Ethics Out of Economics

by John Broome

• ISBN13: 9780521642750
• ISBN10: 0521642752
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 1999-03-13
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

Many economic problems are also ethical problems: should we value economic equality? how much should we care about preserving the environment? how should medical resources be divided between saving life and enhancing life? This book examines some of the practical issues that lie between economics and ethics, and shows how utility theory can contribute to ethics. John Broome's work has, unusually, combined sophisticated economic and philosophical expertise, and Ethics Out of Economics brings together some of his most important essays, augmented with a new introduction. The first group of essays deals with the relation between preference and value, the second with various questions about the formal structure of good, and the concluding section with the value of life. This work is of interest and importance for both economists and philosophers, and shows powerfully how economic methods can contribute to moral philosophy.

Table of Contents

Preface	vii
1 Introduction: ethics out of economics	1	(16)
Part I Preference and value	17	(72)
2 `Utility'	19	(10)
3 Extended preferences	29	(15)
4 Discounting the future	44	(24)
5 Can a Humean be moderate?	68	(21)
Part II The structure of good	89	(86)
6 Bolker-Jeffrey expected utility theory and axiomatic utilitarianism	91	(20)
7 Fairness	111	(12)
8 Is incommensurability vagueness?	123	(22)
9 Incommensurable values	145	(17)
10 Goodness is reducible to betterness: the evil of death is the value of life	162	(13)
Part III The value of life	175	(68)
11 Trying to value a life	177	(6)
12 Structured and unstructured valuation	183	(13)
13 Qalys	196	(18)
14 The value of living	214	(14)
15 The value of a person	228	(15)
Notes	243	(13)
Bibliography	256	(7)
Index	263