Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-gvvz8 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-29T04:32:17.321Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

HAUSMAN AND MCPHERSON ON WELFARE ECONOMICS AND PREFERENCE SATISFACTION THEORIES OF WELFARE: A CRITICAL NOTE

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 February 2015

Alexander F. Sarch
Alexander F. Sarch*
Affiliation:
Department of Philosophy, University of Southern California, 3709 Trousdale Parkway, Los Angeles, CA 90089-0451, USA. Email: [email protected]. URL: https://sites.google.com/site/alexsarch/
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract:

Hausman and McPherson defend welfare economics by claiming that even if welfare does not consist in preference satisfaction, preferences still provide good, if fallible, evidence of welfare. I argue that this strategy does not yet fully solve the problems for welfare economics stemming from the preference satisfaction theory of welfare. More work is needed to show that our self-interested preferences are sufficiently reliable, or in some other sense our best, evidence of well-being. Thus, my aim is to identify the challenges that remain and clarify what additional work is needed before Hausman and McPherson's defence of welfare economics succeeds.

Keywords

WelfareWell-beingWelfare economicsPreferenceSelf-interest
Type
Articles
Information
Economics & Philosophy , Volume 31 , Issue 1 , March 2015 , pp. 141 - 159
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Bradley, B. 2007. A paradox for some theories of welfare. Philosophical Studies 133: 45–53.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brink, D. O. 1989. Moral Realism and the Foundations of Ethics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Bykvist, K. 2003, The moral relevance of past preferences. In Time and Ethics: Essays at the Intersection, ed. Dyke, H., 115–136. Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers.Google Scholar
Bykvist, K. 2007. Comments on Dennis McKerlie's ‘Rational Choice, Changes in Values Over Time, and Well-Being’. Utilitas: A Journal of Utilitarian Studies 19: 73–77.Google Scholar
Darwall, S. 2002. Welfare and Rational Care. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Feldman, F. 2004. Pleasure and the Good Life: Concerning the Nature, Varieties, and Plausibility of Hedonism. Oxford: Clarendon Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Griffin, J. 1986. Well-Being: Its Meaning, Measurement, and Moral Importance. Oxford: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar
Hausman, D. and McPherson, M.. 2009. Preference satisfaction and welfare economics. Economics and Philosophy 25: 1–25.Google Scholar
Haybron, D. 2007. Well-being and virtue. Journal of Ethics and Social Philosophy 2: 1–27.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Heathwood, C. 2005. The problem of defective desires. Australasian Journal of Philosophy 83: 487–504.Google Scholar
Heathwood, C. 2011. Preferentism and self-sacrifice. Pacific Philosophical Quarterly 92: 18–38.Google Scholar
Hurka, T. 1993. Perfectionism. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Kagan, S. 1998. Normative Ethics. Boulder, CO: Westview Press.Google Scholar
Kaplow, L. and Shavell, S.. 2002. Fariness Versus Welfare. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Kraut, R. H. 1994. Desire and the Human Good. Proceedings and Addresses of the American Philosophical Association 68: 39–54.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Overvold, M. 1984. Morality, self-interest, and reasons for being moral. Philosophy and Phenomenological Research 44: 493–507.Google Scholar
Parfit, D. 1984. What makes a person's life go best? In Reasons and Persons, 493–502. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Rawls, J. 1971. A Theory of Justice. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Sumner, L.W. 1996. Welfare, Happiness, and Ethics. New York, NY: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar