Morality and Utility

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Narveson, Jan, 1936-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Ethics.

Utilitarianism.

Genre:

Electronic books.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (ix, 302 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Johns Hopkins University Press 2019

Baltimore, Md., Johns Hopkins Press [1967]

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Originally published in 1967. In the past half-century, Utilitarianism has fallen out of favor among professional philosophers, except in such "amended" forms as "Ideal" and "Rule" Utilitarianism. Professor Narveson contends that amendments and qualifications are unnecessary and misguided, and that a careful interpretation and application of the original theory, as advocated by Bentham, the Mills, and Sidgwick, obviates any need for modification. Drawing on the analytical work of such influential recent thinkers as Stevenson, Toulmin, Hare, Nowell-Smith, and Baier, the author attempts to draw a more careful and detailed picture than has previously been offered of the logical status and workings of the Principle of Utility. He then turns to the traditional objections to the theory as developed by such respected thinkers as Ross, Frankena, Hart, and Rawls and attempts to show how Utilitarianism can account for our undoubted obligations in the areas of punishment, promising, distributive justice, and the other principal moral convictions of mankind. He contends that the Principle of Utility implies whatever is recognized to be clearly true in these convictions and that it leaves room to doubt whatever is doubtful in them. Narveson concludes with a rationally forceful proof of the Principle of Utility. In the course of this argument, which draws on the most widely accepted recent findings in analytical ethics, Narveson discovers an essential identity between the ethical outlooks of Kant and of Mill, which are traditionally held to be antithetical. Both thinkers, he shows, center on the principle that the interests of others are to be regarded as equal in value to one's own. A new view of Mill's celebrated "proof of utilitarianism" is developed in the course of the discussion.

Contents:

Cover

Copyright

Contents

Preface

I: Introduction: Utilitarianism and Philosophical Ethics

Normative Ethics

Method in Normative Ethics

Utilitarianism And its Problems

II: The Logical Status of Moral Principles

Logical Status of the Principle of Utility

Utilitarianism is a Moral Theory

Formulation of Moral Principles

Clarity Versus Precision

III: Utility

Hedonism

Psychological Hedonism

Ideal Utilitarianism

Intrinsic Value

Qualities and Quantities

Apparent" Versus "Real" Satisfactions

Three Puzzles: Unrealizable Satisfactions, The Rights of Animals, and Mr. Smart's Electrodes

Final Formulation

IV: Formalism

The Distinction Between Formalism and Teleology

Rigorism" and the Status of Particular Moral Principles

Intentions and Acts

Objective" and "Subjective

V: Tasks and Methods

Tasks

Rule-Utilitarianism

But What if Everyone Did That?

Some Dubious Utilities

Distinguishing Moral Predicates

VI: The Utilitarian Theory of "Strict" Obligation

Fundamental Justice and the "Innocent Man" Problem

Punishment and Retribution

Reparations

Types of Harms

Incurred Obligations and Duties: Promising as a Paradigm

VII: Distributive Justice

Distribution and Happiness

Distribution

Property

Rights

Distributing Happiness

Obligations to Distribute Happiness Equally

Obligations to Distribute

Obligations to Distribute Happiness

Obligations to Distribute Equally

Utilitarian Theory of Distributive Justice

Moral Preferability of Equal "Distribution of Happiness

Measurement

Marginal Utility and Envy

Merit

Trade

Summary

Justice as Fairness

Summary on Justice and Fairness

Economic Justice

VIII: Rounding Out the System

Duties of Society: Relief of Suffering and Equalization of Opportunity.

Generosity, Works of Supererogation, and Ideals

Self and Others

Summing Up: The Limits of Morality and Some Odds and Ends

IX: Foundations

What Are We to Prove?

What Constitutes Proof?

Is Proof of Ethical Statements Needed?

Method

False Starts

Self-Interest

The Logic of Evaluation

Refutation of Egoism

Proof of Utilitarianism

Is it a Verbal Trick?

Other Dodges: Hare's Fanatics

Mill's Proof

On the Nature of Practical Reasoning

Index.

Notes:

Bibliographical footnotes.

Description based on print version record.

Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.

ISBN:

0-8018-0483-3

1-4214-3091-6

OCLC:

1117491779