL’ DILEMMA FOR PARTIALLY AGGREGATIVE VIEWS 92 §2. DISTINGUISHING PRIORITARIANISM, LUCK EGALITARIANISM, AND RELATIONAL EGALITARIANISM 100 §2.1. Luck Egalitarianism vs. Prioritarianism 103 §2.2. Relational Egalitarianism 106 §2.3. Restricted Prioritarianism vs. The (Modified) Competing Claims View 108 §2.4. The Pressure of Practical Application as a reason to favour Restricted Prioritarianism? 113 CONCLUSION 115 A MIXED BAG OF MIXED SOLUTIONS 117 INTRODUCTION 118 §1. MIXED FEELINGS ABOUT MIXED SOLUTIONS 120 §1.1. Hirose’s “Formal Aggregation” and the Large-Scale Rescue Case 121 §1.2. Peterson’s Criticism of Hirose: Why Unfairness does not Interpersonally Aggregate 124 §1.3. Peterson’s Mixed Solution: A Plausible but Undesirable Option 126 §1.4. Gertken’s ‘Aggregative’ Mixed Solution 133 §2. MY MIXED SOLUTION 139 §2.1. Case 1: Equal Claims – 1 vs. 5 (e.g. Life Boat) 142 §2.2. Case 2: Equal Claims – 1,000 vs. 1,001 (Kamm’s Large-Scale Rescue Case) 144 §2.3. Case 3: Equal Claims – 1,000 vs. 2,000 (Peterson’s Counterexample to Hirose) 146 §2.4. Case 4: Unequal Claims – One (Stronger) vs. Many (Weaker) 148 §2.5. Case 5: Unequal Claims – Many (Stronger) vs. One (Weaker) 155 §2.6. Summary 157 CONCLUSION 159 MEASURING UNFAIRNESS 163 INTRODUCTION 164 §1. PILLER VERSUS BROOME ON FAIRNESS 166 §2. MEASURING OUTCOME UNFAIRNESS 171 §3. FOUR WAYS OF MEASURING PROCEDURAL UNFAIRNESS 174 §3.1. The Subtraction Measure 175 §3.2. The Subtraction and Unfair Addition Measure 176 3 §3.3. The Proportional Loss to the Weaker Claimant Measure 179 §3.4. The Comparative Measure 182 §4. IN SUMMARY 183 CONCLUSION 184 BIBLIOGRAPHY 185 4 Declaration I confirm that this is my own work and the use of all material from other sources has been properly and fully acknowledged. §5-7 of my third chapter, “Sequential Claims-Matching: A (More) Precise Version of the (Local) Relevance View”, are part of a larger 50-50 co-authored article with Patrick Tomlin (forthcoming) “Relevance Rides Again? Aggregation and Local Relevance” in Volume 6 of Oxford Studies in Political Philosophy. Aart van Gils 5 Acknowledgements Many people have most kindly helped me in realising my goal of writing a PhD thesis. I am grateful to all. Several people deserve a special mention. First, my father, Paul, my mother, Ellen, and my brother, Jan. Without their unconditional love and support, I would never have been able to study at university, let alone write a PhD thesis. They have instilled in me the love for philosophy before I had been acquainted with it as a subject. Furthermore, they have inspired me to go all in for what has become my passion: studying philosophy. And studying philosophy has given me the highest level of fulfilment I have found in life so far. For these and countless other invaluable life lessons I am eternally grateful to them. Second, I am indebted to my supervisors, Brad Hooker and Patrick Tomlin, for their infinite patience, support, and countless constructive suggestions for helping me to continuously improve what has become the final draft of this thesis. Without their help, I could not have done this. Furthermore, I am grateful for all the valuable ways in which they have taught and shown me in leading by example how to be better at philosophy, to be at least as invested in the success of another’s projects as one’s own, and for having cemented my belief that academic philosophy should be about finding out the truth together (where we can) rather than having the final say. Truly, I could not have asked for more wonderful supervisors. Third, a special thanks to my great philosophy friends Jamie Draper, Alex McLaughlin, and Josh Wells for all our discussions and their kind support during our time together of writing our theses at Reading. Fourth, my thanks to all members of the University of Reading philosophy department. The impact of one’s working environment on one’s work is beyond any reasonable doubt. The philosophy department at Reading truly shines in terms of having a wonderfully collegial atmosphere. The weekly Graduate Research Seminars in which each of us philosophy PhD 6 students would take turns in presenting work in progress, be the ‘official’ or appointed respondent for that week’s presentation, or contribute to the general discussion have been essential in helping me to become a better student of philosophy in so many ways. Furthermore, I have learned so much on such a variety of topics of which I would have otherwise known next to nothing. Fifth, I firmly believe that in any aspect of one’s (professional) life, to have the right role models makes a watershed difference to one’s (career) outlook and fortune. Obviously, my supervisors have both been my two most important role models during my time as a PhD student and they will remain so for the rest of my time that I am fortunate enough to do academic philosophy. However, another one of their supervisees, Julia Mosquera, who started her third year as a PhD student when I started my PhD, has also played an invaluable role in this regard. Julia’s professionalism, ambition, and overall approach to her (philosophical) career served as the perfect model for me to aspire to. I am most grateful to her for being an inspiration to me and for having given me many invaluable pieces of advice regarding writing, conferencing, networking, and all that comes with making the most of one’s time as a PhD student. Relatedly, I would have never been ready as a philosophy student to take on the challenge of writing a PhD thesis without the guidance and support from the following four people, each of whom I hold in the highest regard. Alan Thomas, who introduced me to both analytical (political) philosophy and American Football, supervised my BA thesis at Tilburg University, and encouraged me to always work on my (philosophical) weaknesses and never use italics for emphasis. Bart Streumer, who supervised my MA thesis at the University of Groningen, kindly pushed me to be evermore precise in my arguments, and who encouraged me to apply to Reading to work with Brad. Kent Hurtig, who during my time as a visiting student on the MLitt programme at St Andrews/Stirling would use deontic logic to illustrate whether I was right or (more commonly) wrong in my argument about either philosophy or football. And, last but certainly not least, Jonathan Dancy. In my first year as a PhD student, I was fortunate enough to catch Jonathan’s ‘farewell tour’ as a member of staff at Reading, as part of which he organised a reading groups/seminar series on (the then still draft version of) his (2018) Practical Shape and an aptly labelled ‘masterclass’ on three articles that had influenced him most and he thought were must- reads for anyone studying philosophy.1 Although I love his writing, it is specifically Jonathan’s ability to get to the heart of the matter as a participant to any philosophy discussion – to 1 For those curious, these three articles are Christine M.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Law, Ethics and Philosophy
    LEAP LAW, ETHICS AND PHILOSOPHY ERIC BLUMENSON HARRY BRIGHOUSE PAULA CASAL MICHAEL DA SILVA ANA DE MIGUEL LUARA FERRACIOLI ANCA GheAUS JESÚS MORA VALERIA OTTONELLI GINA SCHOUTEN SARAH STROUD AdAM SWIft VICTOR TADROS PIERRE-ÉTIENNE VANDAMME PHILIPPE VAN PARIJS ANDREW WILLIAMS LEAP 3 2015 Law, Ethics and Philosophy (LEAP) LEAP is a new peer-reviewed, open access international journal dedicated to work in ethics, legal theory, and social and political philosophy. It welcomes clear, rigorous and original submissions that address concrete issues of public concern as well as more abstract theoretical questions. It also has the distinctive aims of (a) fostering work drawing on a variety of disciplines within the social and natural sciences, including biology, economics, history, and psychology; and (b) promoting dialogue between the Anglophone and non-Anglophone worlds. We invite submissions of articles up to 10,000 words, discussion notes up to 5,000 words, and replies and exchanges not exceeding 3,000 words. All published submissions will have undergone blind review, and the journal will notify authors of submitted pieces about the progress of their submission within six weeks. Although LEAP accepts exclusively submissions in English, the journal strongly encourages submissions from authors who also write in languages other than English, and will always strive to ensure that their work is assessed on the basis of its content and not primarily its mode of expression. Where necessary the editorial process provides authors with guidance regarding matters of English style. The journal is published by Pompeu Fabra University and hosted by RACO, the Catalan repository of open access journals (http://raco.cat/index.php/leap) Enquiries regarding the journal may be directed to: [email protected].
    [Show full text]
  • Proceedings and Addresses of the American Philosophical Association
    January 2007 Volume 80, Issue 3 Proceedings and Addresses of The American Philosophical Association apa The AmericAn PhilosoPhicAl Association Pacific Division Program University of Delaware Newark, DE 19716 www.apaonline.org The American Philosophical Association Pacific Division Eighty-First Annual Meeting The Westin St. Francis San Francisco, CA April 3 - 8, 2007 Proceedings and Addresses of The American Philosophical Association Proceedings and Addresses of the American Philosophical Association (ISSN 0065-972X) is published five times each year and is distributed to members of the APA as a benefit of membership and to libraries, departments, and institutions for $75 per year. It is published by The American Philosophical Association, 31 Amstel Ave., University of Delaware, Newark, DE 19716. Periodicals Postage Paid at Newark, DE and additional mailing offices. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Proceedings and Addresses, The American Philosophical Association, University of Delaware, Newark, DE 19716. Editor: David E. Schrader Phone: (302) 831-1112 Publications Coordinator: Erin Shepherd Fax: (302) 831-8690 Associate Editor: Anita Silvers Web: www.apaonline.org Meeting Coordinator: Linda Smallbrook Proceedings and Addresses of The American Philosophical Association, the major publication of The American Philosophical Association, is published five times each academic year in the months of September, November, January, February, and May. Each annual volume contains the programs for the meetings of the three Divisions; the membership list; Presidential Addresses; news of the Association, its Divisions and Committees, and announcements of interest to philosophers. Other items of interest to the community of philosophers may be included by decision of the Editor or the APA Board of Officers.
    [Show full text]
  • PROFESSOR JAMES WILLIAM LENMAN BA, M. Phil., Ph.D. CURRICULUM VITAE ACADEMIC EMPLOYMENT
    1 PROFESSOR JAMES WILLIAM LENMAN B.A., M. Phil., Ph.D. CURRICULUM VITAE ACADEMIC EMPLOYMENT University of Sheffield, From September 2003, Lecturer in Philosophy Promoted to Senior Lecturer from August 2004. Promoted to Professor from January, 2007. University of Glasgow, From August 1997, Lecturer in Philosophy. Promoted to Senior Lecturer from August 2003. Lancaster University, September 1994- July 1997, Lecturer in Philosophy St Andrews University, 1993-1994, Graduate Teaching Assistant in Moral Philosophy AWARDS, DISTINCTIONS, VISITING APPOINTMENTS 2010-2011: Competitively awarded grant from the United Kingdom Arts and Humanities Research Board Research Leave Scheme (value £30.898). 2009: Competitively awarded grant from the United Kingdom Arts and Humanities Research Council Research Networks and Workshops Scheme. (Value, £25,062) 2006-2007: Competitively Awarded grant from the United Kingdom Arts and Humanities Research Council Research Leave Scheme. (Value £25,990) 1999-2000: Competitively awarded grant from the United Kingdom Arts and Humanities Research Board Research Leave Scheme. 2006-2007: Offered Visiting Faculty Position, Department of Philosophy, University of Minnesota (Declined). 2004-2005: Offered Visiting Faculty Position, Department of Philosophy, University of California at Berkeley (Declined). 2002-2003: Faculty Fellowship at the University Center for Ethics and the Professions, Harvard University (value $35,000). (See further below). 1996, 1999: Elected Secretary, British Society for Ethical Theory. 2002, 2005: Elected President, British Society for Ethical Theory. 1990: Sir Henry Jones Memorial Prize for Moral Philosophy at St Andrews University. 1987–1990: Competitively awarded Scottish Education Department Major Scottish Studentship. 2002-2003: Faculty Fellowship, University Center for Ethics and the Pofessions, Harvard University EDUCATION HIGHER PhD, University of St Andrews, Department of Moral Philosophy, 1995 (submitted 1994) Supervisor: Professor John Haldane.
    [Show full text]
  • Existential Risk Prevention As Global Priority
    Global Policy Volume 4 . Issue 1 . February 2013 15 Existential Risk Prevention as Global Priority Nick Bostrom Research Article University of Oxford Abstract Existential risks are those that threaten the entire future of humanity. Many theories of value imply that even relatively small reductions in net existential risk have enormous expected value. Despite their importance, issues surrounding human-extinction risks and related hazards remain poorly understood. In this article, I clarify the concept of existential risk and develop an improved classification scheme. I discuss the relation between existential risks and basic issues in axiology, and show how existential risk reduction (via the maxipok rule) can serve as a strongly action-guiding principle for utilitarian concerns. I also show how the notion of existential risk suggests a new way of thinking about the ideal of sustainability. Policy Implications • Existential risk is a concept that can focus long-term global efforts and sustainability concerns. • The biggest existential risks are anthropogenic and related to potential future technologies. • A moral case can be made that existential risk reduction is strictly more important than any other global public good. • Sustainability should be reconceptualised in dynamic terms, as aiming for a sustainable trajectory rather than a sus- tainable state. • Some small existential risks can be mitigated today directly (e.g. asteroids) or indirectly (by building resilience and reserves to increase survivability in a range of extreme scenarios) but it is more important to build capacity to improve humanity’s ability to deal with the larger existential risks that will arise later in this century. This will require collective wisdom, technology foresight, and the ability when necessary to mobilise a strong global coordi- nated response to anticipated existential risks.
    [Show full text]
  • Bennett Reimer's Philosophy of Music Educat
    University of Mississippi eGrove Electronic Theses and Dissertations Graduate School 2015 The Historical Impact Of Philosophical Naturalism On American Aesthetic Education: Bennett Reimer’s Philosophy Of Music Education As Aesthetic Education Jeremy Edwin Scarbrough University of Mississippi Follow this and additional works at: https://egrove.olemiss.edu/etd Part of the Music Education Commons Recommended Citation Scarbrough, Jeremy Edwin, "The Historical Impact Of Philosophical Naturalism On American Aesthetic Education: Bennett Reimer’s Philosophy Of Music Education As Aesthetic Education" (2015). Electronic Theses and Dissertations. 706. https://egrove.olemiss.edu/etd/706 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at eGrove. It has been accepted for inclusion in Electronic Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of eGrove. For more information, please contact [email protected]. THE HISTORICAL IMPACT OF PHILOSOPHICAL NATURALISM ON AMERICAN AESTHETIC EDUCATION: BENNETT REIMER’S PHILOSOPHY OF MUSIC EDUCATION AS AESTHETIC EDUCATION A Dissertation presented in partial fulfillment of requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Department of Music The University of Mississippi by JEREMY EDWIN SCARBROUGH June 2015 Copyright Jeremy Edwin Scarbrough 2015 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED ABSTRACT Philosophical naturalism is the view that all of reality reduces to natural explanation. The resulting so-called fact-value split biases language against universal, objective values—where empirical observation is said to determine truth, while values are reduced to private emoting or socio-cultural human construction. This research questioned the definition of aesthetic value as determined by the music education as aesthetic education (MEAE) movement in the United States, and the justification of aesthetic education as a universally applicable and comprehensive approach to a course in general music/music appreciation.
    [Show full text]
  • The Bloomsbury Encyclopedia of Utilitarianism Also Available from Bloomsbury
    The Bloomsbury Encyclopedia of Utilitarianism Also available from Bloomsbury Biographical Encyclopedia of British Idealism, edited by William Sweet Dictionary of Early American Philosophers, edited by John R. Shook Dictionary of Eighteenth-Century German Philosophers, edited by Heiner F. Klemme & Manfred Kuehn Dictionary of Modern American Philosophers, edited by John R. Shook Dictionary of Seventeenth-Century British Philosophers, edited by John W. Yolton, John Valdimir Price & John Stephens Dictionary of Seventeenth and Eighteenth-Century Dutch Philosophers, edited by Wiep van Bunge, Henri Krop, Bart Leeuwenburgh, Han van Ruler, Paul Schuurman, & Michiel Wielema Dictionary of Seventeenth-Century French Philosophers, edited by Luc Foisneau The Biographical Encyclopedia of Islamic Philosophy, edited by Oliver Leaman The Bloomsbury Encyclopedia of Philosophers in America, edited by John R. Shook The Bloomsbury Encyclopedia of the American Enlightenment, edited by Mark G. Spencer The Bloomsbury Encyclopedia of Utilitarianism, edited by James E. Crimmins Utilitarians and their Critics in America 1789-1914, edited by James E. Crimmins & Mark G. Spencer THE BLOOMSBURY ENCYCLOPEDIA of ­UTILITARIANISM EDITED BY James E. Crimmins Bloomsbury Academic An imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing Plc LONDON • OXFORD • NEW YORK • NEW DELHI • SYDNEY Bloomsbury Academic An imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing Plc 50 Bedford Square 1385 Broadway London New York WC1B 3DP NY 10018 UK USA www.bloomsbury.com BLOOMSBURY and the Diana logo are trademarks of Bloomsbury Publishing Plc First published in paperback 2017 © James E. Crimmins and Contributors, 2013, 2017 James E. Crimmins has asserted his right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988, to be identified as the Editor of this work. All rights reserved.
    [Show full text]
  • Virtue and Practical Wisdom As Natural Ends
    University of Kentucky UKnowledge Theses and Dissertations--Philosophy Philosophy 2016 Becoming What We Are: Virtue and Practical Wisdom as Natural Ends Keith Buhler University of Kentucky, [email protected] Author ORCID Identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-9495-6550 Digital Object Identifier: https://doi.org/10.13023/ETD.2016.502 Right click to open a feedback form in a new tab to let us know how this document benefits ou.y Recommended Citation Buhler, Keith, "Becoming What We Are: Virtue and Practical Wisdom as Natural Ends" (2016). Theses and Dissertations--Philosophy. 13. https://uknowledge.uky.edu/philosophy_etds/13 This Doctoral Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Philosophy at UKnowledge. It has been accepted for inclusion in Theses and Dissertations--Philosophy by an authorized administrator of UKnowledge. For more information, please contact [email protected]. STUDENT AGREEMENT: I represent that my thesis or dissertation and abstract are my original work. Proper attribution has been given to all outside sources. I understand that I am solely responsible for obtaining any needed copyright permissions. I have obtained needed written permission statement(s) from the owner(s) of each third-party copyrighted matter to be included in my work, allowing electronic distribution (if such use is not permitted by the fair use doctrine) which will be submitted to UKnowledge as Additional File. I hereby grant to The University of Kentucky and its agents the irrevocable, non-exclusive, and royalty-free license to archive and make accessible my work in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known.
    [Show full text]
  • This Is a Repository Copy of Ethics Without Errors
    This is a repository copy of Ethics without Errors. White Rose Research Online URL for this paper: http://eprints.whiterose.ac.uk/93169/ Version: Accepted Version Article: Lenman, J.W. (2013) Ethics without Errors. Ratio, 26 (4). 391 - 409 . ISSN 0034-0006 https://doi.org/10.1111/rati.12029 This is the peer reviewed version of the following article: Lenman, J. (2013), Ethics Without Errors. Ratio, 26: 391–409., which has been published in final form at http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/rati.12029. This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance with Wiley Terms and Conditions for Self-Archiving (http://olabout.wiley.com/WileyCDA/Section/id-820227.html). Reuse Unless indicated otherwise, fulltext items are protected by copyright with all rights reserved. The copyright exception in section 29 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 allows the making of a single copy solely for the purpose of non-commercial research or private study within the limits of fair dealing. The publisher or other rights-holder may allow further reproduction and re-use of this version - refer to the White Rose Research Online record for this item. Where records identify the publisher as the copyright holder, users can verify any specific terms of use on the publisher’s website. Takedown If you consider content in White Rose Research Online to be in breach of UK law, please notify us by emailing [email protected] including the URL of the record and the reason for the withdrawal request. [email protected] https://eprints.whiterose.ac.uk/ 1 ETHICS WITHOUT ERRORS James Lenman NOTE: This is my version of a paper published in Ratio 26, 2013, pp.
    [Show full text]
  • Moral Uncertainty: William Macaskill & Toby
    OUP CORRECTED PROOF – FINAL, 09/08/20, SPi Moral Uncertainty OUP CORRECTED PROOF – FINAL, 09/08/20, SPi OUP CORRECTED PROOF – FINAL, 09/08/20, SPi Moral Uncertainty WILLIAM MACASKILL, KRISTER BYKVIST, AND TOBY ORD 1 OUP CORRECTED PROOF – FINAL, 09/08/20, SPi 1 Great Clarendon Street, Oxford, OX2 6DP, United Kingdom Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford. It furthers the University’s objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education by publishing worldwide. Oxford is a registered trade mark of Oxford University Press in the UK and in certain other countries © William MacAskill, Krister Bykvist and Toby Ord 2020 The moral rights of the authors have been asserted First Edition published in 2020 Impression: 1 Some rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, for commercial purposes, without the prior permission in writing of Oxford University Press, or as expressly permitted by law, by licence or under terms agreed with the appropriate reprographics rights organization. This is an open access publication, available online and distributed under the terms of a Creative Commons Attribution – Non Commercial – No Derivatives 4.0 International licence (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0), a copy of which is available at http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/. Enquiries concerning reproduction outside the scope of this licence should be sent to the Rights Department, Oxford University Press, at the address above Published in the United States of America by Oxford University Press 198 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10016, United States of America British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data Data available Library of Congress Control Number: 2020932188 ISBN 978–0–19–872227–4 Printed and bound in Great Britain by Clays Ltd, Elcograf S.p.A.
    [Show full text]
  • Hedonistic Act Utilitarianism Action Guidance and Moral Intuitions
    Hedonistic Act Utilitarianism Action Guidance and Moral Intuitions Simon Rosenqvist Dissertation presented at Uppsala University to be publicly examined in University Main Building, Room IV, Biskopsgatan 3, Uppsala, Friday, 3 April 2020 at 13:15 for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. The examination will be conducted in English. Faculty examiner: Professor Ben Eggleston (University of Kansas). Abstract Rosenqvist, S. 2020. Hedonistic Act Utilitarianism. Action Guidance and Moral Intuitions. 137 pp. Uppsala: Department of Philosophy, Uppsala University. ISBN 978-91-506-2808-1. According to hedonistic act utilitarianism, an act is morally right if and only if, and because, it produces at least as much pleasure minus pain as any alternative act available to the agent. This dissertation gives a partial defense of utilitarianism against two types of objections: action guidance objections and intuitive objections. In Chapter 1, the main themes of the dissertation are introduced. The chapter also examines questions of how to understand utilitarianism, including (a) how to best formulate the moral explanatory claim of the theory, (b) how to best interpret the phrase "pleasure minus pain," and (c) how the theory is related to act consequentialism. The first part (Chapters 2 and 3) deals with action guidance objections to utilitarianism. Chapter 2 defines two kinds of action guidance: doxastic and evidential guidance. It is argued that utilitarianism is evidentially but not doxastically guiding for us. Chapter 3 evaluates various action guidance objections to utilitarianism. These are the objections that utilitarianism, because it is not doxastically guiding, is a bad moral theory, fails to be a moral theory, is an uninteresting and unimportant moral theory, and is a false moral theory.
    [Show full text]
  • Journal of Ethics and Social Philosophy 15, No. 3
    Journal of Ethics & Social Philosophy Volume XV · Number 3 August 2019 Articles 197 The Invisible Hand from the Grave Barry Lam 222 Revisiting the Argument from Action Guidance Philip Fox 255 Basically Deserved Blame and Its Value Michael McKenna Discussions 283 Against Jeffrey Howard on Entrapment Jonathan Stanhope 291 Dietz on Group-Based Reasons Magnus Jedenheim Edling Journal of Ethics Social Philosophy http://www.jesp.org & TheJournal of Ethics and Social Philosophy (issn 1559-3061) is a peer-reviewed online journal in moral, social, political, and legal philosophy. The journal is founded on the principle of publisher-funded open access. There are no publication fees for authors, and public access to articles is free of charge and is available to all readers under the Creative Commons Attribution- NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 license. Funding for the journal has been made possible through the generous commitment of the Gould School of Law and the Dornsife College of Letters, Arts, and Sciences at the University of Southern California. TheJournal of Ethics and Social Philosophy aspires to be the leading venue for the best new work in the fields that it covers, and it is governed by a correspondingly high editorial standard. The journal welcomes submissions of articles in any of these and related fields of research. The journal is interested in work in the history of ethics that bears directly on topics of contemporary interest, but does not consider articles of purely historical interest. It is the view of the associate editors that the journal’s high standard does not preclude publishing work that is critical in nature, provided that it is constructive, well- argued, current, and of sufficiently general interest.
    [Show full text]
  • 1 SOCIAL JUSTICE and MORAL PSYCHOLOGY by Christopher
    Social Justice and Moral Psychology Item Type text; Electronic Dissertation Authors Freiman, Christopher Alexander 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 02/10/2021 04:38:51 Link to Item http://hdl.handle.net/10150/195823 1 SOCIAL JUSTICE AND MORAL PSYCHOLOGY by Christopher Alexander Freiman _____________________ Copyright © Christopher Alexander Freiman 2010 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 2010 2 THE UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA GRADUATE COLLEGE As members of the Dissertation Committee, we certify that we have read the dissertation prepared by Christopher Freiman entitled Social Justice and Moral Psychology and recommend that it be accepted as fulfilling the dissertation requirement for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy _______________________________________________________________________ Date: 2/23/10 David Schmidtz _______________________________________________________________________ Date: 2/23/10 Julia Annas _______________________________________________________________________ Date: 2/23/10 Thomas Christiano _______________________________________________________________________
    [Show full text]