Distinguishing agent-relativity from agent neutrality

• Main Author: HAMMERTON, Matthew
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Institutional Knowledge at Singapore Management University 2018
• Subjects: agent-neutral; agent-relative; moral rules; ensuring; maximizing; Sociology; Theory and Philosophy
• Online Access: https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/soss_research/2504; https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/context/soss_research/article/3761/viewcontent/Distinguishing_Agent_Relativity_from_Agent_Neutrality.pdf
• Institution: Singapore Management University

The agent-relative/agent-neutral distinction is one of the most important incontemporary moral theory. Yet providing an adequate formal account of it hasproven to be difficult. In this article I defend a new formal account of the distinction,one that avoids various problems faced by other accounts. My account is based on aninfluential account of the distinction developed by McNaughton and Rawling. I arguethat their approach is on the right track but that it succumbs to two seriousobjections. I then show how to formulate a new account that follows the key insightsof McNaughton and Rawling’s approach yet avoids the two objections.