Morality and Rational Choice

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-vii

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2. Introduction

   • Jonathan Baron

   Pages 1-14

3. Morality and decision making

   • Jonathan Baron

   Pages 15-29

4. The nature of goals

   • Jonathan Baron

   Pages 31-48

5. Expected utility theory

   • Jonathan Baron

   Pages 49-73

6. Decisions for others

   • Jonathan Baron

   Pages 75-86

7. Self-other conflict

   • Jonathan Baron

   Pages 87-97

8. Acts and omissions

   • Jonathan Baron

   Pages 99-120

9. Utilitarian education

   • Jonathan Baron

   Pages 121-137

10. Decision analysis and public policy

    • Jonathan Baron

    Pages 139-150

11. Equity in social policy and liability

    • Jonathan Baron

    Pages 151-166

12. The risk analysis debate

    • Jonathan Baron

    Pages 167-178

13. Social decisions

    • Jonathan Baron

    Pages 179-189

14. Back Matter

    Pages 191-207

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Public controversies - such as those about the distribution of goods between rich and poor, trade and population policies, allocation of medical resources, and the tradeoff between environment al protection and economic efficiency - often hinge on fundamental views about how we ought to make decisions tImt affect each other, that is, what principles we ought to follow. Efforts to find an acceptable public philosophy, a set of such principles on which people might agree, have foundered because of dis agreement among philosophers and others who are concerned with such issues. One view, which I shall develop and defend here, holds that decisions that affect others should be made according to an overall evaluation of the consequences of each option. This consequentialist view is opposed by a variety of alternatives, but many of the alternatives have in COlllmon a basis in moral intuition. To take a simple example, consequentialism holds that, other things equal, if we have decided that it is better to let a terminally ill patient die than to prolong her agony by keeping her alive, then we ought to kill her.

• Consequentialism
• Utilitarianism
• drawing
• education
• idea
• issue
• model
• morality
• nature
• oral discourse
• policy
• reason
• social policy

• Department of Psychology, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, USA

  Jonathan Baron

Policies and ethics