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On Millian Discontinuities

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Author

Editor

  • Wlodek Rabinowicz
  • Toni Rønnow-Rasmussen

Summary, in English

Suppose one sets up a sequence of less-and-less valuable objects such that each object in the sequence is only marginally worse than its immediate predecessor. Could one in this way arrive at something that is dramatically inferior to the point of departure? It has been claimed that if there is a radical value difference between the objects at each end of the sequence, then at some point there must be a corresponding radical difference between the adjacent elements. The underlying picture seems to be that a radical gap cannot be scaled by a series of steps, if none of the steps itself is radical. We show that this picture is incorrect on a stronger interpretation of value superiority, but correct on a weaker one. Thus, the conclusion we reach is that, in some sense at least, abrupt breaks in such decreasing sequences cannot be avoided, but that such unavoidable breaks are less drastic than it has been suggested.

Publishing year

2003

Language

English

Pages

1-8

Publication/Series

Patterns of Value - Essays on Formal Axiology and Value Analysis

Volume

1

Document type

Book chapter

Publisher

Department of Philosophy, Lund University

Topic

  • Philosophy

Status

Published

ISBN/ISSN/Other

  • ISSN: 1404-3718