Philosophy, et cetera 2008-08-12

Moral Demands and Compliance Effects

The concept of 'moral demands' is a familiar one: it concerns the sacrifice a moral theory asks us to make, i.e. the expected loss of welfare from conforming to its requirements, compared to how well-off we might otherwise expect to become. But Liam Murphy, in his Moral Demands in Nonideal Theory, argues that we should also consider the costs and benefits that accrue to us from others' compliance with the moral theory. This yields a broader concept -- that of "compliance effects" (p.52).Murphy points out that for pretty much any (remotely plausible) moral theory, we'd be a whole lot worse off if no-one was complying with its requirements. It starts to look odd to condemn a theory as 'too demanding', then, given that the compliance effect on us is a net positive. One might turn to a comparative conception of ...

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