Abstract

This work grounds moral and poltical philosophy in the requirements of a well-functioning society, exploring the reasons an individual may have for helping to uphold such a society rather than looking to the morality of others. A work in the tradition of Hume, Smith, Mill, von Mises, Hayek and Hazlitt, it expounds a rules or indirect version of utilitarianism. It reviews criticisms of utilitarianism in detail, as well as alternative grounds of ethics including contractarianism, rights-based doctrines, and appeals to specific intuitions. Yeager brings the insights of economics to bear on a field usually dominated by philosophers and theologians.