Lives, Limbs, and Liver Spots: The Threshold Approach to Limited Aggregation

S. Matthew Liao, James Edgar Lim

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

Limited Aggregation is the view that when there are competing moral claims that demand our attention, we should sometimes satisfy the largest aggregate of claims, depending on the strength of the claims in question. In recent years, philosophers such as Patrick Tomlin and Alastair Norcross have argued that Limited Aggregation violates a number of rational choice principles such as Transitivity, Separability, and Contraction Consistency. Current versions of Limited Aggregation are what may be called Comparative Approaches because they involve assessing the relative strengths of various claims. In this paper, we offer a non-comparative version of Limited Aggregation, what we call the Threshold Approach. It states that there is a non-relative threshold that separates various claims. We demonstrate that the Threshold Approach does not violate rational choice principles such as Transitivity, Separability, and Contraction Consistency, and we show that potential concerns regarding such a view are surmountable.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)148-167
JournalUtilitas
Volume36
Issue number2
DOIs
StatePublished - Jun 1 2024

Keywords

  • limited aggregation
  • nonconsequentialism
  • threshold
  • transitivity

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Philosophy
  • Sociology and Political Science

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