The consequences of our actions are important. They matter. But if the utilitarian is right, then consequences are all that matters. Is this correct? The main principle of utilitarian moral theory, ...

Michael Ignatieff talk about a “rights revolution.” The problem is that rights may conflict, and we need to know how to adjudicate between competing rights. To do this, we need to know what kind of ...

We axiomatize the class of mixed utilitarian–maximin social welfare orderings. These orderings are convex combinations of utilitarianism and the maximin rule. Our first step is to show that the ...

Philosophical Studies: An International Journal for Philosophy in the Analytic Tradition, Vol. 8, No. 1/2 (Jan. - Feb., 1957), pp. 15-19 (5 pages) ...

The ethical puzzle discussed in the interview with Marc Hauser actually illustrates the failure of utilitarian theories of justice, which claim that we should act in a way that maximises human ...