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Recent Work on Intrinsic Value brings together for the first time many of the most important and influential writings on the topic of intrinsic value to have appeared in the last half-century. During this period, inquiry into the nature of intrinsic value has intensified to such an extent that at the moment it is one of the hottest topics in the field of theoretical ethics. The contributions to this volume have been selected in such a way that all of the fundamental questions concerning the nature of intrinsic value are treated in depth and from a variety of viewpoints. These questions include how to understand the concept of intrinsic value, what sorts of things can have intrinsic value, and how to compute intrinsic value. The editors have added an introduction that ties these questions together and places the contributions in context, and they have also provided an extensive bibliography. The result is a comprehensive, balanced, and detailed picture of current thinking about intrinsic value, one that provides an indispensable backdrop against which future writings on the topic may be assessed.
List of contents
Intrinsic Value.- Isolating Intrinsic Value.- Defining Intrinsic Value.- The Concept of Intrinsic Value.- Should We Pass the Buck?.- Hyperventilating about Intrinsic Value.- Intrinsic Value.- Two Distinctions in Goodness.- Rethinking Intrinsic Value.- A Distinction in Value: Intrinsic and for Its Own Sake.- The Right and the Good.- Defending the Concept of Intrinsic Value.- Objectives and Intrinsic Value.- The Bearers of Intrinsic Value.- Intrinsic Value and Individual Worth.- A Concrete View of Intrinsic Value.- Tropic of Value.- The Intrinsic Value in Disjunctive States of Affairs.- Improved Foundations for a Logic of Intrinsic Value.- Counterexamples to the Transitivity of 'Better Than'.- Defending Transitivity Against Zeno's Paradox.- Intransitivity Without Zeno's Paradox.- The Structure of Higher Goods.- Superiority in Value.- Organic Unities.- Chisholm's Definition of Organic Unity.- The Particularist's Progress.- Toward a Theory of Intrinsic Value.- The Intrinsic Value of Non-Basic States of Affairs.- Harman's Equation and Non-Basic Intrinsic Value.- Basic Intrinsic Value.- Virtual Intrinsic Value and the Principle of Organic Unities.
Summary
Recent Work on Intrinsic Value brings together for the first time many of the most important and influential writings on the topic of intrinsic value to have appeared in the last half-century. During this period, inquiry into the nature of intrinsic value has intensified to such an extent that at the moment it is one of the hottest topics in the field of theoretical ethics. The contributions to this volume have been selected in such a way that all of the fundamental questions concerning the nature of intrinsic value are treated in depth and from a variety of viewpoints. These questions include how to understand the concept of intrinsic value, what sorts of things can have intrinsic value, and how to compute intrinsic value. The editors have added an introduction that ties these questions together and places the contributions in context, and they have also provided an extensive bibliography. The result is a comprehensive, balanced, and detailed picture of current thinking about intrinsic value, one that provides an indispensable backdrop against which future writings on the topic may be assessed.
Additional text
Reviewer 1: "Intrinsic value is a fundamentally important concept in ethics. The anthology contains a good deal of the best and most influential work on intrinsic value that has been done over the past 40 years. The pieces are sensibly organized, with later articles in a section responding specifically to earlier ones."
Reviewer 2: "This collection…offers a nice overview of recent developments in this field. The papers are grouped together in a coherent way. The introduction is extremely well written and gives an excellent summary of the articles included in the anthology and of how they are connected."
Reviewer 2: "Everybody who wants to teach on intrinsic value should use this work since it contains many major (recent) publications on the topic and the introduction is very accessible."
Report
Reviewer 1: "Intrinsic value is a fundamentally important concept in ethics. The anthology contains a good deal of the best and most influential work on intrinsic value that has been done over the past 40 years. The pieces are sensibly organized, with later articles in a section responding specifically to earlier ones."
Reviewer 2: "This collection...offers a nice overview of recent developments in this field. The papers are grouped together in a coherent way. The introduction is extremely well written and gives an excellent summary of the articles included in the anthology and of how they are connected."
Reviewer 2: "Everybody who wants to teach on intrinsic value should use this work since it contains many major (recent) publications on the topic and the introduction is very accessible."
