L W Sumner
Biographic Data
| ID | 1104394 |
|---|---|
| NAME | L W Sumner |
| GIVEN NAMES | L W |
| FAMILY NAME | Sumner |
| SIGNATURE | SUMNER L W |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Toronto |
| VERIFIED | No |
| TOTAL WORKS | 26 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 7 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 26 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1969 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2006 |
| H-INDEX | 2 |
Utility and Capability
When Amartya Sen defends his capability theory of well-being he contrasts it with the utility theory advocated by the classical utilitarians, including John Stuart Mill. Yet a closer examination of the two theories reveals that they are much more similar than they appear. Each theory can be interpreted in either a subjective or an objective way. When both are interpreted subjectively the differences between them are slight, and likewise for the o…
Living in the Dragon's Shadow” Fathers' Experiences of a Child's Life-Limiting Illness
Grounded theory methods were used to study the experiences of 8 bereaved fathers whose children received care in a home-based hospice program. In-depth, unstructured interviews were audiotaped, transcribed, and coded for themes and categories. Every aspect of fathers' lives was affected by their experiences, which were described in metaphoric terms as living in a dragon's shadow. Fathers dealt with life in the dragon's shadow by battling the drag…
Welfare, Happiness, and Ethics
Wayne Sumner presents an original theory of the nature and philosophical importance of welfare or well-being. He argues, against currently dominant rival views, that welfare is closely connected to happiness or life satisfaction, and that it is the only basis for value ethics.
Welfare, Happiness, and Ethics
Why the Numbers Count
An abstract is not available for this content so a preview has been provided. Please use the Get access link above for information on how to access this content
The Subjectivity of Welfare
Perfectionism
Welfare, Happiness, and Pleasure
Time and philosophical fashion have not been kind to hedonism. After flourishing for three centuries or so in its native empiricist habitat, it has latterly all but disappeared from the scene. Does it now merit even passing attention, for other than nostalgic purposes? Like endangered species, discredited ideas do sometimes manage to make a comeback. Is hedonism due for a revival of this sort? Perhaps it is overly optimistic to think that it coul…
Naturalism and Rationality.
A distinguished group of scholars met at the State University of New York at Buffalo to share their thoughts on the nature of humans as animals. The result is this compelling collection of essays and commentaries titled Naturalism and Rationality. We are affected by all sorts of stimuli that influence our beliefs and actions. How does our understanding of what it means to be affect our interpretation of the world around us? What problems arise as…
Rights in Moral Lives
Journal Article Book Reviews Get access Rights in Moral Lives. By A. I. Melden. (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1988. Price $25.00.) J. W. Child J. W. Child Bowling Green Slate University Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar The Philosophical Quarterly, Volume 40, Issue 158, January 1990, Pages 112–116, https://doi.org/10.2307/2219974 Published: 01 January 1990
Reply to Hurka and Copp
I am deeply indebted to Tom Hurka and David Copp for the careful attention they have given to some of the central motifs in The Moral Foundation of Rights . By doing their job so well they have simplified mine considerably. Their exposition of my views is a model of fairness and accuracy; I need therefore waste no time disclaiming attributions or complaining about misrepresentation. Furthermore, they have shown admirable resolve in choosing to ig…
Justice Contracted
In the longrunning war between the friends of knowledge and their sceptical enemies the moral front has always been one of the busiest. Here the sceptic assails us in the guise of the cunning and resourceful amoralist who disavows all ethical constraints. Some philosophers, seeing no prospect of defeating the amoralist by rational methods, have fallen back on a policy of containment by means of social and political sanctions. But others of a more…
The Ethics of Environmental Concern
Sumner on Abortion: Moral Theory and Moral Standing: A Reply to Woods and Soles
I am grateful to John Woods and David Soles for the careful attention they have given to some of the central arguments of Abortion and Moral Theory , though I wish that they had revealed fewer respects in which those arguments were seriously underdeveloped. In what follows I will try to supply some (though not all) of the needed further development. I address the main points at issue in what I conceive to be their order of ascending importance
Abortion and Moral Theory
The Carnivore Strikes Back
Since philosophers began thinking seriously about the moral status of non-human animals, many of the practices we once took for granted have come to be condemned as unjustifiable, among them our reliance on animals as a food source. While the arguments which have been adduced in support of moral vegetarianism invoke quite different (indeed incompatible) moral frameworks, they begin with a common concern for the welfare of animals. In the real wor…
Deliberating on Death
As a distinct academic subdiscipline medical ethics is only about fifteen years old, but during that brief lifespan it has managed to generate a literature so vast that only specialists and speedreaders can now hope to keep up with more than a small fraction of it. When a literature has achieved this density new contributions must bear the burden of showing that they advance the existing state of the art. Eike-Henner W. Kluge's book joins a well-…
Interests and Rights: The Case Against Animals
Abortion and Moral Theory
Does Medical Ethics Have Its Own Theory
Sumner, a philosophy professor at the University of Toronto, reviews Robert Veatch's 1981 book, A Theory of Medical Ethics, and assesses the current theoretical status of the field of medical ethics. Although he considers Veatch's book valuable in its treatment of specific medical issues and its critique of codes of professional ethics, he finds fault with Veatch's attempt at constructing a general theory of medical ethics. Sumner concludes that …
Animal Liberation
Ethics: Report of the Consultative Group on Ethics. Ottawa: The Canada Council, 1977. vi + 34 pages. $2.00
An abstract is not available for this content so a preview has been provided. Please use the Get access link above for information on how to access this content
Catching Up With Castañeda
Remember the fifties? That was, among other things, when it was outré for moral philosophers acutally to use moral discourse and de rigueur to theorize about its use. It was when we all read Stevenson and Hare and learned to believe that moral judgments had no truth values and were used to express emotion or to issue imperatives. It was when we came to realize that all previous moral philosophy rested on the mistake of supposing that moral judgme…
More Light on the Later Mill
Cooperation, fairness and utility
Utility and Capability
When Amartya Sen defends his capability theory of well-being he contrasts it with the utility theory advocated by the classical utilitarians, including John Stuart Mill. Yet a closer examination of the two theories reveals that they are much more similar than they appear. Each theory can be interpreted in either a subjective or an objective way. When both are interpreted subjectively the differences between them are slight, and likewise for the o…
Welfare, Happiness, and Pleasure
Time and philosophical fashion have not been kind to hedonism. After flourishing for three centuries or so in its native empiricist habitat, it has latterly all but disappeared from the scene. Does it now merit even passing attention, for other than nostalgic purposes? Like endangered species, discredited ideas do sometimes manage to make a comeback. Is hedonism due for a revival of this sort? Perhaps it is overly optimistic to think that it coul…
Living in the Dragon's Shadow” Fathers' Experiences of a Child's Life-Limiting Illness
Grounded theory methods were used to study the experiences of 8 bereaved fathers whose children received care in a home-based hospice program. In-depth, unstructured interviews were audiotaped, transcribed, and coded for themes and categories. Every aspect of fathers' lives was affected by their experiences, which were described in metaphoric terms as living in a dragon's shadow. Fathers dealt with life in the dragon's shadow by battling the drag…
Justice Contracted
In the longrunning war between the friends of knowledge and their sceptical enemies the moral front has always been one of the busiest. Here the sceptic assails us in the guise of the cunning and resourceful amoralist who disavows all ethical constraints. Some philosophers, seeing no prospect of defeating the amoralist by rational methods, have fallen back on a policy of containment by means of social and political sanctions. But others of a more…
Consequences of Utilitarianism
This is a book built round an argument. Several variants of the argument are offered, and I shall consider but one of them. It is directed against the following act utilitarian principle: AU: An act is right if and only if it would have best consequences (i.e. consequences at least as good as those of any alternative act open to the agent) The argument may be freely rendered as follows. Suppose that we have an agent, Smith, in a society, S, such …
Cooperation, fairness and utility
More Light on the Later Mill
Catching Up With Castañeda
Remember the fifties? That was, among other things, when it was outré for moral philosophers acutally to use moral discourse and de rigueur to theorize about its use. It was when we all read Stevenson and Hare and learned to believe that moral judgments had no truth values and were used to express emotion or to issue imperatives. It was when we came to realize that all previous moral philosophy rested on the mistake of supposing that moral judgme…
Ethics: Report of the Consultative Group on Ethics. Ottawa: The Canada Council, 1977. vi + 34 pages. $2.00
An abstract is not available for this content so a preview has been provided. Please use the Get access link above for information on how to access this content
Animal Liberation
Does Medical Ethics Have Its Own Theory
Sumner, a philosophy professor at the University of Toronto, reviews Robert Veatch's 1981 book, A Theory of Medical Ethics, and assesses the current theoretical status of the field of medical ethics. Although he considers Veatch's book valuable in its treatment of specific medical issues and its critique of codes of professional ethics, he finds fault with Veatch's attempt at constructing a general theory of medical ethics. Sumner concludes that …
Interests and Rights: The Case Against Animals
Abortion and Moral Theory
Abortion and Moral Theory
The Carnivore Strikes Back
Since philosophers began thinking seriously about the moral status of non-human animals, many of the practices we once took for granted have come to be condemned as unjustifiable, among them our reliance on animals as a food source. While the arguments which have been adduced in support of moral vegetarianism invoke quite different (indeed incompatible) moral frameworks, they begin with a common concern for the welfare of animals. In the real wor…
Deliberating on Death
As a distinct academic subdiscipline medical ethics is only about fifteen years old, but during that brief lifespan it has managed to generate a literature so vast that only specialists and speedreaders can now hope to keep up with more than a small fraction of it. When a literature has achieved this density new contributions must bear the burden of showing that they advance the existing state of the art. Eike-Henner W. Kluge's book joins a well-…
Sumner on Abortion: Moral Theory and Moral Standing: A Reply to Woods and Soles
I am grateful to John Woods and David Soles for the careful attention they have given to some of the central arguments of Abortion and Moral Theory , though I wish that they had revealed fewer respects in which those arguments were seriously underdeveloped. In what follows I will try to supply some (though not all) of the needed further development. I address the main points at issue in what I conceive to be their order of ascending importance
The Ethics of Environmental Concern
Justice Contracted
In the longrunning war between the friends of knowledge and their sceptical enemies the moral front has always been one of the busiest. Here the sceptic assails us in the guise of the cunning and resourceful amoralist who disavows all ethical constraints. Some philosophers, seeing no prospect of defeating the amoralist by rational methods, have fallen back on a policy of containment by means of social and political sanctions. But others of a more…
Reply to Hurka and Copp
I am deeply indebted to Tom Hurka and David Copp for the careful attention they have given to some of the central motifs in The Moral Foundation of Rights . By doing their job so well they have simplified mine considerably. Their exposition of my views is a model of fairness and accuracy; I need therefore waste no time disclaiming attributions or complaining about misrepresentation. Furthermore, they have shown admirable resolve in choosing to ig…
Rights in Moral Lives
Journal Article Book Reviews Get access Rights in Moral Lives. By A. I. Melden. (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1988. Price $25.00.) J. W. Child J. W. Child Bowling Green Slate University Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar The Philosophical Quarterly, Volume 40, Issue 158, January 1990, Pages 112–116, https://doi.org/10.2307/2219974 Published: 01 January 1990
Naturalism and Rationality.
A distinguished group of scholars met at the State University of New York at Buffalo to share their thoughts on the nature of humans as animals. The result is this compelling collection of essays and commentaries titled Naturalism and Rationality. We are affected by all sorts of stimuli that influence our beliefs and actions. How does our understanding of what it means to be affect our interpretation of the world around us? What problems arise as…
Welfare, Happiness, and Pleasure
Time and philosophical fashion have not been kind to hedonism. After flourishing for three centuries or so in its native empiricist habitat, it has latterly all but disappeared from the scene. Does it now merit even passing attention, for other than nostalgic purposes? Like endangered species, discredited ideas do sometimes manage to make a comeback. Is hedonism due for a revival of this sort? Perhaps it is overly optimistic to think that it coul…
The Subjectivity of Welfare
Perfectionism
Why the Numbers Count
An abstract is not available for this content so a preview has been provided. Please use the Get access link above for information on how to access this content
Welfare, Happiness, and Ethics
Welfare, Happiness, and Ethics
Wayne Sumner presents an original theory of the nature and philosophical importance of welfare or well-being. He argues, against currently dominant rival views, that welfare is closely connected to happiness or life satisfaction, and that it is the only basis for value ethics.
Living in the Dragon's Shadow” Fathers' Experiences of a Child's Life-Limiting Illness
Grounded theory methods were used to study the experiences of 8 bereaved fathers whose children received care in a home-based hospice program. In-depth, unstructured interviews were audiotaped, transcribed, and coded for themes and categories. Every aspect of fathers' lives was affected by their experiences, which were described in metaphoric terms as living in a dragon's shadow. Fathers dealt with life in the dragon's shadow by battling the drag…
Philosophy (21 works) · Epistemology (19 works) · Political science (13 works) · Sociology (13 works) · Law (10 works) · Economics (8 works) · Psychology (8 works) · Environmental ethics (7 works) · Law and economics (7 works) · Contemporary philosophy (6 works)