Intricate Ethics: Rights, Responsibilities, and Permissible Harm (Oxford Ethics Series) - Hardcover

Kamm, F. M.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0195189698 ISBN 13: 9780195189698

Publisher: OUP USA, 2007

Synopsis

F.M. Kamm is one of the leading ethical theorists working in philosophy today. She has become well known for her brand of exacting analysis, largely in defense of a non-consequentialist perspective - the view that some actions are right or wrong by virtue of something other than their consequences.

In Intricate Ethics, Kamm questions the moral importance of some non-consequentialist distinctions and then introduces and argues for the moral importance of other distinctions. The first section provides a general introduction to non-consequentialist ethical theory followed by more detailed discussion of distinctions relevant to instrumental rationality and to the famous "Trolley Problem"; the second deals with the notions of moral status and rights; the third takes up the notions of responsibility and complicity, and discusses new issues in non-consequentialist theory including the "problem of distance." Finally, adding to the first section's discussions of the views of Warren Quinn and Peter Unger, the fourth section analyzes the views of others in the non-consequentialist and consequentialist camps such as Peter Singer, Daniel Kahnemann, Bernard Gert, and Thomas Scanlon.

About this title

Review:

...an impressive and important book. (Rob Lawlor Mind Vol 118 Oct 2009)

[Kamm] is the most sophisticated of the contemporary exponents of "intuitionist" or "non-consequentalist" ethics... No one makes such extraordinarily meticulous and penetrating attempts to extract the principles behind our ordinary moral intuitions... I highly recomment it as an inclusive and subtle attempt to work out non-consequentialism on an intuitionist basis. (Ingmar Persson, Times Literary Supplement)

In the end, professional moral philosophers cannot reasonably ignore Intricate Ethics...Kamm continues to prove herself the most imaginative, detail-oriented deontologist writing in English today...Professor Kamm is in a class by herself. (Jeffrey Brand-Ballard, Notre Dame Philosophical Review.)

This is a fascinating book, with insightful discussions of a wide range of philosophical topics and contemporary philosophers. All philosophers will gain from reading it. (Bernard Gert, Utilitas)

About the Author:

F. M. Kamm is Littauer Professor of Philosophy and Public Policy, Kennedy School of Government, and Professor of Philosophy, Faculty of Arts and Sciences at Harvard University. She is the author of Creation and Abortion (1992); Morality, Mortality, Vol. 1: Death and Whom to Save From It (1993); and Morality, Mortality Vol.2: Rights, Duties, and Status (1996), all from Oxford University Press. Kamm has also published many articles on normative ethical theory and practical ethics. She has held ACLS, AAUW, NEH, and Guggenheim fellowships and has been a Fellow of the Program in Ethics and the Professions at the Kennedy School, the Center for Human Values at Princeton, the Center for Advanced Study at Stanford, and the National Institutes of Health. She is a member of the editorial boards of Philosophy & Public Affairs, Legal Theory, Bioethics, and Utilitas and was a consultant on ethics to the World Health Organization.

About this edition

• Publisher: OUP USA
• Publication date: 2007
• ISBN 10: 0195189698
• ISBN 13: 9780195189698
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 520