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The article examines the ethical conflict between personal happiness and general happiness in novelist George Eliot's book "Middlemarch" and writer Henry Sidgwick's "The Methods of Ethics." Topics include Sidgwick's exploration of egoism, intuitionism, and utilitarianism; Eliot's portrayal of fictional character Dorothea Brooke's moral choices; and the use of nonrational impulses as a solution to ethical dilemmas.

This research investigates how product evaluations are impacted by two strategies for presenting an ingredient: with its common name or with its scientific name. We find that using the scientific name of a major ingredient enhances product evaluations when the product is perceived as utilitarian, whereas using the common name for that ingredient has a positive impact on product evaluations when the product is perceived as hedonic. The above fit effects are mediated by the consumer's enhanced sense of "feeling right." Furthermore, we find that using the scientific name for a harmful ingredient that has been removed is more likely to enhance product evaluations than referring to the removed ingredient by its common name. Our findings provide important insights that can help marketers choose the ingredient name that most effectively promotes their products. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Much has been written about the philosophy of social control, particularly as it developed from the end of the nineteenth century to the early 1920s. Yet little if any appreciation has been given to the work of James MacKaye and Helen Sumner in promoting the program of political engineering and their efforts at establishing to this end an Institute of Political Engineering. This essay will examine the philosophy of James MacKaye and the creation of the institute that was to fulfill his mission, and it will highlight the important contribution of Helen Sumner in its creation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Sport managers need to make decisions that have moral implications on a regular basis, and applying their theoretical knowledge to real-world scenarios is an essential skill in the field. Utilitarianism is a consequentialist ethical theory that focuses on maximizing the production of good. The purpose of this case is to provide students with the opportunity to learn about utilitarianism (including act and rule utilitarianism) and engage in class discussions surrounding the case of pandemic protocols in sport organizations. A brief and general overview of pandemic protocols used in the sport industry is provided alongside discussion questions designed to challenge students with the application of utilitarian principles to their decision making. The case also provides a teaching note with discussion topics and potential responses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aggregative moral theories face a series of devastating problems when we apply them in a physically realistic setting. According to current physics, our universe is likely infinitely large, and will contain infinitely many morally valuable events. But standard aggregative theories are ill-equipped to compare outcomes containing infinite total value. So, applied in a realistic setting, they cannot compare any outcomes a real-world agent must ever choose between. This problem has been discussed extensively, and non-standard aggregative theories proposed to overcome it. This paper addresses a further problem of similar severity. Physics tells us that, in our universe, how remotely in time an event occurs is relative. But our most promising aggregative theories, designed to compare outcomes containing infinitely many valuable events, are sensitive to how remote in time those events are. As I show, the evaluations of those theories are then relative too. But this is absurd; evaluations of outcomes must be absolute! So we must reject such theories. Is this objection fatal for all aggregative theories, at least in a relativistic universe like ours? I demonstrate here that, by further modifying these theories to fit with the physics, we can overcome it. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Moral cognition has largely been studied via dilemmas in which making a utilitarian choice causes instrumental harm (negative dimension). Studies of utilitarianism link this behavior with socioemotional unresponsiveness. However, there is a positive dimension of utilitarianism in which one sacrifices the good of oneself or close others for the overall welfare. We measured utilitarian choices multidimensionally in a patient with behavioral variant frontotemporal dementia (bvFTD), incorporating dilemmas accounting for negative and positive dimensions. Despite socioemotional deficits our patient was highly utilitarian in the positive, dimension of utilitarianism. This case study challenges the tendency to automatically associate bvFTD with antisocial tendencies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Poetry has developed in leaps and bounds right from its earliest, oral phase to the modern, written form and has been effectively utilised to serve different levels of needs in many societies and cultures for many centuries. However, what constitute the predominant leitmotifs or thematic thrusts of poetry vary from one society to another. While very many climes emphasise and project its formal/aesthetic qualities, content and value, African creative artists predominantly deploy poetry to serve multiple, community-oriented, utilitarian functions. This is the thrust of this paper which examines Niyi Osundare's Snapsongs: Homegroans and Foreignflares as a quintessence of African poetic art deployed chiefly to examine society with a view to attacking its imperfections and projecting or promoting its values. The research is a qualitative one, and adopts the interpretive design. The paper finds that Osundare's Snapsongs: Homegroans and Foreignflares chiefly derives its afflatus from the quotidian socio-economic and political realities of the African environment and reflects the complexity of the African experience. Through a lavish appropriation of copious oral artistic categories such as proverbs, aphorisms, metaphors, satires, and panegyrics, Osundare intensifies the didactic, communal, functional and other utilitarian values of the African poetic art. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The philosophy of law is a branch of science that combines philosophy and law. Philosophy uses rational reason as its concept and system, and law uses evidence as its tool and concept. Throughout its history, philosophy has come up with various methods and concepts in presenting new scientific discoveries that are beneficial to humans. Philosophical schools are a method as well as a medium for philosophy to display its development from time to time. By combining an inquisitive mentality and a critical rational mind, philosophy is a complex branch of science. Starting from the habits of human life, and the secrets of the universe to the relationship between God, humans, and nature. Because of its completeness in presenting new knowledge and knowledge, philosophy and its schools cannot be separated from one another to witness the history of the development of philosophy itself. The philosophy of law, that is, philosophy and law have much in common. One of the similarities between the two is that they both use rational reason and concrete evidence as their media so famous philosophers juxtapose the two to declare the existence of each so that it is more complete and acceptable to the next human being. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the reliability of moral intuitions through the lens of utilitarian ethics, examining both their biological and cultural underpinnings. It argues that while human moral intuitions have a biological basis that aligns with utilitarian principles, these intuitions are significantly influenced and often altered by cultural and societal norms. The first section discusses the biological foundations of moral intuitions, highlighting research on genetic predispositions and neurological factors that support fairness and cooperation as fundamental moral principles. The second section examines how socialization and cultural exposure shape and sometimes distort these intuitions, leading to ethical practices that may diverge from utilitarian standards. Case studies, including the practice of ritual cannibalism, illustrate the conflict between innate moral responses and culturally derived values. The paper concludes that while biological intuitions provide a fundamental ethical framework, the influence of cultural norms necessitates a critical evaluation of moral beliefs to ensure alignment with utilitarian ethics. This underscores the importance of not solely relying on intuitions shaped by cultural contexts but rather assessing them against objective ethical standards. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The most important insight of Yew-Kwang Ng as a scholar is the single idea that welfare dictates humanity and the other sentient beings as well. This idea serves as the unifying principle that runs through the lion's share of significant contributions by Ng, as an outstanding defender and an innovative modern theorist of utilitarianism, to a good number of literatures in economics and beyond. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Political philosophers have recently debated what role social practices should play in normative theorising. Should our theories be practice-independent or practice-dependent? That is, can we formulate normative institutional principles independently of real-world practices or are such principles only ever relative to the practices they are meant to govern? Any first-order theory in political philosophy must contend with the methodological challenges coming out of this debate. In this article, I argue that consequentialism has a plausible account of how social practices should factor in normative political philosophy. I outline a version of consequentialism, Practice Consequentialism, that provides a plausible blueprint for integrating social practices in normative theorising. Second, I argue that Practice Consequentialism accounts well for the central arguments on both sides of the practice-dependence debate. Capturing arguments for practice-dependence, consequentialism brings out why real-world practices are central in formulating institutional principles. Conversely, capturing arguments for practice-independence, consequentialism offers a clear external normative perspective from which to evaluate practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: This article regards Antoine Compagnon as the embodiment of a movement that imbues literature with utility in the contemporary context. In his inaugural lecture, titled "What is Literature for?" delivered at the esteemed Collège de France, Compagnon argues that the era of inquiries such as "What is literature?" has faded, giving way to a more essential question: "Why and how should we approach literature?". The transition from an essentialist approach to a pragmatic one serves as evidence of the current crisis afflicting literature and literary studies in universities, resulting in a multitude of works published in France since the year 2005. These writings can be grouped into two categories: on one hand, the essays that support the devaluation, decline, or even death of literature, and on the other hand, those who believe in the dynamism and rebirth of contemporary literature, seeking to enumerate its functions and utilities Background of study: This study is part of our ongoing postdoctoral research conducted in 2021 at the Université Lumière Lyon 2, which addresses the crisis of contemporary literature and has led to the writing of several articles. The first article, titled "Investigating Declinism in Contemporary French Literature" (2021), examines the threats faced by contemporary literature in terms of economic, political, cultural, and technological aspects. The second article, co-written with Martine Boyer-Weinmann and titled "A Study of Literary Success in the Contemporary Media Age Case Study: She and He by Marc Levy" (2022), aims to understand the connections between contemporary popular literature and other forms of expression, particularly digital media. We have also published a book review and an article in Persian on Alexandre Gefen's work, "The Idea of Literature. From Art for Art’s Sake to Writings That Intervene" (2021), adopting an analytical and critical approach. This book review was published in the French journal Questions de communication (2021). The Persian article, titled "A Critique on the Book The Idea of Literature. From ‘Art for Art’s Sake’ to Writings That Intervene" (2021), provides a detailed presentation of Gefen's theoretical essay, emphasizing his expanded vision of literature. Furthermore, we have written two Persian reviews, published in 2018, on the following works: "Literature at risk" (2007) by Todorov and "The Farewell to Literature" (2005) by William Marx. To our knowledge, no comparative study has been conducted in France or Iran on the notion of useful literature in the essays published in France regarding the decline or functions of contemporary French literature. This has precisely motivated us to write the present article. Methodology: This article, based on an analytical and comparative approach, aims to present Compagnon's essay, highlighting in particular the concept of useful literature that emerges from it. Additionally, it aims to compare Compagnon's ideas with other contemporary writings, including those of Gefen, Citton, Maingueneau, Schaffer, Meizoz, and Marx. Conclusion: This critical analysis sheds light on the fact that, despite its alluring title, Compagnon's work falls short of fulfilling its aims. Despite his belief in literature as discourse, it nonetheless presents a limited understanding of literature on various levels. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A social planner wants to rank people. Utilitarianism implies that a natural ranking which orders people from most to least sensitive to their rank is the best ranking. But people's feelings toward the social planner, like blame or gratitude, can depend both on their assigned rank, and on the alternatives they might have been assigned. As a result, the social planner needs to do pairwise comparisons and there may not be a best ranking due to intransitive cycles. This paper shows the possibility of the coexistence of a best choice and non-transitivity. It illustrates how to tell when a best ranking exists, and that when it exists, it is indeed the natural ranking. When this best does not exist, an alternative second-best group ranking strategy is proposed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A number of papers have applied the CNI model of moral judgments to investigate deontological and consequentialist response tendencies. A controversy has emerged concerning the methodological assumptions of the CNI model. In this article, we contribute to this debate by extending the CNI paradigm with a skip option. This allows us to test an invariance assumption that the CNI model shares with prominent process-dissociation models in cognitive and social psychology. Like for these models, the present experiments found violations of the invariance assumption for the CNI model. In Experiment 2, we replicate these results and selectively influence the new parameter for the skip option. In addition, structural equation modeling reveals that previous findings for the relationship between gender and the CNI parameters are completely mediated by the association of gender with primary psychopathy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to discuss the current criteria for municipal priorities in municipal healthcare services in Norway in light of major theories from political philosophy on social justice, such as John Rawlsʼs theory of justice and utilitarianism. Our first goal is to show that perspectives from political philosophy could prove useful for increasing our understanding of the current priority-setting criteria in municipal healthcare services. Decision-makers in municipalities often have to exercise discretion in their decisions. We argue that the current criteria of health benefit, resource use and severity can introduce some indeterminacy in certain situations where municipalities have to make priorities. This is important, as municipalities are experiencing an increase in demand coupled with a decrease in capacity due to an ageing population, leading to a stronger need for prioritization between services. Our last goal is to provide a heuristic based on Rawlsʼs Original Position that may help to narrow indeterminacy in choice situations. We have included a case of municipal decision-making that focuses on municipal priority-setting in home care services, including assisted living facilities, nursing homes and preventative measures.

Charles Dickens often satirised and sharply criticised the unfortunate social realities of nineteenth-century England through his works such as Oliver Twist (1838), David Copperfield (1850), A Christmas Carol (1843) and Hard Times (1854). In my paper, I will be putting forward the argument that Dickens’s novels advocate for social change by exemplifying the theoretical doctrine of methodological individualism. As a social science doctrine, methodological individualism was first introduced by Max Weber in his work Economy and Society (1922). The central precept of Methodological Individualism, according to Weber, is that individual actions and motivations rather than social and cultural realities should be considered as the chief drivers of social change. However, it should be precisely noted that methodological individualism as a doctrine is not a reckless celebration of individualism, but, more importantly, a careful analysis of how the intentional states of individuals contribute to the unfolding of social changes in a given society. In other words, the doctrine of Methodological Individualism proposes that social structures are influential but they are not superstructures whose influence exceeds the agency of individual members of a society. In order to illustrate the argument, I will be specifically focusing on the novel Oliver Twist. The historical and social context of the novel consists of 1834 Poor Law Reforms and widespread economic and social inequalities in nineteenth century England. Within these contexts the characters of Fagin, Mr Bumble. Nancy, Harry Maylie and Mr Brownlow make highly individualistic choices that shape the narrative of the novel, challenge the established code of social relations and finally restores Oliver Twist to his rightful place in the society of nineteenth century England. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Consumers often gain extra free time unexpectedly. Given the increasing time pressure that consumers experience in their daily lives, it is important to understand how they spend windfall (or unexpected) free time, which we term found time. In a series of five laboratory experiments and naturalistic field studies, we found that consumers spend more of their free time on hedonic activities than on utilitarian activities when they gain the time unexpectedly (i.e. found time), but not when they know about the free time in advance. This pattern occurs consistently regardless of whether consumers gain the time from canceled work-related or leisure activities. In addition, our studies uncovered perceived busyness as a ubiquitous yet unexplored moderator for the windfall gain literature: the inclination to allocate found time to hedonic consumption decreases when consumers perceive themselves to be busy at the moment. We discuss several potential accounts for the effect of unexpectedness on time expenditure, including a perceived fit between the nature of found time (a fun windfall gain) and hedonic consumption, need for justification, and planning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The view of happiness that I propose in this article and derive on the basis of Aristotle’s and Henri Bergson’s ideas recommends that we must first understand life as an activity – not as a sum of accumulated experiences and things; nor a set of projects; nor fateful or haphazard events that befall us, but as a formative activity in which we play a key role. Ἐνέργεια or de l’action are at the core of life and it is by getting a hold of this creative core that we stand to live happily (Aristotle) or joyously (Bergson). For both thinkers, the possibility of happiness and joy comes to the fore, to no small extent, as a certain orientation in our thinking, i.e., as φρόνησις and θεωρία, for Aristotle, and as philosophy for Bergson. Our thoughts inform our choices and actions as well as our view of the world, grounding our sense of meaning, purpose, and value of action. It is by reckoning with the ever-unfolding act of life and with our own actions in it (actions which can be vicious, senseless, and unexamined or creative and constitutive of a life well-lived) that we also take hold of the possibility of happiness and joy.

To date, the circular economy has fallen short of its promise to reduce our resource demand and transform our production and consumption system. One key problem is the lack of understanding that highly promising strategies such as refuse, rethink, and reduce can be properly addressed using research on sufficiency. This article argues that a shift in focus is required in research and policy development from consumers who buy and handle circularly designed products to consumption patterns that follow the logic of sufficiency and explain how sufficiency-oriented concepts can be incorporated into existing social practices. The authors show that sufficiency is not necessarily as radical and unattractive as is often claimed, making it a suitable yet underrated strategy for sustainability and the transition to an effective circular economy. The case of urban gardening shows that small interventions can have far-reaching effects and transform consumption patterns as the logic of availability is contested by newly developed concepts of "enoughness" and opposition to "über-availability." The authors propose utilizing comprehensive state-of-the-art theories of consumption and human action when developing strategies and policies to make the circular economy sustainable while being more critical of utilitarian approaches. Using social practice theories that have proven to be beneficial allows human actions to be comprehensively analyzed by recognizing their embeddedness in social and material frameworks; addressing the meaning, competences, and materials of routinized human behavior; and examining indirect effects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article explores the debate between ideal and non-ideal theory in political philosophy, with a focus on consequentialism as a powerful position that addresses objections raised against both approaches. It argues that consequentialism, which considers the consequences of actions, offers a comparative structure and takes into account real-world concerns. The author discusses how consequentialism can make comparative judgments without relying on a privileged model and provides a theoretical justification for evaluating institutional options in an unjust society. The article concludes that consequentialism offers a transparent and unified structure for addressing normative questions. Additionally, the given text provides a list of references and citations for further research on political philosophy, ethics, and long-termism. [Extracted from the article]

A novel axiomatization of relative utilitarianism is provided using the single-profile setting used in Harsanyi's Social Aggregation Theorem. Harsanyi's axioms are supplemented with an impartiality axiom that requires social alternative lotteries p and q to be socially indifferent when (i) two individuals have conflicting preferences for them and everybody else is indifferent and (ii) the concerned individuals' strengths of preference for p over q have the same magnitude. This axiomatization shows that equality of the social weights can be obtained in a single-profile setting and that no interprofile condition is needed to obtain profile-independent weights in a multi-profile setting. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hacktivists oftentimes challenge or subvert existing power relations or structures and attempt to promote reform. How the public perceives occurrences of hacktivism can influence the direction and impact of operations, including their potential success. Public support can encompass person power, computational ability, resources and solidarity, among other things. This study examines socio-legal contexts in which an individual is embedded and personal perceptions as predictors for support for hacktivism. Using representative survey data from 23 countries (n = 23,140), the study finds that more effective civic participation mechanisms and more positive views toward alternative actors and hacktivists' utilitarianism motives were associated with heightened support. In contrast, greater trust in legal and state authorities promoted opposition. Effective justice was not associated with more support but was with less opposition for hacktivism. Implications for campaigns, social movements, and desistance of activity are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The "Stratification-of-Goods" expresses social ranking where the lower status group consumes almost exclusively coarse goods such as Rambo films while the upper status group consumes almost exclusively refined goods such as Shakespearean plays. The Stratification-of-Goods is an enigma for the social welfare function (SWF)—which also applies at the level of the individual utility function. It is an enigma because it makes SWF and individual utility function ill-defined: there is no single metric that allows us to compare the utility functions across groups, as well as the tastes across a single decision maker (DM), insofar as they are segregated by the refinement of taste. This paper proposes a model that promises to solve the Stratification-of-Goods Enigma. The model, consistent with rational choice theory, starts with DMs who have identical tastes but differ with respect to income level. If income inequality is non-trivial, DMs invest differently in what this paper calls "sophistication capital"—the education needed to appreciate refined goods. The difference in investment in sophistication capital sets in motion dynamics that generates hard-to-reverse status stratification. In this fashion, this paper offers a solid endogenous account that solves the Stratification-of-Goods Enigma. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Global warming presents challenges to utilitarianism. Its structural features seem to suggest that individuals have no moral obligations to take steps to reduce their carbon footprints. For those who find this to be an unacceptable result, Jamieson proposes an alternative. He argues that utilitarians should embrace a version of virtue ethics. They should embrace what he calls 'green virtues'. In this article, I argue that Jamieson's proposal does not adequately address the ethical challenges that global warming poses for utilitarianism. I propose an alternative. Rather than aiming to inculcate green virtues, we should be aiming to inculcate a certain social identity: a green identity. Not only is this approach more in keeping with utilitarianism, but recent research in the social sciences also suggests that it is much more likely to result in an impactful reduction in global emissions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A just or fair distribution of environmental bads and goods is important for solving environmental social dilemmas and is a core idea of environmental justice politics and research. Environmental justice is mostly associated with egalitarianism as the sole justice principle for all people. In contrast, we argue that it is important to uncover and consider heterogeneity in justice concerns to achieve socially accepted solutions to environmental social dilemmas. With noise pollution as an example, we explore citizens' preferences for justice principles regarding the allocation of politically initiated environmental benefits. In our survey in four European cities, respondents were asked to choose between different outcomes of a program to reduce road traffic noise in line with the following four notions of distributive justice: equal shares, equal outcomes, the greatest benefit for the least advantaged (Rawls), and the greatest benefit for the greatest number (Bentham). We found that most respondents chose Rawls' principle, a preference that was stable over time but weaker when explicitly introducing the veil of ignorance. The preference for Rawls notwithstanding, we observed substantial heterogeneity in justice preferences. Multinomial logit analyses of survey and geo-referenced data on noise exposure showed that respondents with a higher socio-economic status and lower exposure to traffic noise were more likely to choose Rawls' principle. Taken together, our study confirms the prominence of Rawls' principle, demonstrates empirically the heterogeneity of justice preferences, and calls for more direct measurements of such preferences in research on environmental social dilemmas, environmental justice, and beyond. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

According to one historic view of liberal education, such education is incompatible with the express pursuit of civic goods. Call that view 'pure liberal education'. Students engaged in pure liberal education are set free, temporarily, from utilitarian concerns, for a course of study aimed at intrinsic goods—most notably knowledge but also the formation of a virtuous mind. Proponents claim that a direct pursuit of civic goods would compromise the mode , matter , and/or integrity of pure liberal education—that is, its freedom from utilitarian concern, its wide-ranging and intrinsically valuable subject matter, and its commitment to following the truth wherever it leads. In reply, I offer a pedagogy that requires (almost) no departure from the pure liberal ideal yet which reserves a modest, though important, place for civic formation. That place emerges from the fact that academic and civic life 'overlap' in an important respect: both involve a conversation and thus a common set of virtues. The latter consist in those practices and dispositions that enable the conversation to go well, by encouraging mutual understanding and the formation of true beliefs. The existence of this overlap provides a way for pure liberal educators, who already expressly influence their students' academic formation, to likewise influence their civic formation. It consists in teachers consciously developing those virtues in their students, along with an awareness of the virtues' relevance for civic life. This pedagogy retains the matter and integrity of pure liberal education, with only brief introductions of the practical mode. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Human rights, as a special kind of moral rights, have traditionally been seen as guides for legally institutionalized human rights practice. However, there are several problems with this conception. It seems that not every moral right makes sense to translate into a legal form, and at the same time not all legal rights have a moral antecedent. Thus, human rights ethics requires some supplementation in order to justify institutionalized rights. At the same time, it is not usually seen as final, but we expect it to be supported by further justification, for example by its relation to normative agency, basic needs or capabilities. This raises the question of whether it is redundant, whether its role could be superseded by elements that further justify it. The article defends the thesis that as such it can be superseded by utilitarian reasons. Using them, we can reach the same conclusions, but with several significant advantages over competing approaches. Utilitarianism is not only an analytically clear theory that minimizes the normative basis of our reasoning, but it can offer a justification for that practice without having to be supplemented by some other approach. At the same time, it can easily deal with the redundancy objection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Modern constitutional rights law is often criticised for delineating rights too broadly while resolving their regular conflicts with competing considerations through open-ended balancing procedures. A basic theme underlying criticisms of this expansionist trend is that it expresses utilitarian ideas, foreign to the domain of rights. This article replies to two main critiques: that rights can only extend to cases in which they defeat all competing considerations; and that conflicts involving rights should be resolved with categorial rules. The article builds on contractualist moral theory and the interest theory of rights to present an account of constitutional rights as relational value-based reasons to recognise duties. This account goes beyond central justifications of the expansionist trend, that erode the action-guiding and relational aspects of constitutional rights. It shows that including in their scopes defeasible reasons is not only conceptually possible but also morally desirable as it can better realise their underlying values by providing systematic guidance to state agents as part of the basic structure of society; and that while rights-based duties are peremptory and categorical, constitutional rights-based reasons for regulation invite a dynamic and incremental comparison of claims on a social scale, of the kind that proportionality analysis structures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

New atheism is a new movement that has been active since the beginning of this century. This movement, founded by thinkers, such as Dawkins, Dennet, Sam Harris and Hitchens, has used fundamental concepts such as rationalism to justify its principles. The founders of this movement have tried to use this fundamental concept to make atheism appear rational, and belief in God completely irrational. They have done this by stating the merits and benefits of disbelief in God and the disadvantages and harms of belief in God. In this article, which is written in an analytical- descriptive way, we aim to critique rationalism. For this purpose, first we get to know what rationalism is. Then we will show how the new atheists have used this concept in favor of atheism and in rejecting theism. In the end, relying on the thoughts of philosophers, we will critique rationalism. Rationalism as another reading of scientism, rationalism as another interpretation of profit maximization, rationalism as the ground for separating knowledge from value, and rationalism as a school that does not pay attention to its goals are just some of the criticisms that have been made against this school. Taking these criticisms into account, all the problems that affect scientism, utilitarianism, and the view of separating knowledge from value will also affect this school. With this description, this school cannot be a good justification for the new atheism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on a French corpus of 12 semi-structured interviews with people practising philosophical dialogue with 'lay people' (children, prisoners, families, people attending a show), we investigate the meaning given to this activity. While there is a relative consensus among all the stakeholder on a general positive stance attributed to philosophical dialogues, without formulating specific expectations about it; diverse ideas are mentioned when they are prompted to explain such positive contribution. We describe them by distinguishing between two poles structuring the conceptions of the interviewees: philosophical dialogue as 1. a timeless anthropological reality which insufficient in itself, and as 2. a utilitarian response to the specific challenges currently undermining our societies. We therefore review the expected and perceived benefits for a) the participants invited to engage in dialogue, b) the people leading these exchanges and/or c) the institutions making this activity possible. The aim is to present the constructive/fruitful or detrimental tensions resulting by the joint reference to both pol: philosophical dialogue as an anthropological reality and a utilitarian response. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The issue of access to the American health care system seems destined to reappear in the 2024 presidential election. The political and economic debates regarding single-payer systems providing (near) universal health care are well documented. Supporters of the status quo, knowingly or unknowingly, rest their argument on the basic assumptions of utilitarianism. In response patrons investigating inequalities in access to the American health care system can turn to biblical, philosophical, and theological reflections on justice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How should we respond to moral theories that put excessive demands on individual agents? Intramoral strategies concern the content of morality and set limits on how exacting moral demands may be. Extramoral strategies concern the normative status of morality and set limits on how significant moral demands may be. While both strategies are often discussed separately, I focus on a specific aspect of how they relate to each other: Do intramoral approaches assume that extramoral approaches fail, and if so, does that render them implausible? This challenge becomes apparent when the two strategies are considered together, and my goal is to show how it can be dealt with. In particular, I argue that intramoral strategies do not depend on the failure of extramoral strategies: Even if morality has limited practical significance (which I also doubt), moral theories can be criticised for being too demanding in terms of content. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

legal modernity as a value-oriented framework considered the concept of "right" as an abstract and metaphysical concept in the eighteenth century. At the same time, utilitarian theory welcomed the method of empirical observation in legal analysis, and considering the socio-economic functions of right emerged as an independent theory and have challenged how metaphysics interacts with reality. The present study seeks to investigate the relationship between metaphysics and reality and the nature of the concept of right from the perspective of utilitarianism theory. The principle of "achieving the greatest welfare for the greatest number" in utilitarian school of thought can challenge the concept of right drastically. It seems that utilitarianism authorizes sacrificing individuals and their interests (rights derived from the theory of modern natural law) as a necessity for greater happiness and welfare. Further investigation revealed that the theory rejects the subjectivism that exists in modern natural law; in other words, in examining the concept of right, it simply does not reflect the precedence of metaphysics over reality and, therefore, can be consistent with a typical impression of the concept of "right". [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since Epicurus is known as a philosopher who generally advocates hedonism, it is believed that he cannot have a political or social theory. Few traces of him have remained. The difficulty of researching about him increases when we want to go beyond the essence of his philosophy and discuss its tangible legal and social dimensions. Although the importance of Epicurus's philosophy is due to the fact that the study of the philosophy of this period in the post-Renaissance centuries, with the formation of utilitarian schools and subsequently public law and government theory, seems to prove this point. Epicurean philosophy, based on its approach to the philosophy of life and encouraging people to live a life away from suffering and by limiting themselves to less troublesome pleasures, also in the social field, calls people to stay away from the political field and define their own happiness, beyond the reach of the government. The Epicurean state is a small, minimal state formed under the contract of individuals not to harm them, and these institutions are made by human beings who pursue tangible goals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper studies the optimal fiscal treatment of assisted reproductive technologies (ART) in an economy where individuals differ in their reproductive capacity (or fecundity) and in their wage. We find that the optimal ART tax policy varies with the postulated social welfare criterion. Utilitarianism redistributes only between individuals with unequal fecundity and wages but not between parents and childless individuals. To the opposite, ex post egalitarianism (which gives absolute priority to the worst‐off in realized terms) redistributes from individuals with children toward those without children, and from individuals with high fecundity toward those with low fecundity, so as to compensate for both the monetary cost of ART and the disutility from involuntary childlessness resulting from unsuccessful ART investments. Under asymmetric information and in order to solve for the incentive problem, utilitarianism recommends to either tax or subsidize ART investments of low‐fecundity‐low‐productivity individuals at the margin, depending on the degree of complementarity between fecundity and ART in the fertility technology. On the opposite, ex post egalitarianism always recommends marginal taxation of ART. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Argenziano and Gilboa (2019) obtain a very important result "that consumer choice data alone are sufficient ... [to] provide a microfoundation for a weighted utilitarian social welfare function that reflects common moral intuitions about interpersonal comparisons of utilities". This paper compares this result with my 1975 Review of Economic Studies paper and examines the sense in which consumer data alone are sufficient. A way to dispense with interpersonal comparisons of utility in specific issues by following efficiency supremacy is also discussed. The suspicion of interpersonal comparison and utilitarianism may be based on misunderstandings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Utilitarians typically argue that the state should grant copyright to authors only when doing so promotes utility. In recent years, however, this argument has faced three criticisms. As a normative matter, critics argue that a utilitarian copyright system is neither just nor attractive. As an epistemological matter, critics argue that society cannot ever know whether copyright promotes utility. And as an interpretive matter, critics argue that utilitarianism fails to appreciate what copyright is really all about: progress of the sciences and useful arts. And so, an increasing number of scholars conclude that copyright should be awarded, not when doing so aids utility, but when doing so secures natural rights or promotes democratic norms. This Article refines and defends the utilitarian argument for copyright law. It departs the company of prior utilitarians, however, in its conceptualization of "utility." Taking inspiration from John Stuart Mill's defense of utilitarianism, the Article argues that utility in copyright cannot be understood in purely quantitative terms. Of course, the overall amount of creative work that the copyright system generates matters a great deal; but it is not the only thing that matters. The type of creative work incentivized by the system also matters: creative work that feeds the mind, sparks feelings and imagination, and promotes moral sentiments provide copyright's "higher pleasures." A truly utilitarian copyright system is, therefore, one that produces more and better creative work. A utilitarian copyright of this kind is normatively attractive, epistemologically realistic, and interpretively consistent with the constitutional structure of American copyright law. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article delves into the ethical consideration of whether suffering outweighs happiness in evaluating the moral goodness of the world. It introduces the concept of Lexical Threshold Negative Utilitarianism (LTNU), which posits that there exists a depth of suffering that cannot be offset by any amount of happiness experienced by others. It explores various axiological principles and structural assumptions about population ethics to argue for LTNU.

With the rapid development of society and the deteriorating natural environment, there has been an increase in public emergencies. This study aimed to explore how sadness and fear in the context of public emergencies influence moral judgments. This research first induced feelings of sadness and fear by using videos about public emergencies and music, and then used moral scenarios from the CNI model (C parameter: sensitivity to consequences; N parameter: sensitivity to norms; I parameter: general preference for inaction) to assess participants' moral thinking. In Study 1, participants were divided into a sadness group and a neutral group, while in Study 2, participants were divided into a fear group and a neutral group. During the experiment, participants were exposed to different videos related to public emergencies to induce the corresponding emotions, and emotional music was continuously played throughout the entire experiment. Participants were then asked to answer questions requiring moral judgments. The results showed that based on the CNI model, sadness induced in the context of public emergencies significantly increased the C parameter, without affecting the N or I parameters. Fear increased the I parameter, without affecting the C or I parameters. That is, sadness and fear induced in the context of a public emergency can influence moral judgments. Specifically, sadness increases individuals' sensitivity to consequences and fear increases the general preference for inaction in moral judgments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The implications of the repugnant conclusion for consequentialist theories, such as total utilitarianism, have been extensively discussed since the work of Derek Parfit. These discussions make the paradoxes of population ethics depend on welfarist conditions, like the dominance condition (or the Pareto Principle). Thus, one might think that the repugnant conclusion is not a practical problem for deontologists, who deny that we always ought to do what produces the most aggregate welfare. In this study, we offer two impossibility results using what we call the limit aggregation property. This states that when welfaristic and non‐welfaristic considerations conflict, there is a threshold number of persons such that the former can override the latter as long as more people than the threshold number can enjoy increases in well‐being levels. We argue that this property should be accepted even by deontologists, insofar as they do not commit themselves to the implausible absolutist position that fails to assign any moral weight to aggregate welfare. Our results therefore state that any normative population theory that is not absolutist entails (a variant of) the repugnant conclusion or some other implausible conclusion. Therefore, the repugnant conclusion must be taken seriously even by non‐absolutist deontologists, not just consequentialists. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Some utilitarian readings present in bioethics emphasize the importance of satisfying people’s preferences as a significant criterion of justice. One of its recurring applications in the healthcare sector is through measuring the satisfaction of healthcare service users. However, little has been discussed in the healthcare and bioethics field regarding objections that this criterion has faced from the philosophy of law and political philosophy. One of these, known as the problem of adaptive responses, asserts that individuals, whether consciously or not, adjust their satisfaction based on what they can attain. Therefore, a cautious view of this criterion is recommended, especially when measuring the satisfaction of individuals facing deprivations. Greater caution should be exercised when it is applied to services that guarantee fundamental rights, such as the right to health. This article aims to discuss this issue and highlight its presence in the healthcare services of Peru. Specifically, after tentatively and briefly conceptualizing what an inappropriately adaptive response would be, this problem will be analyzed and evaluated based on certain components of the National Survey of User Satisfaction of Universal Health Assurance (Ensusalud) of 2014, 2015 and 2016, which are the only three surveys of this kind conducted in Peru to date and on a national scale. In more detail, the aim is to determine whether significant differences in satisfaction with their health insurance exist among users based on their income levels, considering the same degree of impact on their right to health. The processing and analysis of the database lead to the conclusion that these differences do indeed exist. Faced with a infringement on this right (for example, not receiving any medication at the pharmacy, taking more than ninety minutes to reach the facility, etc.), severe economically deprived users express higher levels of satisfaction with their insurance compared to users without economic deprivations. This provides indications to suspect that, in relation to the first group of users, there might indeed be a case of adaptive responses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The meaning of justice can be defined according to a juridical, human, theological, ethical, biomedical, or social perspective. It should guarantee the protection of life and health, personal, civil, political, economic, and religious rights, as well as non-discrimination, inclusion, protection, and access to care. In this review, we deal with three theoretical concepts that define justice in all its aspects. (1) The utilitarian theory, which justifies moral statements on the basis of the evaluation of the consequences that an action produces, elaborating a pragmatic model of medical science. (2) The libertarian theory, which considers freedom as the highest political aim, thus absolutizing the rights of the individual; here, the principle of self-determination, with respect to which the principle of permission/consent is the fundamental presupposition, plays a central role in the definition of the person. (3) The iusnaturalist theory, in which man's moral freedom is identified with the ability to act by choosing what the intellect indicates to him as good; the natural moral law that drives every conscience to do good is therefore realized in respect for the person in the fullness of his rights. In conclusion, different forms and conceptions of justice correspond to different organizations of society and different ways of addressing ethical issues in the biomedical domain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: The current study aims to assess, for the first time, whether vaccination is predicted by different behavioral and cognitive aspects of moral decision‐making. Background: Studies linking moral factors to vaccination have largely examined whether vaccination decisions can be explained by individual differences in the endorsement of various principles and norms central to deontology‐based arguments in vaccination ethics. However, these studies have overlooked whether individuals prioritize norms over other considerations when making decisions, such as maximizing consequences (utilitarianism). Method: In a sample of 1492 participants, the current study assessed whether vaccination is explained by individual differences in three aspects of moral decision‐making (consequence sensitivity, norm sensitivity, and action tendency), while also considering ethics position (idealism, relativism) and moral identity. Results: Supportive vaccination (vaccine uptake accompanied by a positive attitude toward vaccines) was associated with utilitarianism (increased consequence sensitivity) and increased tolerance to risks and harm toward others. Meanwhile, although those in the non‐vaccinated group was associated with higher harm sensitivities, they neither supported nor received the COVID vaccines (when vaccines prevent harm from infection). Conclusion: Pro‐vaccination messages may be made more effective by addressing perceptions of harms associated with vaccines and infections, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: In the current project, we focus on another group of unusual altruists: people who have taken the Giving What We Can (GWWC) pledge to donate at least 10% of their income to charity. Our project aims to understand what is unique about this population. Background: Many people care about helping, but in recent years there has been a surge of research examining those whose moral concern for others goes far beyond that of the typical population. These unusual altruists (also termed extraordinary or extreme altruists or moral exemplars) make great personal sacrifices to help others—such as donating their kidneys to strangers or participating in COVID‐19 vaccine challenge trials. Method: In a global study (N = 536) we examine a number of cognitive and personality traits of GWWC pledgers and compare them to a country‐matched comparison group. Results: In accordance with our predictions, GWWC pledgers were better at identifying fearful faces, more morally expansive and higher in actively open‐minded thinking, need for cognition and two subscales of utilitarianism and, tentatively, lower in social dominance orientation. Against our predictions, they were lower in maximizing tendency. Finally, we found an inconclusive relationship between pledger status and empathy/compassion that we believe warrants further examination. Conclusions: These findings offer initial insights into the characteristics that set apart those who have made the decision to donate a substantial portion of their income to help others. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Article reports an investigation into the application of the bioethical principles of personalism in hydrotherapeutic practice internationally. A qualitative, phenomenological, purposive and opinionated sampling methodology was used. The sample consisted of 12 international senior aquatic therapists, who participated in semi-structured online interviews. Thematic categorical content analysis was carried out with the support of Atlas Ti software, version 9. As a result, four principles of personalism and three emerging categories were identified: values, principle of vulnerability and the cost-benefit principle. It is concluded that hydrotherapeutic practice is consistent with the personalist current. A principle of utilitarianism and the Barcelona Declaration emerges, as well as values such as honesty, respect and humility. The need to deepen the bioethical principles of personalism in general aquatic practice, as well as in the training processes and bioethical competences acquired by therapists, is raised. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article explores Richard H. Horne's unique approach to literature, emphasizing his fascination with particles and their potential for imaginative transformation. Topics discussed include Horne's use of particulate matter to challenge conventional aesthetics, his exploration of polyopia (multiple vision), and his critical stance on utilitarianism in literature.

C.S. Peirce offered an evaluation of Bentham's philosophy to the effect that on some points Bentham's performance was of great value, but essentially, he was 'a shallow logician' confined to analysis of 'lower motive'. This paper argues that Bentham's logic is deeply metaphysically based, multi‐levelled, and comprehensive. There are at least three constituent parts in his utilitarian logic: the first is his ontology, with its distinction between real and fictitious entities, and with pain and pleasure constituting the core real entities; the second is his reductionism in, and analytical view of, simple and complex pleasures and pains; the third is the distinction between private ethics and public ethics. Bentham's logic is staunchly based on empiricism and truth and he developed a pragmatic utilitarian solution to overcome the potential impasse of Hume's scepticism through a mechanism of reflection. Even the doctrines of belief and abduction embraced and developed by Peirce are contained in Bentham's utilitarian logic. Bentham would certainly take Peirce's philosophy as ipse dixitism. Peirce was not in fact a serious reader of Bentham and failed to employ the distinction between argument and argumentation in his study of Bentham's logic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The axiomatic foundations of Bentham and Rawls solutions are discussed within the broader domain of cardinal preferences. It is unveiled that both solution concepts share all four of the following axioms: Nonemptiness, Anonymity, Unanimity, and Continuity. In order to fully characterize the Bentham and Rawls solutions, three variations of a consistency criterion are introduced and their compatibility with the other axioms is assessed. Each expression of consistency can be interpreted as a property of decision-making in risky or uncertain environments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]