Well-being, Needs, and Human Rights

List of Readings

Appetizers:

R. Crisp. 2008. Well-being. In Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.

J. Griffin. 2002. A note on measuring well-being. In Summary measures of population health: concepts, ethics, measurement and applications. C.J.L. Murray, et al., eds. Geneva: World Health Organization: 129-133.

Peter Railton's Lecture

Required:

P. Railton. Rational Desire and Rationality in Desire: An Unapologetic Defense. Preliminary draft of October 2008—please do not circulate without permission. (Get the handout for the talk here: Rationality in Belief, Desire, and Action - An Integrated Account.)

Recommended:

P. Railton. 2004. How to Engage Reason: The Problem of Regress. In Reason and value: themes from the moral philosophy of Joseph Raz. R.J. Wallace, et al., eds. Oxford: Clarendon Press: 176-201.

P. Railton. Forthcoming. “Practical Competence and Fluent Agency”. In Practical Reason. D. Sobel  and S. Wall, eds. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Deryck Beyleveld's Lecture

Required:

D. Beyelveld and G. Bos. The Foundational Role of the Principle of Instrumental Reason in Gewirth's Argument for the Principle of Generic Consistency: A Response to Andrew Chitty. King's Law Journal  Vol. 20/1 2009, 1-20. 

Recommended:

on Kant, and on dialectically contingent arguments

D. Beyleveld and R. Brownsword. 2001. Human Dignity in Bioethics and Biolaw. Oxford University Press, Chapters 4 and 5.

on applying the principle of generic consistency (and dialectically contingent arguments)

D. Beyleveld and R. Brownsword. 2007. Consent in the Law. Hart Publishing: Oxford, Chapter 2.

Krister Bykvist's Lecture

Required:

K. Bykvist. Can unstable preferences provide a stable standard of well-being?. An updated version of the previously posted paper.

Recommended:

K. Bykvist. 'What are desires good for? Towards a coherent endorsement theory', Ratio, Vol. XIX no 3, (September 2006).

K. Bykvist. 'Sumner on Desires and Well-Being', Canadian Journal of Philosophy, vol. 32,
no 4, Dec, 2002.