The Problem of Moral Demandingness

The Problem of Moral Demandingness PDF Author: Timothy Chappell
Publisher: Palgrave MacMillan
ISBN:
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 254

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Book Description
How much can morality demand of well-off Westerners as a response to the plight of the poor and starving in the rest of the world, or in response to environmental crises? Is it wrong to put your friends and family first? And what do the answers to these questions tell us about the nature of morality? This collection of eleven new essays from some of the world's leading moral philosophers brings the reader to the cutting edge of this contemporary ethical debate. With essays from Kantians, utilitarians, rights theorists, virtue ethicists, and others, a wide variety of major ethical approaches are represented by distinguished authors.

The Problem of Moral Demandingness

The Problem of Moral Demandingness PDF Author: Timothy Chappell
Publisher: Palgrave MacMillan
ISBN:
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 254

Get Book

Book Description
How much can morality demand of well-off Westerners as a response to the plight of the poor and starving in the rest of the world, or in response to environmental crises? Is it wrong to put your friends and family first? And what do the answers to these questions tell us about the nature of morality? This collection of eleven new essays from some of the world's leading moral philosophers brings the reader to the cutting edge of this contemporary ethical debate. With essays from Kantians, utilitarians, rights theorists, virtue ethicists, and others, a wide variety of major ethical approaches are represented by distinguished authors.

The Limits of Moral Obligation

The Limits of Moral Obligation PDF Author: Marcel van Ackeren
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 131758130X
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 220

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Book Description
This volume responds to the growing interest in finding explanations for why moral claims may lose their validity based on what they ask of their addressees. Two main ideas relate to that question: the moral demandingness objection and the principle "ought implies can." Though both of these ideas can be understood to provide an answer to the same question, they have usually been discussed separately in the philosophical literature. The aim of this collection is to provide a focused and comprehensive discussion of these two ideas and the ways in which they relate to one another, and to take a closer look at the consequences for the limits of moral normativity in general. Chapters engage with contemporary discussions surrounding "ought implies can" as well as current debates on moral demandingness, and argue that applying the moral demandingness objection to the entire range of normative ethical theories also calls for an analysis of its (metaethical) presuppositions. The contributions to this volume are at the leading edge of ethical theory, and have implications for moral theorists, philosophers of action, and those working in metaethics, theoretical ethics and applied ethics.

Morality from Compassion

Morality from Compassion PDF Author: Ingmar Persson
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0192845535
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 154

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Book Description
According to Arthur Schopenhauer, compassion is the basis of morality. He sees concern for justice as a negative form of compassion, directed at not harming anyone, as opposed to the more far-reaching, positive form of benefiting. He thinks a higher degree of compassion involves realizing that the spatio-temporal separation of individuals is illusory and that in reality they are all identical. Such compassion is impartial and all-encompassing. Compassion is suited to be the centre of morality because its object are negative feelings, and only these are real. Contrary to these Schopenhauerian claims, it is here argued that compassion must be supplemented with attitudes like sympathy and benevolence because positive feelings exist alongside negative feelings; that a concern for justice, though morally essential, is independent of these attitudes which are based on empathy; that these attitudes involve not identifying oneself with others, but taking personal identity as insignificant in empathically imagining how others feel. Schopenhauer is however right that, though these attitudes are spontaneously partial, this can be corrected. His morality is also interesting in raising the question rarely discussed in philosophical ethics of how moral virtue relates to ascetic self-renunciation. Both of these ideals are highly demanding, but the book ends by arguing that this is no objection to their validity.

The Bloomsbury Companion to Ethics

The Bloomsbury Companion to Ethics PDF Author: Christian Miller
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 1472567811
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 488

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Book Description
The Bloomsbury Companion to Ethics offers the definitive guide to this key area of contemporary philosophy. Covering all the fundamental questions asked by meta-ethics and normative ethical theory, thirteen specially commissioned chapters from an international team of experts explore the central ideas, terms and case studies in the field, and new directions in ethics as a whole. Now available in paperback, the Companion to Ethics covers issues such as moral methodology, moral realism, ethical expressivism, constructivism and the error theory, morality and practical reason, moral psychology, morality and religion, consequentialism, Kantian ethics, virtue ethics, feminist ethics, moral particularism, experimental ethics, and biology, evolution and ethics. Featuring a series of indispensable research tools, including key technical terms, a historical chronology, a detailed list of internet resources for research in ethics, and a thorough list of recommended works for further study, this is the essential resource for anyone studying, researching and writing in contemporary philosophical ethics.

Shades of Goodness

Shades of Goodness PDF Author: R. Lawlor
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 0230239277
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 245

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Book Description
It is typically thought that the demandingness problem is specifically a problem for consequentialists because of the gradable nature of consequentialist theories. Shades of Goodness argues that most moral theories have a gradable structure and, more significantly, that this is an advantage, rather than a disadvantage, for those theories.

Ideal Code, Real World

Ideal Code, Real World PDF Author: Brad Hooker
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 9780199256570
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 238

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Book Description
Begins by explaining and arguing for certain criteria for assessing normative moral theories. Then argues that these criteria lead to a rule-consequentialist moral theory.

The Moral Demands of Affluence

The Moral Demands of Affluence PDF Author: Garrett Cullity
Publisher: Clarendon Press
ISBN: 0191622567
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 296

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Book Description
How much are we morally required to do to help people who are much worse off than us? On any credible moral outlook, other people's pressing need for assistance can ground moral requirements on us to help them—-requirements of beneficence. How far do those requirements extend? One way to think about this is by means of a simple analogy: an analogy between joining in efforts to help people at a distance and rescuing a needy person yourself, directly. Part I of Garrett Cullity's book examines this analogy. In some ways, the analogy is not only simple, but politically and metaphysically simplistic. However, it contains an important truth: we are morally required to help other people, indirectly as well as directly. But the number of needy people in the world is enormous, and their need is very great. Once we start to recognize requirements to help them, when is it morally acceptable to stop? Cullity answers this question in Part II. Examining the nature of beneficence, he argues that its requirements only make sense on the assumption that many of the interests we share in common-rich and poor alike-are interests it is not wrong to pursue.

The Moral Demands of Affluence

The Moral Demands of Affluence PDF Author: Garrett Cullity
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0199204152
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 298

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Book Description
Given that there is a forceful case for thinking that the affluent are morally required to devote a substantial proportion of what they have to helping the poor, Garrett Cullity examines, refines and defends an argument of this form. He then identifies its limits.

Utilitarianism

Utilitarianism PDF Author: J. J. C. Smart
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1107268079
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 162

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Book Description
Two essays on utilitarianism, written from opposite points of view, by J. J. C. Smart and Bernard Williams. In the first part of the book Professor Smart advocates a modern and sophisticated version of classical utilitarianism; he tries to formulate a consistent and persuasive elaboration of the doctrine that the rightness and wrongness of actions is determined solely by their consequences, and in particular their consequences for the sum total of human happiness. In Part II Bernard Williams offers a sustained and vigorous critique of utilitarian assumptions, arguments and ideals. He finds inadequate the theory of action implied by utilitarianism, and he argues that utilitarianism fails to engage at a serious level with the real problems of moral and political philosophy, and fails to make sense of notions such as integrity, or even human happiness itself. This book should be of interest to welfare economists, political scientists and decision-theorists.

Moral Demands in Nonideal Theory

Moral Demands in Nonideal Theory PDF Author: Liam B. Murphy
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0195346769
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 179

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Book Description
Is there a limit to the legitimate demands of morality? In particular, is there a limit to people's responsibility to promote the well-being of others, either directly or via social institutions? Utilitarianism admits no such limit, and is for that reason often said to be an unacceptably demanding moral and political view. In this original new study, Murphy argues that the charge of excessive demands amounts to little more than an affirmation of the status quo. The real problem with utilitarianism is that it makes unfair demands on people who comply with it in our world of nonideal compliance. Murphy shows that this unfairness does not arise on a collective understanding of our responsibility for others' well being. Thus, according to Murphy, while there is no general problem to be raised about the extent of moral demands, there is a pressing need to acknowledge the collective nature of the demands of beneficence.