10 Moral Paradoxes

1. Auflage 2007
ISBN: 978-1-4051-6086-5
Verlag: Wiley

Buch, Englisch, 160 Seiten, Format (B × H): 145 mm x 222 mm, Gewicht: 343 g

Presenting ten diverse and original moral paradoxes, this cutting edge work of philosophical ethics makes a focused, concrete case for the centrality of paradoxes within morality.
- Explores what these paradoxes can teach us about morality and the human condition
- Considers a broad range of subjects, from familiar topics to rarely posed questions, among them "Fortunate Misfortune", "Beneficial Retirement" and "Preferring Not To Have Been Born"
- Asks whether the existence of moral paradox is a good or a bad thing
- Presents analytic moral philosophy in a provocative, engaging and entertaining way; posing new questions, proposing possible solutions, and challenging the reader to wrestle with the paradoxes themselves

Zielgruppe

undergraduate and graduate students of ethics and moral theory, general readers, and philosophers

Autoren/Hrsg.

Smilansky, Saul

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Philosophie Ethik, Moralphilosophie

Inhaltsverzeichnis

List of Figures viii

Acknowledgments ix

Introduction 1

1 Fortunate Misfortune 11

2 The Paradox of Beneficial Retirement 23

3 Two Paradoxes about Justice and the Severity of Punishment 33

4 Blackmail: The Solution 42

5 The Paradox of Non-Punishment 50

6 On Not Being Sorry about the Morally Bad 59

7 Choice-Egalitarianism and the Paradox of the Baseline 67

8 Morality and Moral Worth 77

9 The Paradox of Moral Complaint 90

10 Preferring Not to Have Been Born 100

11 A Meta-Paradox: Are Paradoxes Bad? 113

12 Reflections on Moral Paradox 122

Postscript: The Future and Moral Paradox 134

References 138

Index 142

Über Autor(innen)

Saul Smilansky is a professor in the department of philosophy at the University of Haifa, Israel. He is the author of the widely acclaimed book, Free Will and Illusion (2000) and has published articles in many of the leading philosophical journals.