What We Owe to Each Other [Paperback]

T. M. Scanlon (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 15, 2000 | ISBN-10: 067400423X | ISBN-13: 978-0674004238

How do we judge whether an action is morally right or wrong? If an action is wrong, what reason does that give us not to do it? Why should we give such reasons priority over our other concerns and values? In this book, T. M. Scanlon offers new answers to these questions, as they apply to the central part of morality that concerns what we owe to each other. According to his contractualist view, thinking about right and wrong is thinking about what we do in terms that could be justified to others and that they could not reasonably reject. He shows how the special authority of conclusions about right and wrong arises from the value of being related to others in this way, and he shows how familiar moral ideas such as fairness and responsibility can be understood through their role in this process of mutual justification and criticism.

Scanlon bases his contractualism on a broader account of reasons, value, and individual well-being that challenges standard views about these crucial notions. He argues that desires do not provide us with reasons, that states of affairs are not the primary bearers of value, and that well-being is not as important for rational decision-making as it is commonly held to be. Scanlon is a pluralist about both moral and non-moral values. He argues that, taking this plurality of values into account, contractualism allows for most of the variability in moral requirements that relativists have claimed, while still accounting for the full force of our judgments of right and wrong.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

Scanlon offers a sharp challenge to much contemporary moral philosophy. Most philosophers think that agreements between people play only a subsidiary role in moral theory. What is right or wrong is independent of what people accept. Agreements rest on morality; they do not underlie it. Scanlon dissents. In his conception, morality depends on principles it would not be reasonable for people to reject. These agreements do not derive from further moral facts. Scanlon also challenges the view that desires give reasons for action, leveling heavy artillery at the contrary position of Bernard Williams. The originality, scope, and careful argument of this work mark it as an indispensable book.?David Gordon, Bowling Green State Univ., OH
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Review

[Scanlon's] discussions are deep and honest, and they illuminate many key concepts of moral philosophy: well being, trust, friendship, loyalty, promises. It would be--and will be--the business of more than one doctoral thesis to assess his success.
--Simon Blackburn (New York Times Book Review )

T. M. Scanlon is a scrupulous, astringent, relentlessly exact writer, without any of the fuss and flutter that come from the desire to please. His book is pure philosophy, unadulterated.
--Stuart Hampshire (New York Review of Books )

Thomas Scanlon's understanding of [morality's] complexity and of its sources in the variety of human relations and values is one of the virtues of this illuminating book. To say that it is long awaited would be an understatement. Scanlon has been one of the most influential contributors to moral and political philosophy for years...The appearance of his first book, a complex and powerful argument for the moral theory first sketched in his essay Contractualism and Utilitarianism, is a philosophical event.
--Thomas Nagel (London Review of Books )

I rejoice in the appearance of this magnificent book. It is not often that a work on ethics opens up a novel, arresting position on matters that have been debated for thousands of years. And What We Owe To Each Other does precisely that.
--Philip Pettit (Times Literary Supplement )

Mr. Scanlon has produced a compelling explanation of the moral thinking behind such duties as truth-telling and promise-keeping, and for this he deserves great praise.
--Douglas A. Sylva (Washington Times )

What do we owe to each other? What obligations of honesty, respect, trust and consideration exist between people? That is the deep and ancient question Harvard philosopher T. M. Scanlon attempts to illuminate in this closely argued book. Its success as an argument illustrates why moral philosophy should matter...Scanlon is a careful and precise thinker, a leading figure in contemporary philosophy, and here he is working at the height of his considerable powers.
--Mark Kingwell, (Globe and Mail )

Scanlon presents the most complete statement to date of his version of 'contractualism'...He treats as basic the notion that we have reason to want to live with others and are motivated to seek agreement on a set of principles for the general regulation of behavior that others similarly motivated could not reasonably reject...He carefully addresses many concerns that have been raised about his and similar versions of contractualism; anyone discussing contractualism will have to consider his account.
--D. R. C. Reed (Choice )

Scanlon offers a sharp challenge to much contemporary moral philosophy. Most philosophers think that agreements between people play only a subsidiary role in moral theory. What is right or wrong is independent of what people accept. Agreements rest on morality; they do not underlie it. Scanlon dissents. In his conception, morality depends on principles it would not be reasonable for people to reject. These agreements do not derive from further moral facts. Scanlon also challenges the view that desires give reasons for action, leveling heavy artillery at the contrary position of Bernard Williams. The originality, scope, and careful argument of this work mark it as an indispensable book.
--David Gordon (Library Journal )

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 432 pages
• Publisher: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press (November 15, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 067400423X
• ISBN-13: 978-0674004238
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.1 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #351,269 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

37 of 51 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Excellent, careful, except in crucial places. Buy it, still., September 30, 1999

By 

James Ryan - See all my reviews

This review is from: What We Owe to Each Other (Hardcover)

Fabulous philosophizing, five stars, were it not for the obvious alternative theory that when we say "I have no desire to take bitter medicine", we mean "no desire that I can palpably feel at the forefront of consciousness, even though I remember that I have a very strong desire to take the medicine because I strongly desire to get well"; and that when we say "the mere fact that I have a desire to get a new computer is no reason to get one (since I don't need a new one, old one's fine, etc.)", we mean "no reason to speak of" since that desire, although a reason, is vastly outweighed by my other desires. (E.g. we say that there's "no chance" the team will win - we mean "none worth mentioning", not literally "none"). With these and similarly disappointing arguments, Scanlon concludes that desires have only a negligible role in practical reasoning. But clearly practical reasoning is a matter of determining what the most coherent set of one's strongest desires decrees. Scanlon doesn't even mention that alternative theory. Also, the contract theory he offers is supposed to take fairness into account when deciding what counts as a reasonable contract and to do this without circularity. Scanlon says he'll get out of the circle (what is right in terms of what is a reasonable contract, what is a reasonable contract in terms of what is right), but he never gets out. So smart, so close, and yet so far, from 5 stars. Still, it's head and shoulders above most books in moral theory this decade, (so careful and painstaking in many places).

10 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Attractive contractualism, April 28, 2005

By 

Arnaeus (Australia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: What We Owe to Each Other (Paperback)

A stunning text - beautifully written and argued; very difficult to poke holes in it (which is not surprising given the big name philosopher friends who commented on drafts). I am most attracted to the chapter on values: it is a brave attempt to put consequentialists on a leash. Does Scanlon succeed? Some consequentialists - namely, the Australian philosopher Philip Pettit- would say no, not because Scanlon's account of the complexity of values is false, but because he overestimates what consequentialists must be committed to. Nonetheless, Scanlon's non-consequentialist axiology remains an attractive alternative to other deontological theories (eg. Kamm). All of this aside, Scanlon's book is an excellent example of sound analytical philosophy delivered with style. It is worth reading just to get a taste of the best in this kind of philosophising.

7 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A precious book, June 18, 2003

By 

Jonatas Machado (Coimbra Portugal) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: What We Owe to Each Other (Hardcover)

This book lies somehow between contratualism and discourse theory, since it rests on contractarian assumptions but concentrates in the processes of reason giving between people that are willing to abide to principles that could be so justified. It has family resenblances with the works of authors such as John Rawls, Brian Barry, Jurgen Habermas, and Robert Alexy. It is based on a distinction between religious morality in a stric sense and the morality of what we owe to each other as free and equal persons fully capable of giving reasons for our behavior. It is a precious book for those willing to have a deeper understanding of the normative implications of freedom, equality, responsability and reciprocity. A precious book.