Making comparisons count / / Ruth Chang

• Record Nr.: UNINA9910820250203321
• Autore: Chang Ruth
• Pubbl/distr/stampa: London : , : Routledge, , 2013
• ISBN: 1-138-98021-8; 1-135-71477-0; 1-315-05439-6; 1-135-71470-3
• Descrizione fisica: 1 online resource (349 p.)
• Collana: Studies in ethics
• Disciplina: 170/.42
• Soggetti: Decision making - Moral and ethical aspects; Comparison (Philosophy)
• Lingua di pubblicazione: Inglese
• Formato: Materiale a stampa
• Livello bibliografico: Monografia
• Note generali: First published 2002 by Routledge.
• Nota di bibliografia: Includes bibliographical references and index.
• Nota di contenuto: Cover; Half Title; Title Page; Copyright Page; Dedication; Table of Contents; Preface to the Routledge Edition; Acknowledgments; Introduction; 1. Incomparability: The Basic Notion; 1.1. The covering value requirement; 1.2. Covering values and contributory values; 1.3. The covering value requirement and incomparability; 2. The Structure of Values and Comparisons of Bearers; 2.1. The structure of values; 2.2. Comparisons of bearers; 2.3. Two conclusions; 3. Numerical Representation: The Standard Model; 3.1. The Standard Model and the Trichotomy Thesis; 3.2. Mere ordinality; 3.3. Precise cardinality3.4. Imprecise cardinality; 1. What Justifies Choice?; 2. Setting the Stage for Comparativism; 3. Optimizing; 4. Alternatives to Optimizing; 4.1. Satisficing; 4.2. Maximalizing; 4.3. Absolutizing; 5. Comparisons and Justifying Force; 6. A Challenge to Comparativism: Brute Desires; 1. The Diversity of Values; 2. Bidirectionality; 3. Calculation; 4. Rational Irresolvability of Conflict; 5. The Incomparability of Values; 5.1. Value incomparability; 5.2. Bearer incomparability; 6. The Lack of a Common Value; 6.1. Noncomparability; 6.2. Formal failures of comparison and practical reason1. Constitutive Incomparability; 2. Mere Market Goods; 3. Raz; 3.1. Symbolic ; significance; 3.2. The belief in incomparability; 3.3. The incomparability of friendship and money; 4. Critique; 4.1. The belief in incomparability; 4.2. The argument by elimination; 5. Anderson; 5.1. Comparisons as boring; 5.2. Comparisons as stultifying; 5.3. Comparisons as incoherent; 6. Emphatic Comparisons: A Sketch; 1. The Small Improvement Argument: Particular Version; 1.1. Rational attitudes; 1.2. Rational judgments; 1.3. Skepticism about particular judgments2. The Small Improvement Argument: Abstract Version; 3. Against Incomparability: The Pareto Argument; 3.1. The Pareto Argument; 3.2. Examples; 4. The Small Improvement and Pareto Arguments Revisited: Is Parity Vagueness?; 4.1. Why hard cases are not borderline cases; 4.2. Objections; 5. Parity; 5.1. The intuitive notion: evaluative differences revisited; 5.2. A metaphysical underpinning of parity; 5.3. A nonstandard model of comparability; 1. Incomparability as Vagueness; 2. Determinate and Indeterminate Failure Revisited; 2.1. Artificial and natural comparatives2.2. The Collapsing Principle Argument; 3. Multiple Rankings and Parity; 3.1. Essentially normative predicates; 3.2. Resolving parity into choice: a suggestion; Bibliography; Index
• Sommario/riassunto: This book attempts to answer two questions: Are alternatives for choice ever incomparable? and In what ways can items be compared? The arguments offered suggest that alternatives for choice no matter how different are never incomparable, and that the ways in which items can be compared are richer and more varied than commonly supposed.