Concept tag
#partiality
-
Mozi was a consequentialist two thousand years before Bentham, and lost the argument the same way
I work on the later Mohist canons, so I live with this comparison. Here's the case. Mozi, writing in the fifth century BCE, argued that the test of any doctrine or policy is whether it promotes benefit and removes harm for the…
Started by Chen Yuting5 replies139 views -
What did Bernard Williams mean by ‘one thought too many’?
I left accountancy to raise two children and I'm reading ethics on my own, mostly in the evenings. A book on care ethics I borrowed keeps quoting Bernard Williams's phrase "one thought too many", and I think I understand it but I…
Started by Thamarai Selvi Raman4 replies182 views -
When the woman in labour is your cousin: professional fairness and the ethics of care
I'm a midwife at a district hospital. Last month my cousin came in to deliver her second child. It was a busy night: four other women in labour, one of them in difficulty, and only two of us on the ward. Everyone…
Started by Farhana Akter4 replies144 views -
Care ethics has no convincing account of what we owe to strangers far away
I was a GP for thirty-four years and I am entirely persuaded that care is morally basic in the consulting room. What I'm not persuaded of is that it can be a whole ethics. The thesis: if moral obligation is grounded in…
Started by Alistair Gow5 replies252 views -
Mencius was unfair to Mozi: impartial care does not mean having no father
I'm writing a dissertation on the Later Mohist canons, and I've grown tired of how Mohism is introduced: through Mencius's insult. Mencius says that Yang Zhu's "each for himself" means having no ruler, and Mozi's impartial care means having no father, and…
Started by Chen Yuting5 replies236 views -
Should you care for everyone equally? Mozi and the first great argument about impartiality
Two thousand years before utilitarianism, Mohists and Confucians fought over whether love should have degrees. They framed the question better than we usually do.
Started by Chen Yuting0 replies146 views