Contract Ethics: Evolutionary Biology and the Moral Sentiments

Forsideomslag
Rowman & Littlefield, 1995 - 151 sider
Recent theorists have suggested that human altruism toward non-family members evolved because of the tremendous benefits of reciprocity. Developing further the notion that evolutionary theory can help to explain moral sentiments, Howard Kahane proposes that a sense of fair play is essential to ethics and argues that moral obligation, too narrowly construed, prevents us from living rationally. He brings his account of fair play to bear on the ethics of various domains of social life including friendship, taxes, civil rights, and nation states.

Fra bogen

Indhold

The Move from Is to Ought
7
Evolutionary Underpinnings
11
Delineating the Field
17
Fair Contract Fundamentals
21
Retribution Restitution Revenge
25
Friendships and Degrees of Friendliness
31
The Impartiality of Competitive Rules
35
Fair Group Decision Procedures
39
Fairness and Justice
81
The Good Person
83
TitforTat and the Prisoners Dilemma
85
The Appeal of Some Noncontractarian Moral Theories
93
John Rawlss Social Contract Theory
101
Robert Nozicks Libertarian Natural Rights Theory
109
David Gauthiers Contract Theory
115
More Recent Libertarian Theories
123

Nations Societies and Governments
41
Desirable Unfair Outcomes
45
Civil Rights
49
Rational Behavior in a LessThanPerfect World
53
Capitalism versus Socialism
59
Fair Taxes
63
Fair Play in the Marketplace
67
Meritarian versus Egalitarian Principles
135
Conclusion
141
Selected Bibliography
145
Index
147
About the Author
Copyright

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Side ix - Morals; whether they be derived from Reason, or from Sentiment; whether we attain the knowledge of them by a chain of argument and induction, or by an immediate feeling and finer internal sense...

Om forfatteren (1995)

Howard Kahane, April 19, 1928 - May 2, 2001 Howard Kahane was born on April 19, 1928 in Cleveland, Ohio. He received his bachelor's degree in 1954, and hid master's in 1958 from the University of California at Los Angeles. Kahane received his Ph. D. from the University of Pennsylvania in 1962. After graduating, Kahane taught at Whitman College, the University of Kansas, American University and the University of Maryland at Baltimore. He then went on to teach philosophy at Baruch College in New York. In 1971 he published his most famous work, "Logic and Contemporary Rhetoric: The Use of Reason in Everyday Life," which has produced nine editions and is considered a handbook for philosophy teachers. In it, Kahane attempts to rid logic of its mathematical approach and make it a tool for assessing truthfulness. Howard Kahane died on May 2, 2001 in Mill Valley California after a heart attack. He was 73.

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