The Ethics of Giving: Philosophers’ Perspectives on Philanthropy

241 Pages·2018·2.32 MB·English

by  Paul Woodruff (Ed.)

THE ETHICS OF GIVING

THE ETHICS OF GIVING
Philosophers’ Perspectives on Philanthropy
Edited by Paul Woodruff
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Woodruff, Paul, 1943– editor.
Title: The ethics of giving : philosophers’ perspectives on philanthropy /
[edited by] Paul Woodruff.
Description: New York : Oxford University Press, 2018. |
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2017041322 | ISBN 9780190648879 (hardback) |
ISBN 9780190648893 (epub)
Subjects: LCSH: Charities—Philosophy. | Humanitarianism—Philosophy.
Classification: LCC HV25 .E85 2018 | DDC 174/.43617—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017041322
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Printed by Sheridan Books, Inc., United States of America
CONTENTS
Acknowledgments  vii
List of Contributors  ix
Introduction  1
Paul Woodruff
1. Duties and Choices in Philanthropic
Giving: Kantian Perspectives  13
Thomas E. Hill Jr.
2. Virtue Ethics, Thick Concepts, and Paradoxes
of Beneficence  40
Christine Swanton
3. Doing Good and Doing the Best  78
Jeff McMahan
4. Severe Poverty as an Unjust Emergency  103
Elizabeth Ashford
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Contents
5. Integrity, Identity, and Choosing a Charity  149
Brandon Boesch
6. Giving Isn’t Demanding  178
William MacAskill, Andreas Mogensen, and Toby Ord
7. Afterword: Justice and Charitable Giving  204
Paul Woodruff
Index  221
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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
These papers were written for this volume; most of them were
presented at a conference convened by John Deigh, Jonathan
Dancy, and Paul Woodruff. The conference was supported by the
Royal Professorship in Ethics and American Society and also by
the Once Upon a Time Foundation, which is devoted to promoting
discussion about philanthropy. We are all grateful to Geoffrey
Raynor, who founded a program of university courses called The
Philanthropy Lab, which gave rise to the discussions that led to this
project, and who also funds the Once Upon a Time Foundation.
I am grateful to John Deigh and Jonathan Dancy for advice and
editorial suggestions. Anonymous readers for Oxford University
Press have been helpful as well. My largest debt is to my assistant
editor, J. Drake, who helped with format and judgments about
content.
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LIST OF CONTRIBUTORS
Elizabeth Ashford is a senior lecturer in philosophy at the
University of St. Andrews. She works in moral and political
philosophy and is currently completing a book, Hunger’s Unwitting
Executioners: Severe Poverty as a Structural Human Rights Violation,
under contract with Oxford University Press.
Brandon Boesch is a PhD candidate in philosophy at the University
of South Carolina. Aside from work in applied ethics, he has also
published articles on the topic of representation in science.
Thomas E. Hill Jr. is Kenan professor at the University of North
Carolina at Chapel Hill. He is the author of Virtue, Rules, and
Justice: Kantian Aspirations (Oxford University Press, 2012) and
Human Welfare and Moral Worth: Kantian Perspectives (Oxford
University Press, 2002) and the editor of A Blackwell Guide to Kant’s
Ethics (Wiley- Blackwell, 2009).
William MacAskill is an associate professor of philosophy at
the University of Oxford. He is the author of Doing Good Better
(Penguin Random House, 2015).
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