Individualist Theories and Interpersonal Aggregation.

This article offers a solution to the numbers problem within an individualist moral framework. Its central aims are as follows: to rescue individualist moral theories, such as moral contractualism, from their long-standing problem with interpersonal aggregation; to demonstrate how, proceeding from a...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Ethics Vol. 134; no. 4; pp. 479 - 512
Main Author: Zhang, Erik
Format: Article
Published: University of Chicago Press Jul2024
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Online Access:View this record in EBSCOhost
Description
Summary:This article offers a solution to the numbers problem within an individualist moral framework. Its central aims are as follows: to rescue individualist moral theories, such as moral contractualism, from their long-standing problem with interpersonal aggregation; to demonstrate how, proceeding from an individualist mode of justification, we can nevertheless make the numbers count without directly counting the numbers; to provide an individualist rationale for accepting a partially aggregative criterion of adjudication for resolving interpersonal trade-offs; and finally, to develop an extensionally adequate version of partial aggregation that finds application in more structurally complex cases.