The Integrity Objection, Reloaded

International Journal of Philosophical Studies 21 (2):145-162 (2013)
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Abstract

Bernard Williams’ integrity objection poses a significant challenge to utilitarianism, which has largely been answered by utilitarians. This paper recasts the integrity objection to show that utilitarian agents could be committed to producing the overall best states of affairs and yet not positively act to bring them about. I introduce the ‘Moral Pinch Hitter’ – someone who performs actions at the bequest of another agent – to demonstrate that utilitarianism cannot distinguish between cases in which an agent maximizes utility by positively acting in response to her duty, and cases in which an agent fails morally by relying upon someone else to perform the obligatory act. The inability to distinguish among these cases establishes a new, reloaded integrity objection to utilitarianism: utilitarianism cannot explain why it would be wrong to have someone else make difficult moral decisions, and to act on those decisions, for me.

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Jill Hernandez
Texas Tech University

Citations of this work

Überforderungseinwände in der Ethik.Lukas Naegeli - 2022 - Berlin/Boston: De Gruyter.
Integrity.Damian Cox - 2008 - Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
Introduction: The Ethics and Politics of Disagreement.Maria Baghramian - 2023 - International Journal of Philosophical Studies 31 (3):267-278.

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References found in this work

Utilitarianism: For and Against.J. J. C. Smart & Bernard Williams - 1973 - Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Edited by Bernard Williams.
The limits of morality.Shelly Kagan - 1989 - New York: Oxford University Press.
Consequentialism.Walter Sinnott-Armstrong - 2019 - Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
Alienation, consequentialism, and the demands of morality.Peter Railton - 1984 - Philosophy and Public Affairs 13 (2):134-171.
Virtue, Vice, and Value.Thomas Hurka - 2001 - New York, USA: Oxford University Press.

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