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Moral priorities under risk

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2020

Chad Lee-Stronach*
Affiliation:
School of Philosophy, Australian National University, Canberra, Australia

Abstract

Many moral theories are committed to the idea that some kinds of moral considerations should be respected, whatever the cost to ‘lesser’ types of considerations. A person's life, for instance, should not be sacrificed for the trivial pleasures of others, no matter how many would benefit. However, according to the decision-theoretic critique of lexical priority theories, accepting lexical priorities inevitably leads us to make unacceptable decisions in risky situations. It seems that to operate in a risky world, we must reject lexical priorities altogether. This paper argues that lexical priority theories can, in fact, offer satisfactory guidance in risky situations. It does so by equipping lexical priority theories with overlooked resources from decision theory.

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © Canadian Journal of Philosophy 2017

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