Short description
Presenting ten diverse and original moral paradoxes, this book talks about some of our deepest moral views. It asks whether the existence of moral paradox is damaging or beneficial, and explores what paradoxicality can teach us about morality and life. It presents analytic moral philosophy; poses new questions, and proposes possible solutions.
Long description
If a severe misfortune makes your life better, was it unfortunate? Could it be that 50 per cent of competent medical doctors ought promptly to retire? Might a justice system threaten with unjust punishment, to avert the need for punishment? Could things become too good, morally? Can terrorists morally complain if innocent people they care about are harmed? The importance of paradox in the study of philosophy, from metaphysics to logic, is evident from the abundant literature on the subject. But until now, very little critical study of paradox within ethics has been available. The first of its kind, this cutting edge work of philosophical ethics makes a powerful case for the centrality of moral paradox. Presenting ten diverse and original moral paradoxes, the book challenges some of our deepest moral views. This innovative volume also asks whether the existence of moral paradox is damaging or beneficial, and explores more generally what paradoxicality can teach us about morality and life. Concise and provocative, 10 Moral Paradoxes presents analytic moral philosophy in an engaging way; posing new questions, proposing possible solutions, and challenging the reader to wrestle with the paradoxes.
Review
This is a delightful and engaging little book. With its bite-size chapters, lively exposition, and important subject matter, this is the kind of book that can spark an interest in philosophy among those unfamiliar with it. But its appeal is not limited to neophytes; it poses significant new challenges to moral theory that even hardened professional philosophers will find stimulating and provocative. --Jeff McMahan, Rutgers University Smilansky has an unerring eye for noticing intriguing - sometimes quite startling - paradoxes, both in our common unreflective attitudes to much of the business of ordinary life and in our more reasoned positions on a wide variety of public issues and personal concerns. From retirement to blackmail to punishment to the nature of moral complaint, his ability to isolate the anomalies and inconsistencies that beset our thinking about these and other subjects provides us with a set of essays that are at once provocative and illuminating. No one can fail to benefit from reading this book. --Hillel Steiner, Manchester University
Table of contents
- AcknowledgmentsIntroduction1. Fortunate Misfortune2. The Paradox of Beneficial Retirement3. Two Paradoxes About Justice and the Severity of Punishment4. Blackmail: The Solution5. The Paradox of Nonpunishment6. On Not Being Sorry About the Morally Bad7. Choice-Egalitarianism and the Paradox of the Baseline8. Morality and Moral Worth9. The Paradox of Moral Complaint10. Preferring Not To Have Been Born11. A Meta-Paradox: Are Paradoxes Bad?12. Reflections On Moral ParadoxReferencesIndex