Download or read book Consequentialism written by Julia Driver and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2011-11-16 with total page 185 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Consequentialism is the view that the rightness or wrongness of actions depend solely on their consequences. It is one of the most influential, and controversial, of all ethical theories. In this book, Julia Driver introduces and critically assesses consequentialism in all its forms. After a brief historical introduction to the problem, Driver examines utilitarianism, and the arguments of its most famous exponents, John Stuart Mill and Jeremy Bentham, and explains the fundamental questions underlying utilitarian theory: what value is to be specified and how it is to be maximized. Driver also discusses indirect forms of consequentialism, the important theories of motive consequentialism and virtue consequentialism, and explains why the distinction between subjective and objective consequentialism is so important. Including helpful features such as a glossary, chapter summaries, and annotated further reading at the end of each chapter, Consequentialism is ideal for students seeking an authoritative and clearly explained survey of this important problem.
Download or read book Consequentialism and Environmental Ethics written by Avram Hiller and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2013-12-04 with total page 220 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume works to connect issues in environmental ethics with the best work in contemporary normative theory. Environmental issues challenge contemporary ethical theorists to account for topics that traditional ethical theories do not address to any significant extent. This book articulates and evaluates consequentialist responses to that challenge. Contributors provide a thorough and well-rounded analysis of the benefits and limitations of the consequentialist perspective in addressing environmental issues. In particular, the contributors use consequentialist theory to address central questions in environmental ethics, such as questions about what kinds of things have value; about decision-making in light of the long-term, intergenerational nature of environmental issues; and about the role that a state’s being natural should play in ethical deliberation.
Download or read book Virtue Ethics and Consequentialism in Early Chinese Philosophy written by Bryan van Norden and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2007-06-11 with total page 21 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this book Bryan W. Van Norden examines early Confucianism as a form of virtue ethics and Mohism, an anti-Confucian movement, as a version of consequentialism. The philosophical methodology is analytic, in that the emphasis is on clear exegesis of the texts and a critical examination of the philosophical arguments proposed by each side. Van Norden shows that Confucianism, while similar to Aristotelianism in being a form of virtue ethics, offers different conceptions of 'the good life', the virtues, human nature, and ethical cultivation. Mohism is akin to Western utilitarianism in being a form of consequentialism, but distinctive in its conception of the relevant consequences and in its specific thought-experiments and state-of-nature arguments. Van Norden makes use of the best research on Chinese history, archaeology, and philology. His text is accessible to philosophers with no previous knowledge of Chinese culture and to Sinologists with no background in philosophy.
Download or read book The Dimensions of Consequentialism written by Martin Peterson and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2013-03-28 with total page 229 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book introduces a new, multidimensional consequentialist theory, according to which an act's rightness depends on several irreducible dimensions.
Download or read book The Oxford Handbook of Consequentialism written by Douglas W. Portmore and published by Oxford University Press, USA. This book was released on 2020 with total page 689 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "This handbook contains thirty-two previously unpublished contributions to consequentialist ethics by leading scholars, covering what's happening in the field today as well as pointing to new directions for future research. Consequentialism is a rival to such moral theories as deontology, contractualism, and virtue ethics. But it's more than just one rival among many, for every plausible moral theory must concede that the goodness of an act's consequences is something that matters even if it's not the only thing that matters. Thus, all plausible moral theories will accept both that the fact that an act would produce good consequences constitutes a moral reason to perform it and that the better that act's consequences the moral reason there is to perform it. Now, if this is correct, then much of the research concerning consequentialist ethics is important for ethics in general. For instance, one thing that consequentialist researchers have investigated is what sorts of consequences matter: the consequences that some act would have or the consequences that it could have-if, say, the agent were to follow up by performing some subsequent act. And it's reasonable to suppose that the answer to such questions will be relevant for normative ethics regardless of whether the goodness of consequences is the only thing matters (as consequentialists presume) or just one of many things that matter (as non-consequentialists presume)"--
Download or read book Commonsense Consequentialism written by Douglas W. Portmore and published by OUP USA. This book was released on 2011-11-02 with total page 287 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is a book about morality, rationality, and the interconnections between the two. In it, Portmore defends a version of consequentialism that both comports with our commonsense moral intuitions and shares with consequentialist theories the same compelling teleological conception of practical reasons.
Download or read book Philosophical Foundations of Medical Law written by Andelka M. Phillips and published by Oxford University Press, USA. This book was released on 2019-11-28 with total page 353 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: With advances in personalised medicine, the field of medical law is being challenged and transformed. The nature of the doctor-patient relationship is shifting as patients simultaneously become consumers. The regulation of emerging technologies is being thrown into question, and we face new challenges in the context of global pandemics. This volume identifies significant questions and issues underlying the philosophy of medical law. It brings together leading philosophers, legal theorists, and medical specialists to discuss these questions in two parts. The first part deals with key foundational theories, and the second addresses a variety of topical issues, including euthanasia, abortion, and medical privacy. The wide range of perspectives and topics on offer provide a vital introduction to the philosophical underpinnings of medical law.
Download or read book Consequentialism and Its Critics written by Samuel Scheffler and published by . This book was released on 1988 with total page 302 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume presents papers discussing arguments on both sides of the consequentialist debate. The distinguished contributors include John Rawls, Bernard Williams, Thomas Nagel, Derek Parfit, among others.
Download or read book Consequentialism written by Christian Seidel and published by . This book was released on 2019 with total page 289 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Consequentialism is a focal point of moral philosophy. Recently, new wave consequentialists have presented theories which proved extremely flexible and powerful in meeting influential objections. The volume explores new directions within this project, raises fundamental problems for it, and gives a balanced assessment of its scope in commonsense moral practice.
Download or read book Kantian Consequentialism written by David Cummiskey and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 1996-01-18 with total page 209 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The central problem for normative ethics is the conflict between a consequentialist view--that morality requires promoting the good of all--and a belief that the rights of the individual place significant constraints on what may be done to help others. Standard interpretations see Kant as rejecting all forms of consequentialism, and defending a theory which is fundamentally duty-based and agent-centered. Certain actions, like sacrificing the innocent, are categorically forbidden. In this original and controversial work, Cummiskey argues that there is no defensible basis for this view, that Kant's own arguments actually entail a consequentialist conclusion. But this new form of consequentialism which follows from Kant's theories has a distinctly Kantian tone. The capacity of rational action is prior to the value of happiness; thus providing justification for the view that rational nature is more important than mere pleasures and pains.
Download or read book Ideal Code Real World written by Brad Hooker and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2000 with total page 248 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.
Download or read book Moral Imagination written by Mark Johnson and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2014-12-10 with total page 302 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Using path-breaking discoveries of cognitive science, Mark Johnson argues that humans are fundamentally imaginative moral animals, challenging the view that morality is simply a system of universal laws dictated by reason. According to the Western moral tradition, we make ethical decisions by applying universal laws to concrete situations. But Johnson shows how research in cognitive science undermines this view and reveals that imagination has an essential role in ethical deliberation. Expanding his innovative studies of human reason in Metaphors We Live By and The Body in the Mind, Johnson provides the tools for more practical, realistic, and constructive moral reflection.
Download or read book Virtue Rediscovered written by Nathan Wood and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2019-11-29 with total page 175 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Virtue ethics occupies the strange position of being one of the oldest and most prominently discussed ethical theories throughout history, and yet many contemporary moral philosophers do not recognize it as a genuine alternative to currently prominent normative theories, such as utilitarianism or Kantian ethics. In Virtue Rediscovered: Deontology, Consequentialism, and Virtue Ethics in the Contemporary Moral Landscape, Nathan Wood argues that this discrepancy requires us to rethink how we understand the function and purpose of normative ethical theories, especially insofar as such theories are expected to be action guiding. All ethical theories guide action, but they do so in two different ways. One way is through stipulating criteria for what we ought to do, but another way is setting a core concern that represents an account of what lies at the heart of morality and determines the moral salience of features in the world. This framework not only clarifies the nature of deontology, consequentialism, and virtue ethics, but also recasts the debate among them.
Download or read book Ideal Code Real World written by Brad Hooker and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2002 with total page 238 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.
Download or read book From Value to Rightness written by Vuko Andrić and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2021-07-05 with total page 161 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book develops an original version of act-consequentialism. It argues that act-consequentialists should adopt a subjective criterion of rightness. The book develops new arguments which strongly suggest that, according to the best version of act-consequentialism, the rightness of actions depends on expected rather than actual value. Its findings go beyond the debate about consequentialism and touch on important debates in normative ethics and metaethics. The distinction between criterion of rightness and decision procedures addresses how, why, and in which sense moral theories must be implemented by ordinary persons. The discussion of the rationales of "ought" implies "can" leads to the discovery of a hitherto overlooked moral principle, "ought" implies "evidence", which can be used to show that most prominent moral theories are false. Finally, in the context of discussing cases that are supposed to reveal intuitions that favour either objective or subjective consequentialism, the book argues that which cases are relevant for the discussion of objectivism and subjectivism depends on the type of moral theory we are concerned with (consequentialism, Kantianism, virtue ethics, etc.). From Value to Rightness will be of interest to scholars and advanced students working in normative ethics and metaethics.
Download or read book Beyond Consequentialism written by Paul E. Hurley and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2009 with total page 286 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Paul Hurley sets out a radical challenge to consequentialism, the theory which might seem to be the default option in contemporary moral philosophy. There is an unresolved tension within the theory: if consequentialists are right about the content of morality, then morality cannot have the rational authority that even they take it to have.
Download or read book The Rejection of Consequentialism written by Samuel Scheffler and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 1994-08-11 with total page 133 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In contemporary philosophy, substantive moral theories are typically classified as either consequentialist or deontological. Standard consequentialist theories insist, roughly, that agents must always act so as to produce the best available outcomes overall. Standard deontological theories, by contrast, maintain that there are some circumstances where one is permitted but not required to produce the best overall results, and still other circumstances in which one is positively forbidden to do so. Classical utilitarianism is the most familiar consequentialist view, but it is widely regarded as an inadequate account of morality. Although Professor Scheffler agrees with this assessment, he also believes that consequentialism seems initially plausible, and that there is a persistent air of paradox surrounding typical deontological views. In this book, therefore, he undertakes to reconsider the rejection of consequentialism. He argues that it is possible to provide a rationale for the view that agents need not always produce the best possible overall outcomes, and this motivates one departure from consequentialism; but he shows that it is surprisingly difficult to provide a satisfactory rationale for the view that there are times when agents must not produce the best possible overall outcomes. He goes on to argue for a hitherto neglected type of moral conception, according to which agents are always permitted, but not always required, to produce the best outcomes.
