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I am an economist who wants to extend his philosophical horizon over the summer. I am looking for a constructive philosophical approach to counter utilitarianism. I feel that utilitarianism is often not satisfactory but I can't say exaxtly why. So far, my reading list consists of Kant's Groundwork and Rawls's Theory of Justice. What else would you recommend?
Accepted:
July 11, 2013

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Thomas Pogge
July 13, 2013 (changed July 13, 2013) Permalink

Here a few classics that shaped the debate when it was at its peak...

J.J.C. Smart and Bernard Williams: Utilitarianism: For and Against (Cambridge UP 1973).

Amartya Sen and Bernard Williams (eds.): Utilitarianism and Beyond (Cambridge 1982), esp. Rawls's essay.

Ronald Dworkin: “What is Equality? Part II: Equality of Resources” in Philosophy and Public Affairs 10/4 (1981), 283-345 (also in Ronald Dworkin: Sovereign Virtue (Harvard 2000)). http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0048-3915%28198123%2910%3A4%3C283%3AWIEP2E%3E2.0.CO%3B2-3

G.A. Cohen: “Equality of What? On Welfare, Goods, and Capabilities” in Martha Nussbaum and Amartya Sen (eds.): The Quality of Life (Oxford 1993).

Amartya Sen: “Evaluator Relativity and Consequential Evaluation,” in Philosophy and Public Affairs, 12/2 (1983), 113-32. http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0048-3915%28198321%2912%3A2%3C113%3AERACE%3E2.0.CO%3B2-U

Amartya Sen: Choice, Welfare, and Measurement (Harvard UP 1997, first 1982), chapters 4, 16.

Amartya Sen: On Ethics and Economics (Blackwell 1987).

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