Modelling the Moral Dimension of Decisions

Noûs 44 (3):503-529 (2010)
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Abstract

In this paper we explore the connections between ethics and decision theory. In particular, we consider the question of whether decision theory carries with it a bias towards consequentialist ethical theories. We argue that there are plausible versions of the other ethical theories that can be accommodated by “standard” decision theory, but there are also variations of these ethical theories that are less easily accommodated. So while “standard” decision theory is not exclusively consequentialist, it is not necessarily ethically neutral. Moreover, even if our decision-theoretic models get the right answers vis-`a-vis morally correct action, the question remains as to whether the motivation for the non-consequentialist theories and the psychological processes of the agents who subscribe to those ethical theories are lost or poorly represented in the resulting models.

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Author Profiles

Mark Colyvan
University of Sydney
Katie Steele
Australian National University
Damian Cox
Bond University

Citations of this work

Belief, credence, and norms.Lara Buchak - 2014 - Philosophical Studies 169 (2):1-27.
Consequentializing.Douglas W. Portmore - forthcoming - Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
Decision theory and de minimis risk.Martin Smith - forthcoming - Erkenntnis:1-24.

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References found in this work

The Foundations of Statistics.Leonard J. Savage - 1954 - Wiley Publications in Statistics.
The Logic of Decision.Richard C. Jeffrey - 1965 - New York, NY, USA: University of Chicago Press.
On Virtue Ethics.Rosalind Hursthouse - 1999 - Oxford: Oxford University Press.
The Right and the Good. Some Problems in Ethics.W. D. Ross - 1930 - Oxford: Clarendon Press. Edited by Philip Stratton-Lake.
Practical philosophy.Immanuel Kant - 1996 - New York: Cambridge University Press. Edited by Mary J. Gregor.

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