Review of Ted Lockhart, *Moral Uncertainty and Its Consequences*

Abstract

This article reviews Ted Lockhart’s Moral Uncertainty and Its Consequences, the first sustained discussion of action under uncertainty of the kind where one is not sure which moral theory is right. The author of the review begins by summarizing Lockhart’s main line of argument, which concludes that we ought to maximize “expected moral rightness” when acting under moral uncertainty. The reviewer then offers some critical remarks, including objections to Lockhart’s “Principle of Equity among Moral Theories” (PEMT). He argues that PEMT is implausible since it requires treating moral theories equally even when they have different amounts of rightness at stake in a given situation. The review also raises questions about how to represent supererogationist theories and theories involving lexical priorities within Lockhart’s framework. The review concludes that Moral Uncertainty and Its Consequences is a generally well argued and convincing book that opens up a fascinating new debate in moral philosophy and casts new light on several existing debates.– AI-generated abstract.