Weighing goods: equality, uncertainty and time

John Broome

Cambridge MA, 1991

Abstract

This study uses techniques from economics to illuminate fundamental questions in ethics, particularly in the foundations of utilitarianism. Topics considered include the nature of teleological ethics, the foundations of decision theory, the value of equality and the moral significance of a person′s continuing identity through time.

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Quotes from this work

The Pareto principle is, I think, untrue. It is an ill-begotten hybrid. It tries to link individual preferences with general good. But one should either link individual preferences with what should come about, as the democratic principle does, or individual good with general good, as the principle of general good does. The hybrid is no viable.

Pareto principle · aggregation · principle of personal good
p. 159