Rightness as Fairness - A Moral and Political Theory

Cover

Half-Title

Title

Copyright

Dedication

Contents

Acknowledgments

Introduction

1 Ethics for the Twenty-First Century

1 Distinguishing truth from seeming truth

2 Seven principles of theory selection

2.1 Firm Foundations

2.2 Internal Coherence

2.3 External Coherence

2.4 Explanatory Power

2.5 Unity

2.6 Parsimony

2.7 Fruitfulness

3 The case for instrumentalism

3.1 The firmest foundation

3.2 The promise of parsimony, unity, explanatory power, and fruitfulness

3.3 Advantages over alternatives

3.3.1 Advantages over intuitionism

3.3.2 Advantages over reflective equilibrium

3.3.3 Advantages over moral language analysis

3.3.4 Advantages over constitutivism

3.3.5 Advantages over second- and third-personalism

3.3.6 Advantages over Sterba’s dialecticalism

3.3.7 Conclusion

4 Disarming initial concerns

4.1 The wrong kinds of reasons?

4.2 Not a firm foundation?

4.3 Unconvincing and artificial?

4.4 Three promissory notes

4.4.1 Not the wrong kinds of reasons?

4.4.2 Firm foundations after all?

4.4.3 Intuitive and convincing?

5 Conclusion

2 The Problem of Possible Future Selves

1 Our capacities to care about our past and future

2 The problem of possible future selves

2.1 Possible futures

2.2 Possible psychologies

2.3 Possible choices

2.4 A very real problem

3 Morality as the solution?

4 Is the problem too contingent?

5 Two nonsolutions

5.1 Nonsolution 1: probable futures

5.2 Nonsolution 2: diachronic motivational consistency

6 Conclusion: an unsolved problem

3 The Categorical-Instrumental Imperative

1 Interests in diachronic cooperation

2 Three types of interests

2.1 Involuntary interests

2.2 Semivoluntary interests

2.3 Voluntary interests

3 The Categorical-Instrumental Imperative

4 Just conscience?

5 An intuitive solution to the problem of possible future selves?

6 Conclusion

4 Three Unified Formulations

1 The Humanity and Sentience Formulation

1.1 Possible other-human-regarding interests

1.2 Possible nonhuman-animal-regarding interests

1.3 Possible sentient-being-regarding interests

1.4 Derivation of the Humanity and Sentience Formulation

2 The Kingdom of Human and Sentient Ends Formulation

3 Advantages over Kantian ethics

3.1 Firmer foundations

3.2 Greater internal coherence

3.3 Greater external coherence

3.4 Greater explanatory power, unity, and parsimony

3.5 Greater fruitfulness

4 Conclusion

5 The Moral Original Position

1 Rawls’ Original Position

1.1 Rawls’ Kantian rationale

1.2 Rawls’ reflective equilibrium rationale

1.3 Rawls’ public reason rationale

2 Some common critiques

2.1 Kantian critiques

2.2 Reflective equilibrium critiques

2.3 Public reason critiques

3 The case for a Moral Original Position

4 Corroborating the critiques

4.1 Corroborating Kantian critiques

4.2 Corroborating reflective equilibrium critiques

4.3 Corroborating public reason critiques

5 Conclusion

6 Rightness as Fairness

1 Derivation of Four Principles of Fairness

1.1 The Principle of Negative Fairness

1.2 The Principle of Positive Fairness

1.3 The Principle of Fair Negotiation

1.4 The Principle of Virtues of Fairness

2 Rightness as Fairness: a unified standard of right and wrong

3 Rightness as Fairness in practice: principled fair negotiation

3.1 Kant’s four cases

3.2 How numbers should count: trolleys, torture, and organ donors

3.3 World poverty

3.4 Distribution of scarce medical resources

3.5 The ethical treatment of animals

4 Conclusion

7 Libertarian Egalitarian Communitarianism

1 Libertarianism, Egalitarianism, and Communitarianism

1.1 Libertarianism: attractions and critiques

1.2 Egalitarianism: attractions and critiques

1.3 Communitarianism: attractions and critiques

2 The case for Libertarian Egalitarian Communitarianism

3 Additional advantages

3.1 (Qualified) fair negotiation over divisiveness

3.2 Resolving the scope and requirements of justice

3.3 Resolving the ideal-nonideal theory distinction

4 Conclusion

8 Evaluating Rightness as Fairness

1 Firmer foundations

2 Greater internal coherence

3 Greater external coherence

4 Greater explanatory power

5 Greater unity

6 Greater parsimony

7 Greater fruitfulness

8 Conclusion

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Notes

Bibliography

Index