The Problem with Yuppie Ethics

Utilitas 30 (1):32-53 (2018)
  Copy   BIBTEX

Abstract

How much personal partiality do agent-centred prerogatives allow? If there are limits on what morality may demand of us, then how much does it permit? For a view Henry Shue has termed ‘yuppie ethics’, the answer to both questions is a great deal. It holds that rich people are morally permitted to spend large amounts of money on themselves, even when this means leaving those living in extreme poverty unaided. Against this view, I demonstrate that personal permissions are limited in certain ways: their strength must be continuous with the reasons put forward to explain their presence inside morality to begin with. Typically, these reasons include non-alienation and the preservation of personal integrity. However, when personal costs do not result in alienation or violate integrity, they are things that morality can routinely demand of us. Yuppie ethics therefore runs afoul of what I call the ‘continuity constraint’.

Other Versions

No versions found

Links

PhilArchive



    Upload a copy of this work     Papers currently archived: 101,854

External links

Setup an account with your affiliations in order to access resources via your University's proxy server

Through your library

Similar books and articles

Professional ethics and personal integrity.Tim Dare & W. Bradley Wendel (eds.) - 2010 - Newcastle: Cambridge Scholars Press.
Impartiality and the Personal Point of View.Gary Madison Powers - 1988 - Dissertation, University of Oxford (United Kingdom)
The Ethics of Partiality.Benjamin Lange - 2022 - Philosophy Compass 1 (8):1-15.
Morality, Schmorality.Kevin C. Klement - 2023 - Personal Homepage.
Compunction, Second-Personal Morality, and Moral Reasons.Dale E. Miller - 2018 - Ethical Theory and Moral Practice 21 (3):719-733.
Relationships as Reasons.Nicholas Gabriel Kolodny - 2003 - Dissertation, University of California, Berkeley
Why Worry about Business Ethics?R. E. Ewin - 1992 - Perth and Melbourne: Institute of Public Affairs.

Analytics

Added to PP
2017-03-14

Downloads
142 (#158,754)

6 months
13 (#272,256)

Historical graph of downloads
How can I increase my downloads?

Author's Profile

Citations of this work

Against “Democratizing AI”.Johannes Himmelreich - 2023 - AI and Society 38 (4):1333-1346.
Why Do We Disagree about our Obligations to the Poor?Peter Seipel - 2019 - Ethical Theory and Moral Practice 22 (1):121-136.
Effective Altruism and Extreme Poverty.Fırat Akova - 2020 - Dissertation, University of Warwick

Add more citations

References found in this work

Alienation, consequentialism, and the demands of morality.Peter Railton - 1984 - Philosophy and Public Affairs 13 (2):134-171.
Moral saints.Susan Wolf - 1982 - Journal of Philosophy 79 (8):419-439.
Evolutionary Debunking Arguments.Guy Kahane - 2010 - Noûs 45 (1):103-125.
Normative Ethics.Shelly Kagan - 1998 - Mind 109 (434):373-377.

View all 14 references / Add more references