Incommensurability, Incomparability, and Practical Reason / Edition 1

by Ruth Chang

Overview

Can quite different values be rationally weighed against one another? Can the value of one thing always be ranked as greater than, equal to, or less than the value of something else? If the answer to these questions is no, then in what areas do we find commensurability and comparability unavailable? And what are the implications for moral and legal decision making? In this book, some of the sharpest minds in philosophy struggle with these questions.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780674447561
Publisher:	Harvard University Press
Publication date:	01/05/1998
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	384
Product dimensions:	6.12(w) x 9.25(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

Ruth Chang is Assistant Professor of Philosophy, Rutgers University–New Brunswick.

Table of Contents

Incommensurability, Incomparability, and Practical Reasoning: An Introduction
by Ruth Chang

Incommensurability: What's the Problem
by James Griffin

Incommensurability: Four Proposals
by David Wiggins

Is Incommensurability Vagueness?
by John Broome

Practical Reason and Incommensurable Goods
by Elizabeth Anderson

Incommensurability and Agency
by Joseph Raz

Comparability, Value, and Choice
by Donald Regan

Incommensurability and Practical Reasoning
by Elijah Millgram

Comparing the Incomparable: Tradeoffs and Sacrifices
by Steven Lukes

Abstract and Concrete Value: Plurality, Conflict, and Maximization
by Michael Stocker

Leading a Life
by Charles Taylor

Commensuration and Public Reason
by John Finnis

Incommensurability and Kinds of Valuation: Some Applications in Law
by Cass Sunstein

Editorial Reviews

[Incommensurability, Incomparablility, and Practical Reason] is not only an extraordinary collection of all-stars, it contains original papers by just about all the all-stars that have been most insightful in helping us think about issues of incommensurability...Everyone with a real interest in incommensurability must closely study this book.

Philosophical Quarterly - David Sobel

[Incommensurability, Incomparablility, and Practical Reason] is not only an extraordinary collection of all-stars, it contains original papers by just about all the all-stars that have been most insightful in helping us think about issues of incommensurability...Everyone with a real interest in incommensurability must closely study this book.
— David Sobel

Philosophical Quarterly