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Imperceptible Harms and Benefits

  • Book
  • © 2000

Overview

Editors:
  1. Michael J. Almeida

    1. The University of Texas at San Antonio, USA

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Part of the book series: Library of Ethics and Applied Philosophy (LOET, volume 8)

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Table of contents (7 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-xiii
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  2. Pooled Beneficence

    • Garrett Cullity
    Pages 1-23

  3. Garrett Cullity’s Response to an Imperceptibility Challenge

    • Jordan Howard Sobel
    Pages 25-48

  4. Perceiving Imperceptible Harms (with other Thoughts on Transitivity, Cumulative Effects, and Consequentialism)

    • Donald H. Regan
    Pages 49-73

  5. The Least Sub-Noticeable Difference

    • Torbjorn Tannsjo
    Pages 75-93

  6. Utility Pumps and the Value of Partial Compliance

    • Michael J. Almeida
    Pages 95-110

  7. Utilitarianism and Interpersonally Comparable Cardinal Utility: Some Implications of just Perceivable Increments of Happiness

    • Yew-Kwang Ng
    Pages 111-121

  8. Money Pump with Foresight

    • Wlodek Rabinowicz
    Pages 123-154

  9. Back Matter

    Pages 155-158
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Keywords

About this book

The papers collected here represent the most recent work on a much­ neglected problem in practical reasoning. It is the problem of imperceptible harms and benefits. It is perhaps better to characterize the problem as a collection of puzzles or paradoxes, since those who deny the existence (or possibility) of imperceptible decrements (or increments) face problems no less perplexing than those who affinn their existence. The puzzles and paradoxes combine very practical and pressing worries about our obligations to relieve starvation, mitigate suffering and conserve resources, with deep metaethical worries about the nature of practical rationality. I use these brief introductory pages to familiarize the reader with the basic set of problems examined in this collection. Most of us think that an action cannot be wrong if its effects are entirely and always imperceptible.· Jonathan Glover's fanciful example of the 100 armed bandits and the 100 Wlarmed tribesman clearly illustrates a deep worry with such moral reasoning.

Editors and Affiliations

  • The University of Texas at San Antonio, USA

    Michael J. Almeida

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