Opting for the Best - Oughts and Options

Zusatztext This is a beautiful and insightful work on an important set of topics. It systematically brings together a number of important and interrelated issues." -Peter Vallentyne, Florence G. Kline Professor of Philosophy, University of Missouri Informationen zum Autor Douglas W. Portmore is Professor of Philosophy in the School of Historical, Philosophical, and Religious Studies at Arizona State University. He is the author of Commonsense Consequentialism: Wherein Morality Meets Rationality (New York: Oxford University Press, 2011) and is an Associate Editor for Ethics: An International Journal of Social, Political and Legal Philosophy. His research focuses mainly on morality, rationality, and the interconnections between the two, but he has also written on well-being, posthumous harm, and the non-identity problem. Klappentext When making decisions, we ought to choose the option that is best in terms of what ultimately matters. However, knowing what ultimately matters is not always enough when it comes to knowing what we ought to do. In Opting for the Best, Douglas Portmore examines the questions that remain after we have determined what matters. In doing so, he engages with some of the most complex puzzles concerning what we ought to do, including those involving supererogation,indeterminate or overdetermined outcomes, predictable future misbehavior, among others. Zusammenfassung We ought to opt for the best-that is, we ought to choose the option that is best in terms of whatever ultimately matters. So, if maximizing happiness is what ultimately matters, then we ought to perform the option that results in the most happiness. And if, instead, abiding by the Golden Rule is what ultimately matters, then we ought to perform the option that best abides by this rule. However, even if we know what ultimately matters, this is not always sufficient for determining which option we ought to perform. There are other questions that we need to consider as well. Which events are options for us? How do we rank our options-in terms of their own goodness or in terms of the goodness of the best options that entail them? How exactly does that which ultimately matters determine which options we ought to perform? In Opting for the Best, Douglas W. Portmore focuses on these three questions, which he argues can best be answered by putting aside any specific determination of what ultimately matters. He argues that tackling these three questions is crucial to solving many of the puzzles concerning what we ought to do, including those involving supererogation, indeterminate outcomes, overdetermined outcomes, predictable future misbehavior, and good acts that entail bad acts, among others. Engaging with arguments in areas as wide-ranging as action theory and deontic logic, the solutions that Portmore offers systematize our thinking about some of the most complex issues in practical philosophy. Inhaltsverzeichnis Preface Acknowledgements 1. Opting for the Best 1.1 The Opting-for-the-Best View 1.1.1. Perhaps, some options that ought to be performed are suboptimal 1.1.2. Not all possible events are eligible for deontic status 1.1.3. Alternatives matter 1.1.4. Oughts versus obligations 1.1.5. Best option versus best outcome 1.1.6. The best must be sufficiently good 1.1.7. 'Option' versus 'can' 1.1.8. Objective oughts versus subjective oughts 1.1.9. Directive oughts versus evaluative oughts 1.2 The Ecumenical Nature of the View 1.3 A Potential Objection to the Opting-for-the-Best View 1.4 Remaining Controversies and the Plan for the Rest of the Book 2. What are our options? 2.1 The Need to Restrict What Can Count as an Option 2.2 The Necessity of Control 2.3 The Sufficiency of Control 2.4 Conclusion 3. What's the relevant sort of control? 3.1 Complete and Synchronic Control 3.2 Personal Control versus Sub-Persona...

Product details

• Authors: Douglas W Portmore, Douglas W. Portmore, Douglas W. (Professor of Philosophy Portmore
• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Released: 11.09.2019
• EAN: 9780190945350
• ISBN: 978-0-19-094535-0
• No. of pages: 346
• Series: Oxford Moral Theory
• Subject: Non-fiction book > Philosophy, religion > Philosophy: general, reference works