This really is philosophy for the real world, and the more impressive for that, since it takes a certain surefootedness to keep ones arguments philosophically rigorous while making so much of historical fact ... Schmidtz's distinctive prose is simple and informal, yet capable of conveying complex and subtle point ... Readers of Person, Polis, Planet will, as a result, discover Schmidtz's challenging, detailed arguments without having to perform excavations to get at them.

Thomas Porter, Mind

This volume collects thirteen of David Schmidtzs essays on the question of what it takes to live a good life, given that we live in a social and natural world. Part One defends a non-maximizing conception of rational choice, explains how even ultimate goals can be rationally chosen, defends the rationality of concern and regard for others (even to the point of being willing to die for a cause), and explains why decision theory is necessarily incomplete as a tool for addressing such issues. Part Two uses the tools of analytic philosophy to explain what we can do to be deserving, what is wrong with the idea that we ought to do as much good as we can, why mutual aid is good, but why the welfare state does not work as a way of institutionalizing mutual aid, and why transferring wealth from those who need it less to those who need it more can be a bad idea even from a utilitarian perspective. Most ambitiously, Part Two offers an overarching, pluralistic moral theory that defines the nature and limits of our obligations to each other and to our individual selves. Part Three discusses the history and economic logic of alternative property institutions, both private and communal, and explains why economic logic is an indispensable tool in the field of environmental conflict resolution. In the final essay, Schmidtz brings the volume full circle by considering the nature and limits of our obligations to nonhuman species, and how the status of nonhuman species ought to enter into our deliberations about what sort of life is worth living.
Les mer
This volume collects thirteen of David Schmidtz's essays on the question of what it takes to live a good life, given that we live in a social and natural world.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT ; PERSON: ; POLIS ; PLANET
This really is philosophy for the real world, and the more impressive for that, since it takes a certain surefootedness to keep ones arguments philosophically rigorous while making so much of historical fact ... Schmidtz's distinctive prose is simple and informal, yet capable of conveying complex and subtle point ... Readers of Person, Polis, Planet will, as a result, discover Schmidtz's challenging, detailed arguments without having to perform excavations to get at them.
Les mer
Selling point: The collection gathers the definitive articles of David Schmidtz's career Selling point: Integrates a broad philosophical approach to environmental ethics through moral, political, and legal philosophy, as well as economics and decision theory
Les mer
David Schmidtz is Kendrick Professor of Philosophy, joint Professor of Economics, and founding Director of the Center for Philosophy of Freedom at the University of Arizona. He is author of Rational Choice and Moral Agency, Elements of Justice, and co-author of Social Welfare and Individual Responsibility.
Les mer
Selling point: The collection gathers the definitive articles of David Schmidtz's career Selling point: Integrates a broad philosophical approach to environmental ethics through moral, political, and legal philosophy, as well as economics and decision theory
Les mer

Produktdetaljer

ISBN
9780195365832
Publisert
2008
Utgiver
Vendor
Oxford University Press Inc
Vekt
522 gr
Høyde
155 mm
Bredde
239 mm
Dybde
20 mm
Aldersnivå
G, 01
Språk
Product language
Engelsk
Format
Product format
Innbundet
Antall sider
272

Forfatter

Om bidragsyterne

David Schmidtz is Kendrick Professor of Philosophy, joint Professor of Economics, and Director of the Program in Philosophy of Freedom at the University of Arizona. David is author of Rational Choice and Moral Agency, Elements of Justice, and co-author of Social Welfare and Individual Responsibility. He co-edited Environmental Ethics: What Really Matters, What Really Works (Oxford, 2002) with Elizabeth Willott. His research has taken him to twenty countries and six continents.