Refined Consequentialism
Refined Consequentialism

Author: Patrick Andrew Tully

Publisher: Peter Lang

Published: 2006

Total Pages: 198

ISBN-13: 9780820486253

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Refined Consequentialism critically examines the moral vision offered by the late Richard A. McCormick, the premier American Catholic moral theologian of the post-Vatican II era. Taking a philosophical approach to a debate carried on primarily by moral theologians, the author presents a forceful case that McCormick's brand of proportionalism belongs in the ranks of consequentialist moral theories. In doing so, the author stakes out a clear position on one side of a crucial debate that goes to the heart of the Catholic and Christian moral tradition. This book may serve as a text in both undergraduate and graduate courses that deal with contemporary Catholic (and secular) moral thought. A broader public - one interested in the history of moral theology and in the ethical-theoretical underpinnings of the current debates within the churches on euthanasia, supporting pro-choice politicians, and removal of nutrition and hydration from gravely ill patients - will also find this book of great interest.

Consequentialism
Consequentialism

Author: Christian Seidel

Publisher:

Published: 2019

Total Pages: 289

ISBN-13: 019027011X

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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.

Taking Utilitarianism Seriously
Taking Utilitarianism Seriously

Author: Christopher Woodard

Publisher:

Published: 2019

Total Pages: 259

ISBN-13: 0198732627

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Christopher Woodard presents a new and rich version of utilitarianism, the idea that ethics is ultimately about what makes people's lives go better. He launches a state-of-the-art defence of the theory, often seen as excessively simple, and shows that it can account for much of the complexity and nuance of everyday ethical thought.

Consequentialism and Environmental Ethics
Consequentialism and Environmental Ethics

Author: Avram Hiller

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2013-12-04

Total Pages: 213

ISBN-13: 1135042578

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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.

Consequentialism and Its Critics
Consequentialism and Its Critics

Author: Samuel Scheffler

Publisher:

Published: 1988

Total Pages: 302

ISBN-13: 0198750730

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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.

Utilitarianism - Ed. Heydt
Utilitarianism - Ed. Heydt

Author: John Stuart Mill

Publisher: Broadview Press

Published: 2010-08-06

Total Pages: 209

ISBN-13: 1460402103

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John Stuart Mill’s Utilitarianism is a philosophical defense of utilitarianism, a moral theory stating that right actions are those that tend to promote overall happiness. The essay first appeared as a series of articles published in Fraser’s Magazine in 1861; the articles were collected and reprinted as a single book in 1863. Mill discusses utilitarianism in some of his other works, including On Liberty and The Subjection of Women, but Utilitarianism contains his only sustained defence of the theory. In this Broadview Edition, Colin Heydt provides a substantial introduction that will enable readers to understand better the polemical context for Utilitarianism. Heydt shows, for example, how Mill’s moral philosophy grew out of political engagement, rather than exclusively out of a speculative interest in determining the nature of morality. Appendices include precedents to Mill’s work, reactions to Utilitarianism, and related writings by Mill.

Utility, Progress, and Technology: Proceedings of the 15th Conference of the International Society for Utilitarian Studies
Utility, Progress, and Technology: Proceedings of the 15th Conference of the International Society for Utilitarian Studies

Author: Schefczyk, Michael

Publisher: KIT Scientific Publishing

Published: 2021-09-27

Total Pages: 382

ISBN-13: 3731511088

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This volume collects selected papers delivered at the 15th Conference of the International Society for Utilitarian Studies, which was held at Karlsruhe Institute of Technology in July 2018. It includes papers dealing with the past, present, and future of utilitarianism – the theory that human happiness is the fundamental moral value – as well as on its applications to animal ethics, population ethics, and the future of humanity, among other topics.

The Oxford Handbook of Consequentialism
The Oxford Handbook of Consequentialism

Author: Douglas W. Portmore

Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA

Published: 2020

Total Pages: 689

ISBN-13: 0190905328

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"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)"--

Reconceiving Medical Ethics
Reconceiving Medical Ethics

Author: Christopher Cowley

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing

Published: 2012-02-09

Total Pages: 289

ISBN-13: 1441121277

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This volume of original work comprises a modest challenge, sometimes direct, sometimes implicit, to the mainstream Anglo-American conception of the discipline of medical ethics. It does so not by trying to fill the gaps with exotic minority interest topics, but by re-examining some of the fundamental assumptions of the familiar philosophical arguments, and some of the basic situations that generate the issues. The most important such situation is the encounter between the doctor and the suffering patient, which forms one of the themes of the book. The authors show that concepts such as the body, suffering and consent - and the role such concepts play within patients' lives - are much more complicated than the Anglo-American mainstream appreciates. Some of these concepts have been discussed with subtlety by Continental philosophers (like Heidegger, Ricoeur), and a secondary purpose of the volume is to apply their ideas to medical ethics. Designed for upper-level undergraduates and graduate students with some philosophical background in ethics, Reconceiving Medical Ethics opens up new avenues for discussion in this ever-developing field.

Morality for Humans
Morality for Humans

Author: Mark Johnson

Publisher: University of Chicago Press

Published: 2015-09-04

Total Pages: 274

ISBN-13: 022611354X

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“A welcome renewal and defense of John Dewey's ethical naturalism, which Johnson claims is the only morality ‘fit for actual human beings.’” —Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews What is the difference between right and wrong? This is no easy question to answer, yet we constantly try to make it so, frequently appealing to absolutes, whether drawn from God, universal reason, or societal authority. Combining cognitive science with a pragmatist philosophical framework, Mark Johnson argues that appealing solely to absolute principles is not only scientifically unsound but even morally suspect. He shows that the standards for the kinds of people we should be and how we should treat one another are frequently subject to change. Taking context into consideration, he offers a nuanced, naturalistic view of ethics that sees us creatively adapt our standards according to given needs, emerging problems, and social interactions. Ethical naturalism is not just a revamped form of relativism. Indeed, Johnson attempts to overcome the absolutist-versus-relativist impasse that has been one of the most intractable problems in the history of philosophy. Much of our moral thought, he shows, is automatic and intuitive, gut feelings that we attempt to justify with rational analysis and argument. However, good moral deliberation is not limited to intuitive judgments supported after the fact by reasoning. Johnson points out a crucial third element: we imagine how our decisions will play out, how we or the world would change with each action we might take. Plumbing this imaginative dimension of moral reasoning, he provides a psychologically sophisticated view of moral problem solving, one perfectly suited for the embodied, culturally embedded, and ever-developing human creatures that we are.