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Odwracanie ról : Odpowiedź na artykuł Krzysztofa Saji

Role Reversals : A Reply to Krzysztof Saja's "Thought Experiments and Utilitarianism"

Author

Summary, in English

In “Thought Experiments and Utilitarianism”, which is a comment on my “Utilitarianism by Way of Preference Change?”, Krzysztof Saja delineates three alternative ways in which one might interpret Richard Hare’s famous thought experiments involving role reversals. He suggests that each of them would underwrite Hare’s claim that moral deliberation transforms an interpersonal conflict of preferences into an intrapersonal one, which obtains between the deliberator’s own preferences. In this reply to Saja (“Role Reversals”), I discuss the three proposals in turn and argue that the first two do not solve the problem. The third one, which was already considered in my original paper, is based on Zeno Vendler’s suggestion that role reversals in moral thought-experiments are merely different ‘takes’ on one and the same real situation, as seen from different subjective perspectives. I argue that, in order to succeed in transforming interpersonal preference conflicts into intrapersonal ones, this proposal requires equating empathy with sympathy, which Hare would not be prepared to do.

Publishing year

2010

Language

Polish

Pages

61-68

Publication/Series

Analiza i Egzystencja : Czasopismo Filozoficzne

Volume

12

Document type

Journal article

Publisher

Szczecin University Press

Topic

  • Philosophy

Status

Published

ISBN/ISSN/Other

  • ISSN: 1734-9923