Abstract

Negativities are limitations or deprivations of life or some other condition highly valued by human beings. Death, suicide, abortion, war, crime, punishment, illness, perversion, inequality, and waste are negativities to which Professor Margolis devotes separate chapters. Although Margolis believes that moral judgments on these negativities must satisfy certain conceptual constraints to be rationally coherent, he denies that any one judgment can be deemed solely correct because conflicting ones, arising from different coherent ideologies, can equally satisfy these constraints. The moral philosopher’s task is not to search for correct solutions, but to discover the constraints that govern a particular issue and, thereby, provide a criterion of minimum rationality which every conviction on the issue must satisfy. In each chapter, Margolis illustrates how the demand that moral convictions satisfy certain conceptual requirements can eliminate untenable convictions without ending all disputes on an issue. In discussing inequality, for example, Margolis argues that some types of preferential treatment are indefensible, but others are immune to attack; inequalities supported by a particular ideology can be attacked only from the vantage point of a competing ideology. Similarly, Margolis stresses that certain moral views on abortion stem from antecedent, culturally based commitments. He argues that it is impossible to determine on objective grounds whether a fetus that will be born with permanent crippling defects should be aborted; different convictions on the issue reflect different ideological commitments. Both Margolis’ analyses of particular moral issues and his conception of the proper task of ethical theory are original and merit serious attention.—M.G.