Doing the Best We Can - An Essay in Informal Deontic Logic (Hardcover, 1986 ed.)

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)."

General

Imprint:	Kluwer Academic Publishers
Country of origin:	Netherlands
Series:	Philosophical Studies Series, 35
Release date:	April 2003
First published:	April 1986
Authors:	Fred Feldman
Dimensions:	297 x 210 x 15mm (L x W x T)
Format:	Hardcover
Pages:	246
Edition:	1986 ed.
ISBN-13:	978-90-277-2164-8
Categories:	Books > Humanities > Philosophy > Topics in philosophy > Ethics & moral philosophy > General Books > Philosophy > Topics in philosophy > Ethics & moral philosophy > General Promotions
LSN:	90-277-2164-5
Barcode:	9789027721648

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