Partiality and Impartiality: Morality, Special Relationships, and the Wider World
Brian Feltham and John Cottingham
Abstract
What is owed to others that I may not keep for myself? What may I keep for myself, even when others are in need? These transparently moral questions may immediately invite knee-jerk moralistic answers; or else be selfishly dismissed. And if we feel a tension between the duty to help others and what we want for ourselves, we might see it as a straightforward division between morally virtuous altruism and simple self-interest. Yet does morality really require us always to put those less fortunate before ourselves, our loved ones, even our own children, in every way? And does self-interest really ... More
What is owed to others that I may not keep for myself? What may I keep for myself, even when others are in need? These transparently moral questions may immediately invite knee-jerk moralistic answers; or else be selfishly dismissed. And if we feel a tension between the duty to help others and what we want for ourselves, we might see it as a straightforward division between morally virtuous altruism and simple self-interest. Yet does morality really require us always to put those less fortunate before ourselves, our loved ones, even our own children, in every way? And does self-interest really offer a simple division between what is good for oneself and what is good for others? Such questions are of great importance in both moral and political theory. They are in the first place substantive questions regarding the demands that the needs and interests of others place upon us, but they broaden out into more abstract questions about the impartiality of ethical reasoning itself. A central question for this volume is whether impartiality and partiality are really opposed dimensions or if they can be harmoniously reconciled in one picture. From a variety of theoretical perspectives, the chapters in this volume explore such issues as the demandingness of morality, the nature of value and reasons, practical reasoning, and the fundamental nature of morality itself.
Keywords:
altruism,
demandingness,
morality,
partiality,
political theory,
practical reason,
impartiality,
reasons,
self-interest,
value
Bibliographic Information
| Print publication date: 2010 |
Print ISBN-13: 9780199579952 |
| Published to Oxford Scholarship Online: January 2011 |
DOI:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199579952.001.0001 |
Authors
Affiliations are at time of print publication.
Brian Feltham, editor
University of Reading
John Cottingham, editor
University of Reading
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