Abstract
One task of moral theory is to specify criteria for the correct application of moral concepts, and thereby to provide bases for sound moral appraisals. As I noted in my introductory remarks, the proper objects of moral appraisal include both acts and persons; and since this book is concerned with the extent to which appraisals of either kind rest on other-interested considerations, something needs to be said about the nature of act--and of person-appraisals--and particularly about certain differences which can be drawn between and within the two categories.
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References
HA. Prichard, Moral Obligation (Oxford: The Clarendon Press, 1949), p. 18.
Bernard Williams, Ethics and the Limits of Philosophy (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1985), p. 129.
William Frankena, Ethics (Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1973), p. 45.
“Beneficence/Benevolence,” p. 13.
Joel Feinberg, Harm to Others (New York: Oxford University Press, 1984), p. 139.
See above, pp. 8–9.
Ross, The Right and the Good, p. 26.
Ibid., p. 25.
John Stuart Mill, Utilitarianism, Chapter Five.
Ibid.
Immanuel Kant, The Doctrine of Virtue,trans. by Mary Gregor (New York: Harper and Row, 1964, pp. 40–41).
Ibid., pp. 49, 54.
Michael Stocker, “Supererogation and Duties,’ in Nicholas Rescher (ed.), Studies in Moral Philosophy (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1968), p. 54.
Kant, p. 40.
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© 1992 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht
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Montague, P. (1992). Beneficence and Moral Requirements. In: In the Interests of Others. Philosophical Studies Series, vol 55. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-011-2777-6_1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-011-2777-6_1
Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht
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