Abma, Aaron
(2024)
Good-For and Good-Simpliciter.
Doctoral Dissertation, University of Pittsburgh.
(Unpublished)
Abstract
A fundamental problem in practical philosophy is how to account for the value of everything that is valuable, in all its variety. According to a popular view I call good-for theory, something is valuable only if and because it is good for someone, in the sense of being beneficial to them. I offer a new argument against good-for theory by starting with the substantive claim that some symbolic acts—such as refusing to participate in harmful systems or standing for certain ideals—are valuable even when inefficacious and costly. Good-for theory cannot satisfactorily account for the value of these acts—they are at best disvaluable side-effects of beneficial dispositions or practices. I draw the positive conclusion that symbolic value is a pervasive but underappreciated dimension of value which we can best make sense of by positing that some things are good-simpliciter. I take the view that good-simpliciter is the value things possess such that they are worthy of love, and I develop novel accounts of wellbeing, virtue, and good action with good-simpliciter at their center. I propose that the highest human good is loving and being loved by what is good-simpliciter, that a good person is one whose loves are well-ordered according to what is good-simpliciter, and that a good act is one which befits such well-ordered love. In this way, I take foundational discussions about the nature of value to inform our answers to focal questions in normative ethics.
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Details
| Item Type: |
University of Pittsburgh ETD
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| Status: |
Unpublished |
| Creators/Authors: |
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| ETD Committee: |
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| Date: |
13 May 2024 |
| Date Type: |
Publication |
| Defense Date: |
25 March 2024 |
| Approval Date: |
13 May 2024 |
| Submission Date: |
1 April 2024 |
| Access Restriction: |
2 year -- Restrict access to University of Pittsburgh for a period of 2 years. |
| Number of Pages: |
247 |
| Institution: |
University of Pittsburgh |
| Schools and Programs: |
Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences > Philosophy |
| Degree: |
PhD - Doctor of Philosophy |
| Thesis Type: |
Doctoral Dissertation |
| Refereed: |
Yes |
| Uncontrolled Keywords: |
Value, good, goodness, ethics, benefit, love, good-for, good-simpliciter, absolute goodness, normativity, consequentialism, indirect consequentialism, wellbeing, welfare, welfarism, virtue, symbolic value, causal inefficacy |
| Date Deposited: |
13 May 2024 13:41 |
| Last Modified: |
13 May 2024 13:41 |
| URI: |
http://d-scholarship.pitt.edu/id/eprint/45960 |
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