I was very interested in getting F.M.M. Kamm’s new book Intricate Ethics because the second chapter in devoted to the aggregation literature I have been dealing with the last few weeks (on a somewhat tangential note, Ethics Etc. is doing a reading group on this book this summer.) On the whole, Kamm’s discussion is interesting. [...]
What follows is the second part of the post that I started here. Also, parts of this post were copied from a paper I am working tentatively entitled “Contractualism, Basic Aggregation, and Varied Ills Aggregation: A Defense.”
0. We will once again start with contractualist principles (slightly revised from last time):
CW: an act, α, [...]
0. Let’s start by making some contractualist definitions explicit.
First, an act is wrong on contractualism if an agent can reasonably reject the inclusion of a principle allowing that act to a set of action guiding moral principles.
Second, an agent x has grounds for a reasonable rejection of a principle α if and only if α [...]
A few days ago I read Mark Schroeder’s short piece “The Negative Reason Existential Fallacy.” In it, Schroeder attacks the following type of argument (found on page 1):
(P1*) It follows from view V that there is a reason [for X] to do A.
(P2*) But obviously there is no reason [for X] to do A.
(C*) So [...]
