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Full Description
People differ in terms of how morally deserving they are. And it is a good thing if people get what they deserve. Accordingly, it is important to work out an adequate theory of moral desert. But while certain aspects of such a theory have been frequently discussed in the philosophical literature, many others have been surprisingly neglected. For example, if it is indeed true that it is morally good for people to get what they deserve, does it always do the same amount of good when someone gets what they deserve? Or does it matter how deserving the person is? If we cannot give someone exactly what they deserve, is it better to give too much-or better to give too little? Does being twice as virtuous make you twice as deserving? And how are we to take into account the thought that what you deserve depends in part on how others are doing? The Geometry of Desert explores a number of these less familiar questions, using graphs to illustrate the various possible answers. The result is a more careful investigation into the nature of moral desert than has ever previously been offered, one that reveals desert to have a hidden complexity that most of us have failed to recognize.
Contents
Preface ; Acknowledgments ; A Note to the Reader ; 1. MORAL DESERT ; 1.1 A Familiar Thought ; 1.2 Some Familiar Questions ; 1.3 Skepticism ; 1.4 Intrinsic Value ; 1.5 Unfamiliar Questions ; PART I: NONCOMPARATIVE DESERT ; 2. FAULT FORFEITS FIRST ; 2.1 The Basic View ; 2.2 Pluralism ; 2.3 Extending the Account ; 2.4 Discount Rates and Multipliers ; 3. DESERT GRAPHS ; 3.1 Graphs ; 3.2 Varying Slopes ; 3.3 Rotation ; 3.4 Peaks ; 3.5 Multiple Peaks ; 3.6 Comparing Sides ; 3.7 Bell Motion ; 3.8 The Sym Mountain ; 3.9 Shift ; 4. SKYLINES ; 4.1 The Occupation of the X Axis ; 4.2 Constant Skylines ; 4.3 The V Shaped Skyline ; 4.4 Varieties of Desert ; 4.5 Taking Stock ; PART II: COMPLICATIONS AND ALTERNATIVES ; 5. OTHER SHAPES ; 5.1 Plateaus ; 5.2 Retributivism and Plateaus ; 5.3 Simple Straight Lines ; 5.4 Bent Lines ; 5.5 Curved Desert ; 5.6 Detailing Curved Desert ; 5.7 Curved Plateaus ; 6. PLACING PEAKS ; 6.1 The Mapping Function ; 6.2 Curved Mapping Functions ; 6.3 Revisiting the Sym Mountain ; 6.4 Revisiting the V Shaped Skyline ; 6.5 Further Constraints on the Skyline ; 6.6 The Logical Limits of Bell Motion ; 6.7 Disaggregation ; PART III: COMPARATIVE DESERT ; 7. THE RATIO VIEW ; 7.1 The Idea of Comparative Desert ; 7.2 Problems for the Ratio View ; 7.3 Optimism ; 7.4 The Impossibility Defense ; 7.5 Absolute Zero ; 8. SIMILAR OFFENSE ; 8.1 The Y Gap View ; 8.2 Reconsidering the Cases ; 8.3 More on the Y Gap Constraint ; 8.4 Percentages ; 8.5 A Fourth View ; 9. GRAPHING COMPARATIVE DESERT ; 9.1 Relative Advantage ; 9.2 Two Problems ; 9.3 Graphing the X Gap View ; 9.4 Motion Along the Y Axis ; 9.5 Graphing the Y Gap View ; 10. VARIATION ; 10.1 Comparative Bell Motion ; 10.2 Comparative Skylines ; 10.3 Moral Significance Again ; 10.4 Two More Possibilities ; 10.5 One Size Fits All ; 10.6 Sliding Up ; 11. GROUPS ; 11.1 Two Approaches ; 11.2 Size ; 11.3 Another Look ; 11.4 Adjusting the Graphs ; 11.5 Variable Steepness Reconsidered ; PART IV: DESERT ; 12. DESERT TAKEN AS A WHOLE ; 12.1 Partial Values ; 12.2 Open Questions ; 12.3 Rough Comparability ; 12.4 Another Series ; 12.5 Other Values ; 13. RESERVATIONS ; 13.1 Deontology ; 13.2 Methodology ; 13.3 Ideology ; Endnotes ; References ; Index
