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Welfare and Self-Governance

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Abstract

Two ideas have dominated ethical thought since the time of Bentham and Kant. One is utilitarianism, the other is an idea of moral agency as self-governance. Utilitarianism says that morality must somehow subserve welfare, self-governance says that it must be graspable directly by individual moral insight. But these ideas seem to war with one another. Can we eliminate the apparent conflict by a careful review of what is plausible in the two ideas? In seeking an answer to this question I examine (1) the implications of welfarism, (2) the nature of moral obligation (3) the nature of our moral knowledge.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Moral Philosophy, University of St Andrews, St Andrews, Scotland, KY16 9AL, UK

    John Skorupski

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  1. John Skorupski
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Correspondence to John Skorupski.

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Skorupski, J. Welfare and Self-Governance. Ethic Theory Moral Prac 9, 289–309 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10677-006-9020-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10677-006-9020-z

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