The Significance of Value Additivity

Erkenntnis 87 (6):2547-2570 (2022)
  Copy   BIBTEX

Abstract

Whether value is “additive,” that is, whether the value of a whole must equal the sum of the values of its parts, is widely thought to have significant implications in ethics. For example, additivity rules out “organic unities,” and is presupposed by “contrast arguments.” This paper reconsiders the significance of value additivity. The main thesis defended is that it is significant only for a certain class of “mereologies”, roughly, those in which both wholes and parts are “complete”, in the sense that they can exist independently. For example, value additivity is significant in the case of a mereology of material objects, but not in the case of a mereology of propositions.

Other Versions

No versions found

Links

PhilArchive



    Upload a copy of this work     Papers currently archived: 103,388

External links

Setup an account with your affiliations in order to access resources via your University's proxy server

Through your library

Similar books and articles

Axiological atomism.Graham Oddie - 2001 - Australasian Journal of Philosophy 79 (3):313 – 332.
Organic Unities.Chris Heathwood - 2013 - In Hugh LaFollette, The International Encyclopedia of Ethics. Hoboken, NJ: Blackwell.
Regan’s Lifeboat Case and the Additive Assumption.Daniel Kary - 2020 - Journal of Agricultural and Environmental Ethics 33 (1):127-143.
Two kinds of organic unity.Thomas Hurka - 1998 - The Journal of Ethics 2 (4):299-320.
Rejecting an Additive Solution to Regan’s Lifeboat Case.Daniel Kary - 2024 - Journal of Applied Animal Ethics Research 6 (1):53-72.
On the Nature, Existence and Significance of Organic Unities.Michael J. Zimmerman - 2015 - Journal of Ethics and Social Philosophy 8 (3):1-25.

Analytics

Added to PP
2020-09-14

Downloads
90 (#240,824)

6 months
12 (#218,371)

Historical graph of downloads
How can I increase my downloads?

Author's Profile

Campbell Brown
London School of Economics

Citations of this work

No citations found.

Add more citations

References found in this work

Principia ethica.George Edward Moore - 1903 - Mineola, N.Y.: Dover Publications. Edited by Thomas Baldwin.
Principia Ethica.G. E. Moore - 1903 - Revue de Métaphysique et de Morale 13 (3):7-9.
Principia Ethica.George Edward Moore - 1903 - International Journal of Ethics 14 (3):377-382.
Active and passive euthanasia.James Rachels - 2000 - In Steven M. Cahn, Exploring Philosophy: An Introductory Anthology. New York, NY, United States of America: Oxford University Press USA.

View all 23 references / Add more references