Value in Ethics and Economics

by Anderson, Elizabeth

• ISBN13: 9780674931909
• ISBN10: 0674931904
• Edition: Reprint
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1995-08-11
• Publisher: Harvard Univ Pr

Summary

Elizabeth Anderson offers a new theory of value and rationality that rejects cost-benefit analysis in our social lives and in our ethical theories. This account of the plurality of values thus offers a new approach, beyond welfare economics and traditional theories of justice, for assessing the ethical limitations of the market. In this light, Anderson discusses several contemporary controversies involving the proper scope of the market, including commercial surrogate motherhood, privatization of public services, and the application of cost-benefit analysis to issues of environmental protection.

Table of Contents

Preface	xi
A Pluralist Theory of Value	1	(16)
A Rational Attitude Theory of Value	1	(4)
Ideals and Self-Assessment	5	(3)
How Goods Differ in Kind (I): Different Modes of Valuation	8	(3)
How Goods Differ in Kind (II): Social Relations of Realization	11	(6)
An Expressive Theory of Rational Action	17	(27)
Value and Rational Action	17	(5)
The Framing of Decisions	22	(4)
The Extrinsic Value of States of Affairs	26	(4)
Consequentialism	30	(8)
Practical Reason and the Unity of the Self	38	(6)
Pluralism and Incommensurable Goods	44	(21)
The Advantages of Consequentialism	44	(3)
A Pragmatic Theory of Comparative Value Judgments	47	(8)
Incommensurable Goods	55	(4)
Rational Choice among Incommensurable Goods	59	(6)
Self-Understanding, the Hierarchy of Values, and Moral Constraints	65	(26)
The Test of Self-Understanding	65	(1)
The Hierarchy of Values	66	(7)
Agent-Centered Restrictions	73	(6)
Hybrid Consequentialism	79	(7)
A Self-Effacing Theory of Practical Reason?	86	(5)
Criticism, Justification, and Common Sense	91	(26)
A Pragmatic Account of Objectivity	91	(6)
The Thick Conceptual Structure of the Space of Reasons	97	(7)
How Common Sense Can Be Self-Critical	104	(8)
Why We Should Ignore Skeptical Challenges to Common Sense	112	(5)
Monistic Theories of Value	117	(24)
Monism	117	(2)
Moore's Aesthetic Monism	119	(4)
Hedonism	123	(6)
Rational Desire Theory	129	(12)
The Ethical Limitations of the Market	141	(27)
Pluralism, Freedom, and Liberal Politics	141	(2)
The Ideals and Social Relations of the Modern Market	143	(4)
Civil Society and the Market	147	(3)
Personal Relations and the Market	150	(8)
Political Goods and the Market	158	(5)
The Limitations of Market Ideologies	163	(5)
Is Women's Labor a Commodity?	168	(22)
The Case of Commercial Surrogate Motherhood	168	(2)
Children as Commodities	170	(5)
Women's Labor as a Commodity	175	(7)
Contract Pregnancy and the Status of Women	182	(3)
Contract Pregnancy, Freedom, and the Law	185	(5)
Cost-Benefit Analysis, Safety, and Environmental Quality	190	(27)
Cost-Benefit Analysis as a Form of Commodification	190	(5)
Autonomy, Labor Markets, and the Value of Life	195	(8)
Citizens, Consumers, and the Value of the Environment	203	(7)
Toward Democratic Alternatives to Cost-Benefit Analysis	210	(7)
Conclusion	217	(6)
Notes	223	(8)
References	231	(10)
Index	241