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" Doing the Best We Can : "
by Fred Feldman.
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BL
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| Record Number
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773369
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b593363
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| Main Entry
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by Fred Feldman.
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| Title & Author
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Doing the Best We Can : : an Essay in Informal Deontic Logic\ by Fred Feldman.
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| Publication Statement
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Dordrecht : Springer Netherlands, 1986
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| Series Statement
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Philosophical studies series in philosophy, 35.
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(264 pages)
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| ISBN
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9400945701
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: 9789400945708
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| Contents
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One/Absolute Moral Obligation --; 1. Utilitarian Foundations --; 2. A Theory of Moral Obligation --; 3. Moral Objections to MO --; Two/Iffy Oughts --; 4. Basic Iffy Oughts --; 5 Hypothetical Imperatives --; 6. Defeasible Commitment and Prima Facie Obligation --; Three/Extensions --; 7. Individual Obligation and Group Welfare --; 8. What Ought to be --; 9. Conflicts of Obligation --; 10. Conclusions --; Notes --; Index of Names --; Index of Subjects.
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| Abstract
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Several years ago I came across a marvelous little paper in which Hector-Neri Castaneda shows that standard versions of act utilitarian l ism are formally incoherent. I was intrigued by his argument. It had long seemed to me that I had a firm grasp on act utilitarianism. Indeed, it had often seemed to me that it was the clearest and most attractive of normative theories. Yet here was a simple and relatively uncontrover sial argument that showed, with only some trivial assumptions, that the doctrine is virtually unintelligible. The gist of Castaneda's argument is this: suppose we understand act utilitarianism to be the view that an act is obligatory if and only if its utility exceeds that of each alternative. Suppose it is obligatory for a certain person to perform an act with two parts - we can call it 'A & B'. Then, obviously enough, it is also obligatory for this person to perform the parts, A and B. If act utilitarianism were true, we appar ently could infer that the utility of A & B is higher than that of A, and higher than that of B (because A & B is obligatory, and the other acts are alternatives to A & B).
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Ethics.
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Philosophy (General)
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Fred Feldman
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