Publication Type
Journal Article
Version
publishedVersion
Publication Date
10-2016
Abstract
It is common to distinguish moral rules, reasons, or values that are agent-relative from those that are agent-neutral. One can also distinguish moral rules, reasons, or values that are moment-relative from those that are moment-neutral. In this article, I introduce a third distinction that stands alongside these two distinctions—the distinction between moral rules, reasons, or values that are patient-relative and those that are patient-neutral. I then show how patient-relativity plays an important role in several moral theories, gives us a better understanding of agent-relativity and moment-relativity, and provides a novel objection to Derek Parfit’s “appeal to full relativity” argument.
Keywords
agent-relative, time-relative, moment-relative, patient-relative, appeal to full relativity, patient-relativity, patient-neutral, patient-neutrality
Discipline
Philosophy
Research Areas
Humanities
Publication
Ethics
Volume
127
Issue
1
First Page
06
Last Page
26
ISSN
0014-1704
Identifier
10.1086/687330
Publisher
University of Chicago Press: No Paid Open Access
Citation
HAMMERTON, Matthew.(2016). Patient-relativity in morality. Ethics, 127(1), 06-26.
Available at: https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/soss_research/2525
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.
Additional URL
https://doi.org/10.1086/687330