Suffering and moral responsibility

著者

    • Mayerfeld, Jamie

書誌事項

Suffering and moral responsibility

Jamie Mayerfeld

(Oxford ethics series / series editor : Derek Parfit)

Oxford University Press, 1999

  • : cloth : acid-free paper
  • pbk

大学図書館所蔵 件 / 16

この図書・雑誌をさがす

注記

Bibliography: p. 227-232

Includes index

内容説明・目次

巻冊次

: cloth : acid-free paper ISBN 9780195115994

内容説明

This book is about the duty to relieve suffering. Jamie Mayerfield argues that this duty is far stronger than most of us acknowledge - an argument with far-reaching implications for how we should live. He begins by offering an account of the meaning of suffering. From there he moves on to a discussion of the measurement and moral significance of suffering. Mayerfield argues that the prima facie duty (which may be overridden by other duties) to relieve suffering arises directly from the badness of suffering. The alleviation of suffering, he claims, is morally more important than the promotion of happiness. He goes on to examine the proper resolution of trade-offs internal to the duty to relieve suffering: e.g., what should we do when we can eliminate the suffering of one group of people or another, but not both? Finally, Mayerfield addresses the question of how to identify those occasions when the relief of suffering is not morally required or is indeed wrong.

目次

  • 1. Introduction
  • 2. The Meaning of Suffering
  • 3. The Measurement of Suffering
  • 4. The Moral Significance of Suffering
  • 5. The Duty to Relieve Suffering
  • 6. The Moral Asymmetry of Happiness and Suffering
  • 7. Trade-offs Internal to the Duty to Relieve Suffering
  • 8. The Limits of the Duty to Relieve Suffering
  • Notes
  • Bibliography
  • Index
巻冊次

pbk ISBN 9780195154955

内容説明

In this original study, Jamie Mayerfeld undertakes a careful inquiry into the meaning and moral significance of suffering. Understanding suffering in hedonistic terms as an affliction of feeling, he addresses difficulties associated with its identification and measurement. He then turns to an examination of the duty to relieve suffering: its content, its weight relative to other moral considerations, and the role it should play in our lives. Among the claims defended in the book are that suffering needs to be distinguished from both physical pain and the frustration of desire, that interpersonal comparisons of the intensity of happiness and suffering are possible, that several psychological processes hinder our awareness of other people's suffering, and that the prevention of suffering should often be pursued indirectly. Mayerfeld concludes his discussion by arguing that the reduction of suffering is morally more important than the promotion of happiness, and that most of us greatly underestimate the force of the duty to prevent suffering. As the first systematic book-length inquiry into the moral significance of suffering, Suffering and Moral Responsibility makes an important contribution to moral philosophy and political theory, and will interest specialists in each of these areas.

目次

  • 1. Introduction
  • 2. The Meaning of Suffering
  • 3. The Measurement of Suffering
  • 4. The Moral Significance of Suffering
  • 5. The Duty to Relieve Suffering
  • 6. The Moral Asymmetry of Happiness and Suffering
  • 7. Trade-offs Internal to the Duty to Relieve Suffering
  • 8. The Limits of the Duty to Relieve Suffering
  • Notes
  • Bibliography
  • Index

「Nielsen BookData」 より

関連文献: 1件中  1-1を表示

詳細情報

ページトップへ