Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-7cvxr Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-29T11:55:13.745Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

THE PARITY VIEW AND INTUITIONS OF NEUTRALITY

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 March 2007

MOZAFFAR QIZILBASH*
Affiliation:
University of York

Abstract

One response to Derek Parfit's ‘mere addition paradox’ invokes the relation of ‘parity’. Since parity is a form of ‘incommensurateness’ in John Broome's terms, three doubts which Broome raises about accounts involving incommensurateness in Weighing Lives pose a challenge for this response. I discuss two of these. They emerge from a discussion of various intuitions about ‘neutrality’. I argue that an account based on parity may be no less consistent with Broome's intuitions than is his own vagueness view.

Type
Symposium
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2007

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Broome, J. 1999. Ethics out of economics. CambridgeCrossRefGoogle Scholar
Broome, J. 2001. Greedy neutrality of value. In Value and choice: Volume 2. Some common themes in decision theory and moral philosophy, ed. Rabinowicz:, W.16. LundGoogle Scholar
Broome, J. 2004. Weighing lives. OxfordCrossRefGoogle Scholar
Carlson, E. 2004. Broome's argument against value incomparability. Utilitas 16: 220–6CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chang, R. 2002a. Making comparisons count. RoutledgeGoogle Scholar
Chang, R. 2002b. The possibility of parity. Ethics 112: 659–88CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chang, R. 2005. Parity, interval value, and choice. Ethics 115: 331–50CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Griffin, J. 1986. Well-being. Its meaning, measurement and moral importance. OxfordGoogle Scholar
Griffin, J. 2000. Replies. In Well-being and morality. Essays in honour of James Griffin, ed. Crisp, R. and Hooker, B., 281313Google Scholar
Narveson, J. 1967. Utilitarianism and future generations. Mind 76: 6272CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Narveson, J. 1973. Moral problems of population. Monist 57: 6286CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Parfit, D. 1984. Reasons and persons. OxfordGoogle Scholar
Qizilbash, M. 2002. Rationality, comparability and maximization. Economics and Philosophy 18: 141–56CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Qizilbash, M. 2005. The mere addition paradox, parity and critical-level utilitarianism. Social Choice and Welfare 24: 413–31CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Qizilbash, M. forthcoming. The mere addition paradox, incompleteness and vagueness. Philosophy and Phenomenological ResearchGoogle Scholar