{"product_id":"doing-the-best-we-can-fred-feldman-9789401085311","title":"Doing the Best We Can: An Essay in Informal Deontic Logic","description":"Several years ago I came across a marvelous little paper in which Hector-Neri Castaneda shows that standard versions of act utilitarian- l ism are formally incoherent. I was intrigued by his argument. It had long seemed to me that I had a firm grasp on act utilitarianism. Indeed, it had often seemed to me that it was the clearest and most attractive of normative theories. Yet here was a simple and relatively uncontrover- sial argument that showed, with only some trivial assumptions, that the doctrine is virtually unintelligible. The gist of Castaneda's argument is this: suppose we understand act utilitarianism to be the view that an act is obligatory if and only if its utility exceeds that of each alternative. Suppose it is obligatory for a certain person to perform an act with two parts - we can call it 'A \u0026amp; B'. Then, obviously enough, it is also obligatory for this person to perform the parts, A and B. If act utilitarianism were true, we appar- ently could infer that the utility of A \u0026amp; B is higher than that of A, and higher than that of B (because A \u0026amp; B is obligatory, and the other acts are alternatives to A \u0026amp; B).\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e Fred Feldman\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-10:\u003c\/b\u003e 9401085315\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-13:\u003c\/b\u003e 9789401085311\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e Springer\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eLanguage:\u003c\/b\u003e English\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 09\/27\/2011\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 246\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eFormat:\u003c\/b\u003e Paperback\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 0.82lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 9.21h x 6.14w x 0.55d","brand":"Fred Feldman","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":44761341067519,"sku":"9789401085311","price":109.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0662\/2982\/9887\/files\/img_927378fc-0009-4df3-8fd3-b7987e92f810.jpg?v=1706681053","url":"https:\/\/www.whiterainbookhouse.com\/products\/doing-the-best-we-can-fred-feldman-9789401085311","provider":"WR Book House","version":"1.0","type":"link"}