Description
Book SynopsisWe are partial to people with whom we share special relationships--if someone is your child, parent, or friend, you wouldn''t treat them as you would a stranger. But is partiality justified, and if so, why? Partiality presents a theory of the reasons supporting special treatment within special relationships and explores the vexing problem of how we might reconcile the moral value of these relationships with competing claims of impartial morality.
Simon Keller explains that in order to understand why we give special treatment to our family and friends, we need to understand how people come to matter in their own rights. Keller first presents two main accounts of partiality: the projects view, on which reasons of partiality arise from the place that people take within our lives and our commitments, and the relationships view, on which relationships themselves contain fundamental value or reason-giving force. Keller then argues that neither view is satisfactory beca
Trade Review
"[T]his is an excellent and engaging book."--Choice "Simon Keller's slim but lively book Partiality is a novel and original attempt to provide a justification for limited partiality within an otherwise impartial moral theory."--Michael Gibb, Oxford Journals "Keller's treatment of partiality is original and valuable for getting a clearer picture on one's own commitments, both in the social and the philosophical meaning."--Simon Derpmann, Ethical Theory and Moral Practise
Table of Contents
Preface vii Chapter 1 Special Relationships and Special Reasons 1 Chapter 2 My Projects 31 Chapter 3 Our Relationship 45 Chapter 4 Your Value 78 Chapter 5 My Response to Your Value 113 References 157 Index 161
