- Title Pages
- Dedication
- On What Matters
- Preface
- Summary
- 37 How Things Might Matter
- 38 Non-Realist Cognitivism
- 39 Normative and Natural Truths
- 40 Gibbard’s Offer to Non-Naturalists
- 41 Railton’s Defence of Soft Naturalism
- 42 Railton’s Resolution of Our Disagreements
- 43 Jackson’s Non-Empirical Normative Truths
- 44 Schroeder’s Conservative Reductive Thesis
- 45 Quasi-Realist Expressivism
- 46 Gibbard’s Resolution of Our Disagreements
- 47 Another Triple Theory
- 48 Expressivist Reasons
- 49 Subjectivist Reasons
- 50 Street’s Meta-Ethical Constructivism
- 51 Morality, Blame, and Internal Reasons
- 52 Nietzsche’s Mountain
- 53 What Matters and Universal Reasons
- 54 Conflicting Reasons
- 55 The Right and the Good
- 56 Deontological Principles
- 57 Act Consequentialism and Common Sense Morality
- 58 Towards a Unified Theory
- Notes
- References
- Bibliography
- Index
The Right and the Good
The Right and the Good
- Chapter:
- (p.349) 55 The Right and the Good
- Source:
- On What Matters
- Author(s):
Derek Parfit
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
This chapter introduces a number of claims. If we are not act consequentialists, we may think that we could always reasonably want and hope that things will go in the ways that would be best and that it would often be best if some people acted wrongly. Therefore we could often reasonably want and hope that some people will act wrongly. Act consequentialists claim that, when it would be best if people acted in some way, this fact would make this act right. Some other people claim that the badness of any wrong act would prevent this act from making things go best. This second claim is false. Some wrong acts make things go better by preventing several other similar wrong acts. There are other wrong acts, most of us believe, that would make things go best.
Keywords: act consequentialism, wrongdoing, moral reasons, impartial reasons, deontic badness, non-deontic badness, reason
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- Title Pages
- Dedication
- On What Matters
- Preface
- Summary
- 37 How Things Might Matter
- 38 Non-Realist Cognitivism
- 39 Normative and Natural Truths
- 40 Gibbard’s Offer to Non-Naturalists
- 41 Railton’s Defence of Soft Naturalism
- 42 Railton’s Resolution of Our Disagreements
- 43 Jackson’s Non-Empirical Normative Truths
- 44 Schroeder’s Conservative Reductive Thesis
- 45 Quasi-Realist Expressivism
- 46 Gibbard’s Resolution of Our Disagreements
- 47 Another Triple Theory
- 48 Expressivist Reasons
- 49 Subjectivist Reasons
- 50 Street’s Meta-Ethical Constructivism
- 51 Morality, Blame, and Internal Reasons
- 52 Nietzsche’s Mountain
- 53 What Matters and Universal Reasons
- 54 Conflicting Reasons
- 55 The Right and the Good
- 56 Deontological Principles
- 57 Act Consequentialism and Common Sense Morality
- 58 Towards a Unified Theory
- Notes
- References
- Bibliography
- Index
