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

Kamm, F.M.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 019537195X ISBN 13: 9780195371956

Publisher: Oxford University Press, U.S.A., 2008

Synopsis

"Reading F.M. Kamm's latest book is like watching a brilliant astronomer map an uncharted galaxy-the meticulousness and the display of mental stamina must inspire awe. There is a kind of beauty in the performance alone. Intricate Ethics is a major event in normative ethical theory by a living master of the subject. . . . 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 Reviews "The operative word in this masterful work is 'intricate.' Watching Kamm's mind dissect and reconstruct different cases is like watching a juggler, riding a unicycle, carrying on a conversation, while getting dressed. It is a glorious celebration of what moral philosophy does best, and what one of its most gifted practitioners can do to enlighten our understanding of the most pressing ethical issues of our time. But it is also a rich playground for empirically minded philosophers and psychologists who want to play with the clever class of dilemmas that Kamm has created, dilemmas that will both amuse and torture generations of people." -Marc Hauser is a Harvard College Professor and author of "Moral Minds" "Frances Kamm once again proves herself to be an astonishingly subtle and creative defender of a deontological outlook. Anyone at all interested in normative ethics will find something of value in Intricate Ethics. There are striking and original views on a wide range of topics. And no one-absolutely no one-compares to Kamm when it comes to constructing relevant test cases and carefully assessing our intuitive reactions to them. This is a master at work, at the height of her powers."-Shelly Kagan, Clark Professor of Philosophy, Yale University "Intricate Ethics fully justifies its title. It is

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)

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 edition

• Publisher: Oxford University Press, U.S.A.
• Publication date: 2008
• ISBN 10: 019537195X
• ISBN 13: 9780195371956
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 520