Download or read book Contractualism and the Foundations of Morality written by Nicholas Southwood and published by OUP Oxford. This book was released on 2013-11-07 with total page 221 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Contractualism has a venerable history and considerable appeal. Yet as an account of the foundations or ultimate grounds of morality it has been thought by many philosophers to be subject to fatal objections. In this book Nicholas Southwood argues otherwise. Beginning by detailing and diagnosing the shortcomings of the existing "Hobbesian" and "Kantian" models of contractualism, he then proposes a novel "deliberative" model, based on an interpersonal, deliberative conception of practical reason. He argues that the deliberative model of contractualism represents an attractive alternative to its more familiar rivals and that it has the resources to offer a more compelling account of morality's foundations, one that does justice to the twin demands of moral accuracy and explanatory adequacy.
Download or read book Scanlon and Contractualism written by Matt Matravers and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2004-08-02 with total page 152 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This collection brings together essays by distinguished political philosophers which reflect on the detailed arguments of What We Owe to Each Other, and comment critically both on Scanlon's contractualism and his revised understandings of motivation and morality. The essays illustrate the uses of Scanlon's contractualism by applying it to moral and political problems and in so doing they provide an assessment of the ability of Scanlon's contractualism by applying it to other forms of ethical theory. The resulting volume makes an important and original contribution to the literature on Scanlon, on contractualism and on contemporary political philosophy.
Download or read book Utilitarianism and Beyond written by Amartya Sen and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 1982-06-10 with total page 304 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Utilitarianism considered both as a theory of personal morality and a theory of public choice.
Download or read book Contractualism written by Jussi Suikkanen and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2020-05-28 with total page 77 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This Element begins by describing T.M. Scanlon's contractualism according to which an action is right when it is authorised by the moral principles no one could reasonably reject. This view has argued to have implausible consequences with regards to how different-sized groups, non-human animals, and cognitively limited human beings should be treated. It has also been accused of being theoretically redundant and unable to vindicate the so-called deontic distinctions. I then distinguish between the general contractualist framework and Scanlon's version of contractualism. I explain how the general framework enables us to formulate many other versions of contractualism some of which can already be found in the literature. Understanding contractualism in this new way enables us both to understand the structural similarities and differences between different versions of contractualism and also to see the different objections to contractualism as internal debates about which version of contractualism is correct.
Download or read book Rightness as Fairness written by Marcus Arvan and published by Springer. This book was released on 2016-03-29 with total page 282 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Rightness as Fairness provides a uniquely fruitful method of 'principled fair negotiation' for resolving applied moral and political issues that requires merging principled debate with real-world negotiation.
Download or read book Contractarianism and Rational Choice written by Peter Vallentyne and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 1991-01-25 with total page 356 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: David Gauthier's Morals by Agreement (1986) is the most complete and suggestive contractarian theory of morality since the work of Rawls. In this anthology a number of prominent moral and political philosophers offer a critical assessment of Gauthier's theory and its three main projects: developing a contractarian foundation for morality, defending a theory of rational choice, and supporting the claim that rationality requires one to keep one's agreements. An introduction sets out Gauthier's project, while Gauthier himself has the last word, responding to the critiques. This collection will interest moral and political philosophers, social theorists, and specialists in the philosophy and theory of law as well as management sciences.
Download or read book Corporate Citizenship Contractarianism and Ethical Theory written by Jesús Conill and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2017-11-30 with total page 301 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This study provides a representation of the broad spectrum of theoretical work on topics related to business ethics, with a particular focus on corporate citizenship. It considers relations of business and society alongside social responsibility and moves on to examine the historical and systemic foundations of business ethics, focusing on the concepts of social and ethical responsibilities. The contributors explore established theories and concepts and their impact on moral behaviour. Together, the contributions offer varied philosophical theories in approaches to business ethics. The book will be a valuable resource for academics and researchers with an interest in the theoretical development of business ethics.
Download or read book The Concept of Moral Consensus written by K. Bayertz and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 1994-05-31 with total page 274 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The demand for consensus arises due to its absence. For each opinion held there will be another to counter it, and for each approach to problem solving an alternative will be suggested. Focusing on the bioethical problems surrounding new technological interventions in human reproduction, 15 authors examine the meaning, importance and feasibility of consensus.
Download or read book Corporate Citizenship Contractarianism and Ethical Theory written by Jesús Conill Sancho and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2022 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book NATURE OF MORAL DUTIES written by C. y. Kwong and published by Open Dissertation Press. This book was released on 2017-01-27 with total page 170 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This dissertation, "The Nature of Moral Duties: Scanlon's Contractualist Account of 'what We Owe to Each Other'" by C Y, Kwong, 江祖胤, was obtained from The University of Hong Kong (Pokfulam, Hong Kong) and is being sold pursuant to Creative Commons: Attribution 3.0 Hong Kong License. The content of this dissertation has not been altered in any way. We have altered the formatting in order to facilitate the ease of printing and reading of the dissertation. All rights not granted by the above license are retained by the author. Abstract: Abstract of thesis entitled The Nature of Moral Duties-Scanlon's Contractualist Account of 'what we owe to each other' submitted by Simon C. Y. Kwong for the degree of Master of Philosophy at the University of HK in August 2003 This thesis aims at examining a contractualist account of our moral duties towards other individuals, which was proposed by Thomas Scanlon in his book What We Owe to Each Other (1998). Traditionally, utilitarianism occupies a dominant position in moral and political philosophy, and contractualism as a non-consequentialist stream of theories does not receive much attention before John Rawls＇s A Theory of Justice (1971) was published. Even within the family of contract theories, most of the attentions have been devoted to ｀justice＇ but not ｀moral duties＇. Scanlon＇s contractualist account of ｀what we owe to each other＇ therefore has two distinctive features: first, it is an account of ｀moral duties＇ towards other individuals but not an account of justice or other evaluative focal points; second, it offers a contractualist but not consequentialist foundation for ｀what we owe to each other＇. My thesis has a dual purpose: first, to examine the nature of our moral duties under this conception of ｀what we owe to each other＇; and second, to argue that contractualism does represent a genuine and appealing rival to utilitarianism and other forms of consequentialism as a foundational theory. The nature of our moral duties to other individuals is examined in terms of its normative content, motivational basis, scope and its implications on moral status, basing Apart from Rawls, David Gauthier, for example, also offers a contractarian theory of justice in his Morals by Agreement (Oxford University Press, 1986) ion a contractualist foundation. Chapter 1 will be a general discussion of social contract theories. Staring with Shelly Kagan＇s framework in analyzing normative theories, I will examine the role of contract theories in normative ethics. After a summary of the characteristics of different contract theories, I will examine some of the most pressing critiques of contract theories and try to answer them. Chapter 2 will discuss the normative content of ｀what we owe to each other＇. Some of the main ideas in Scanlon＇s account like ｀principles＇ and ｀reasonable rejection＇ will be explicated to pave the way for further discussions in later Chapters. Chapter 3 will be a direct comparison between contractualism and consequentialism. I will discuss the main divergence between contractualism and consequentialism in first-order moral questions. I will also argue how contractualism, as a non-aggregative and non-teleological theory, serves as a better foundation than consequentialism for our moral duties towards others. Chapter 4 will turn to the question of moral motivation. I will examine why we should respect our moral duties to others in terms of why we should take the considerations of ｀what we owe to each other＇ seriously. In Chapter 5, I will explain how the normative content of contractualism and contractualist moral motivation are unified by the idea of mutual justifiability to others. They together form a single subject matter and constitute a unified domain of ｀what we owe to each other＇ within the broader concept of ｀morality＇. I will then examine the scope of this particular doma
Download or read book Society s Choices written by Institute of Medicine and published by National Academies Press. This book was released on 1995-03-27 with total page 560 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Breakthroughs in biomedicine often lead to new life-giving treatments but may also raise troubling, even life-and-death, quandaries. Society's Choices discusses ways for people to handle today's bioethics issues in the context of America's unique history and cultureâ€"and from the perspectives of various interest groups. The book explores how Americans have grappled with specific aspects of bioethics through commission deliberations, programs by organizations, and other mechanisms and identifies criteria for evaluating the outcomes of these efforts. The committee offers recommendations on the role of government and professional societies, the function of commissions and institutional review boards, and bioethics in health professional education and research. The volume includes a series of 12 superb background papers on public moral discourse, mechanisms for handling social and ethical dilemmas, and other specific areas of controversy by well-known experts Ronald Bayer, Martin Benjamin, Dan W. Brock, Baruch A. Brody, H. Alta Charo, Lawrence Gostin, Bradford H. Gray, Kathi E. Hanna, Elizabeth Heitman, Thomas Nagel, Steven Shapin, and Charles M. Swezey.
Download or read book Neurofunctional Prudence and Morality written by Marcus Arvan and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2020-01-29 with total page 123 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Philosophers across many traditions have long theorized about the relationship between prudence and morality. Few clear answers have emerged, however, in large part because of the inherently speculative nature of traditional philosophical methods. This book aims to forge a bold new path forward, outlining a theory of prudence and morality that unifies a wide variety of findings in neuroscience with philosophically sophisticated normative theorizing. The author summarizes the emerging behavioral neuroscience of prudence and morality, showing how human moral and prudential cognition and motivation are known to involve over a dozen brain regions and capacities. He then outlines a detailed philosophical theory of prudence and morality based on neuroscience and lived human experience. The result demonstrates how this theory coheres with and explains the behavioral neuroscience, showing how each brain region and capacity interact to give rise to prudential and moral behavior. Neurofunctional Prudence and Morality: A Philosophical Theory will be of interest to philosophers and psychologists working in moral psychology, neuroethics, and decision theory. Chapter 3 of this book is freely available as a downloadable Open Access PDF under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 license.
Download or read book Morals by Agreement written by David P. Gauthier and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 1986 with total page 367 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Are moral principles actually principles of rational choice? Starting from the view that it is rational always to choose what will give one the greatest expectation of value or utility--and the common counter-claim that this procedure, applied in many situations, will actually leave peopleworse off than need be--Gauthier instead proposes a principle of cooperation whereby each must choose in accordance with a principle to which all can agree. He shows that not only does such a principle ensure mutual benefit and fairness, but also that each person may expect greater utility fromactually adhering to a morality based on it, even though his other choice did not have that specific end primarily in view. In resolving what may appear to be a paradox, he establishes morals on the foundation of reason.
Download or read book Moral Contract Theory and Social Cognition written by Peter Timmerman and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2014-03-10 with total page 233 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This interdisciplinary work draws on research from psychology and behavioral economics to evaluate the plausibility of moral contract theory. In a compelling manner with implications for moral theory more broadly, the author’s novel approach resolves a number of key contingencies in contractarianism and contractualism. Acting in accordance with principles that we could all agree to under certain conditions requires that agents are capable of taking up the perspectives of others. Research in social and developmental psychology shows just how challenging this can be. The author discusses in detail what implications findings on perspective-taking have for contract theory. He concludes with cautious optimism that, despite our limitations, it lies within our power to become better at perspective-taking and to adopt a contractarian or contractualist mode of moral thinking. This does however require us to be much more attentive to the standpoints of others than we tend to be. Contract theorists also assume that agents can be moved to comply with principles that would be the object of agreement, with some arguing they can be so moved out of their own interest. The book show that, in contrast to the suspicion of many philosophers, this idea is largely supported by research on the dynamics of trust and our ability to distinguish trustworthy from untrustworthy others. Bringing a welcome dose of realism to the debate on contract theory, the author shows the value of assessing moral theories from an empirical perspective.
Download or read book The Origins of Fairness written by Nicolas Baumard and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2016-03-01 with total page 273 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In order to describe the logic of morality, "contractualist" philosophers have studied how individuals behave when they choose to follow their moral intuitions. These individuals, contractualists note, often act as if they have bargained and thus reached an agreement with others about how to distribute the benefits and burdens of mutual cooperation. Using this observation, such philosophers argue that the purpose of morality is to maximize the benefits of human interaction. The resulting "contract" analogy is both insightful and puzzling. On one hand, it captures the pattern of moral intuitions, thus answering questions about human cooperation: why do humans cooperate? Why should the distribution of benefits be proportionate to each person's contribution? Why should the punishment be proportionate to the crime? Why should the rights be proportionate to the duties? On the other hand, the analogy provides a mere as-if explanation for human cooperation, saying that cooperation is "as if" people have passed a contract-but since they didn't, why should it be so? To evolutionary thinkers, the puzzle of the missing contract is immediately reminiscent of the puzzle of the missing "designer" of life-forms, a puzzle that Darwin's theory of natural selection essentially resolved. Evolutionary and contractualist theory originally intersected at the work of philosophers John Rawls and David Gauthier, who argued that moral judgments are based on a sense of fairness that has been naturally selected. In this book, Nicolas Baumard further explores the theory that morality was originally an adaptation to the biological market of cooperation, an arena in which individuals competed to be selected for cooperative interactions. In this environment, Baumard suggests, the best strategy was to treat others with impartiality and to share the costs and benefits of cooperation in a fair way, so that those who offered less than others were left out of cooperation while those who offered more were exploited by their partners. It is with this evolutionary approach that Baumard ultimately accounts for the specific structure of human morality.
Download or read book The Right to Justification written by Rainer Forst and published by Columbia University Press. This book was released on 2012 with total page 370 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Contemporary philosophical pluralism recognizes the inevitability and legitimacy of multiple ethical perspectives and values, making it difficult to isolate the higher-order principles on which to base a theory of justice. Rising up to meet this challenge, Rainer Forst, a leading member of the Frankfurt School's newest generation of philosophers, conceives of an "autonomous" construction of justice founded on what he calls the basic moral right to justification. Forst begins by identifying this right from the perspective of moral philosophy. Then, through an innovative, detailed critical analysis, he ties together the central components of social and political justice--freedom, democracy, equality, and toleration--and joins them to the right to justification. The resulting theory treats "justificatory power" as the central question of justice, and by adopting this approach, Forst argues, we can discursively work out, or "construct," principles of justice, especially with respect to transnational justice and human rights issues. As he builds his theory, Forst engages with the work of Anglo-American philosophers such as John Rawls, Ronald Dworkin, and Amartya Sen, and critical theorists such as Jürgen Habermas, Nancy Fraser, and Axel Honneth. Straddling multiple subjects, from politics and law to social protest and philosophical conceptions of practical reason, Forst brilliantly gathers contesting claims around a single, elastic theory of justice.
Download or read book Contractarianism Contractualism written by Stephen Darwell and published by Wiley-Blackwell. This book was released on 2002-11-22 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Contractualism/Contractarianism collects, for the first time, both major classical sources and central contemporary discussions of these important approaches to philosophical ethics. Edited and introduced by Stephen Darwall, these readings are essential for anyone interested in normative ethics. With a helpful introduction by Stephen Darwall, examines key topics in the contractarian and contractualist moral theory. Includes six contemporary essays which respond to the classic sources. Includes an insightful discussion of contractualism by Gary Watson. Includes classic excerpts by key figures such as Hobbes, Rousseau, and Kant, and recent reactions to this work by philosophers, including David Gauthier, Gilbert Harman, John Rawls, and T. M. Scanlon.
