Patient-relativity in morality

• Main Author: HAMMERTON, Matthew
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Institutional Knowledge at Singapore Management University 2016
• Subjects: agent-relative; time-relative; moment-relative; patient-relative; appeal to full relativity; patient-relativity; patient-neutral; patient-neutrality; Philosophy
• Online Access: https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/soss_research/2525; https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/context/soss_research/article/3782/viewcontent/687330.pdf
• Institution: Singapore Management University

It is common to distinguish moral rules, reasons, or values that are agent-relative from those that are agent-neutral. One can also distinguish moral rules, reasons, or values that are moment-relative from those that are moment-neutral. In this article, I introduce a third distinction that stands alongside these two distinctions—the distinction between moral rules, reasons, or values that are patient-relative and those that are patient-neutral. I then show how patient-relativity plays an important role in several moral theories, gives us a better understanding of agent-relativity and moment-relativity, and provides a novel objection to Derek Parfit’s “appeal to full relativity” argument.