Needs and moral necessity oct 2007

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Needs and moral necessity oct 2007

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Needs and Moral Necessity Needs and Moral Necessity analyses ethics as a practice, explains why we have three moral theory-types, consequentialism, deontology and vitue ethics, and argues for a fourth needs-based theory Soran Reader is Reader in Philosophy at Durham University and is editor of The Philosophy of Need (Cambridge University Press, 2006) Routledge Studies in Ethics and Moral Theory The Contradictions of Modern Moral Philosophy Ethics after Wittgenstein Paul Johnston Kant, Duty and Moral Worth Philip Stratton-Lake Justifying Emotions Pride and Jealousy Kristja´n Kristja´nsson Classical Utilitarianism from Hume to Mill Frederick Rosen The Self, the Soul and the Psychology of Good and Evil Ilham Dilman Moral Responsibility The Ways of Scepticism Carlos J Moya The Ethics of Confucius and Aristotle Mirrors of Virtue Jiyuan Yu Needs and Moral Necessity Soran Reader First published 2007 by Routledge 270 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10016 Simultaneously published in the UK by Routledge Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business # 2007 Soran Reader This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2007 “To purchase your own copy of this or any of Taylor & Francis or Routledge’s collection of thousands of eBooks please go to www.eBookstore.tandf.co.uk.” All rights reserved No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilized in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data A catalogue record for the book has been requested British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library ISBN 0-203-94026-1 Master e-book ISBN ISBN13: 978-0-415-96035-9 For Jasmin and John Contents Preface Acknowledgements vi viii Introduction What ethics is Ethics as a practice 28 Meeting patients’ needs 46 The moral demandingness of needs 64 Objections 83 Consequentialism 99 Deontology 118 Virtue ethics 136 Notes Bibliography Index 154 161 167 Preface This book is about a new way of thinking about ethics, which shows up and avoids some of the problems of more familiar ways It is intended for professional moral philosophers and advanced students The way it came to be written may be worth recounting When I began my career in 1993, I had just finished a six-year PhD project, I had two young children, and I had to commute to a distant city to my job I was a feminist, angry and frustrated at the difficulties of having to compete as if on a level playing field with men who had no family responsibilities I was given applied ethics, including feminism, sexual and reproductive ethics, to teach At the beginning, I had plans to write a book of feminist philosophy, on the question of the sense in which philosophy might be ‘male’ But after a couple of years on the job, that no longer felt possible Living the reality of a working woman’s life under patriarchy, I lost confidence and interest in feminist theory I complained about sexism wherever I saw it, which was all over the place I was hurt, and I am still angry that those years were so unnecessarily hard, that women still suffer this, and feel they must either put up with it or leave, as if these are fair terms for access to a philosophical career They are not In 1995, I came up with the main idea for this book, that things matter presumptively, and that their needs make the demands to which ethics is a response, as a way of taking my research away from feminism which now felt too personally painful But even at the beginning, this was a ‘cryptofeminist’ project I chose to work on needy things and the way moral agents must respond to them, because I knew this is something women are trained to do, know all about, and excel at And I also knew this is something men ignore, deny and devalue, all the while getting women to meet needs for them It gave me a certain satisfaction, under the noses of male aficionados of high theory (preferably metaethical), using the theoretical tools they trust, to argue that something they had not noticed was fundamental, and that without paying proper attention to patients and needs, no philosopher however ingenious would ever be able to define ethics or make sense of moral normativity My feminism was, as they say, sublimated into work on Preface ix the concept of need, including its history, its logic, its metaphysics and its role in political philosophy Although I am now once again an ‘out’ feminist, the habit of cryptofeminism has left this book quite sex-neutral You don’t have to be a woman to appreciate the insights, or follow the arguments Only my examples are patently feminist, in two ways First, I mix up my sex Sometimes ‘I’ is a man, sometimes it is a woman Second, I use knowledge of human experience that comes from the standpoint of women, to illustrate ethical points Male readers may find some such examples provocative To them I say what men often say to women like me who complain about the misogynistic examples rife in analytic philosophy like ‘all women are featherbrained’ and ‘assume I want to kill my wife’: ‘They’re only examples! Concentrate on the argument!’ Although I believe philosophy still has as much to for the liberation of women as religion, politics and work, I believe this liberation is possible, and I believe men can contribute to it if anything more than women can I want to share the work, and I hope readers will want to join me I particularly hope that some energetic male or female philosophers will want to trace and articulate the fundamental connections between the explicit arguments I offer in this book and the feminist ideas that inspire them SR .. .Needs and Moral Necessity Needs and Moral Necessity analyses ethics as a practice, explains why we have three moral theory-types, consequentialism, deontology and vitue ethics, and argues... Ethics’, Ethical Theory and Moral Practice, 3: 341– 64 ——(2003) ‘Distance, Relationship and Moral Obligation’, The Monist, 86: 367– 81 ——(2004) Needs, Moral Demands and Moral Theory’, Utilitas,... Soul and the Psychology of Good and Evil Ilham Dilman Moral Responsibility The Ways of Scepticism Carlos J Moya The Ethics of Confucius and Aristotle Mirrors of Virtue Jiyuan Yu Needs and Moral Necessity

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  • Book Cover

  • Title

  • Copyright

  • Contents

  • Preface

  • Acknowledgements

  • 1 Introduction

  • 2 What ethics is

  • 3 Ethics as a practice

  • 4 Meeting patients’ needs

  • 5 The moral demandingness of needs

  • 6 Objections

  • 7 Consequentialism

  • 8 Deontology

  • 9 Virtue ethics

  • Notes

  • Bibliography

  • Index

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