How Morality Becomes Demanding Cost vs. Difficulty and Restriction |
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Authors: | Marcel van Ackeren |
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Affiliation: | 1. Mansfield College, University of Oxford, Oxford, UKmarcel.vanackeren@philosophy.ox.ac.uk |
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Abstract: | ABSTRACTThe standard view of demandingness understands demandingness exclusively as a matter of costs to the agent. The paper discusses whether the standard view must be given up because we should think of demandingness as a matter of difficulty or restriction of options. I will argue that difficulty can indeed increase demandingness, but only insofar as it leads to further costs. As to restrictions of options, I will show that confinement can become costly and thus increase demandingness in three ways, by prohibiting actions that the agent wants to perform in order to promote his well-being, by limiting the development of future preferences and projects and also by making the society less open. The paper thus defends a new variant of the standard view by arguing that difficulty and restrictions of options can increase the demandingness of morality on grounds of being costly. |
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Keywords: | Sacrifice demandingness difficulty costs willpower restriction of options |
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