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Title: Morality, Rules, and Consequences by Brad Hooker, Elinor Mason, Dale E. Miller ISBN: 0742509702 Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield (Non NBN) Pub. Date: 19 July, 2000 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $29.00

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Average Customer Rating: 5

Rating: 5
Summary: a good collection
Comment: These essays are would be of interest to those interested in utilitarian/consequentialist ethical theories, and those interested in ethical theory in general since some of the issues dealt with aren't specific to util/consequentialism.

David Lyon's is especially interesting. He argues that since there are so many ways utility can be 'measured' (long term, short-term, utility of acts, rules, motives, etc.) and utilitarianism doesn't supply any principled answer to which measurement is *the* relevant measurement, utilitarianism is an indeterminate doctrine.

It seems to me that a lot of these essays are founded on the simple mistaken conflation of workable decision making proceedures and criteria for actions' moral status. If the basic utilitarian idea is that intrinsic goods should be maximized, then people should think about moral questions in whatever way will maximize the production of intrinsic goods. If following certain rules will do this (and following the rules isn't *intrinsically* good, let's suppose), then fine; if not, then fine too. Once one has accepted utilitarianism, it's a largely empirical question how one should think about moral issues, not a philosophical one.