Efficiency, Morality, and Rights: The Significance of 'Cleaning Up'

18 Pages Posted: 30 Dec 2021

See all articles by Thomas H Morawetz

Thomas H Morawetz

University of Connecticut - School of Law

Date Written: 1987

Abstract

The ultimate challenge in moral theory is to find a single criterion for moral judgment, a criterion that reconciles disparate moral intuitions and gives guidance in the solution of moral dilemmas. Such a criterion would have to be simultaneously descriptive and normative. It would have to fit and explain moral intuitions and at the same time represent a standard for correctness in moral judgment. Many contemporary writers despair of finding such a criterion and some argue that the task itself is impossible. According to Lloyd Cohen, even Richard Posner fears to tread the high ground of moral metatheory in his original formulation of the wealth maximization criterion.

Professor Cohen's article, A Justification of Social Wealth Maximization as a Rights Based Ethical Theory, is therefore remarkably ambitious. It aims to accomplish several jobs, including the development of an all-encompassing moral metatheory, with brief and efficient arguments. The arguments are imaginative as well as efficient.

Suggested Citation

Morawetz, Thomas H, Efficiency, Morality, and Rights: The Significance of 'Cleaning Up' (1987). Harvard Journal of Law and Public Policy, Vol. 10, No. 2, 1987, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3962313

Thomas H Morawetz (Contact Author)

University of Connecticut - School of Law ( email )

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