Utilitarianism could still be a viable moral and political theory, although an emphasis on justice as distributing burdens and benefits has hidden this from current conversations. The traditional counterexamples prove that we have good grounds for rejecting classical, aggregative forms of consequentialism. A nonaggregative, liberal form of utilitarianism is immune to this rejection. The cost is that it cannot adjudicate when the basic needs of individuals or groups are in conflict. Cases like this must be solved by other methods. This (...) is not a weakness in liberal utilitarianism, on the contrary. The theory clarifies what we should admit to begin with: that ethical doctrines do not have universally acceptable solutions to all difficult problems or hard cases. The theory also reminds us that not all problems are in this sense difficult or cases hard. We could alleviate the plight of nonhuman animals by reducing meat eating. We could mitigate climate change and its detrimental effects by choosing better ways of living. These would imply that most people’s desire satisfaction would be partly frustrated, but liberal utilitarianism holds that this would be justified by the satisfaction of the basic needs of other people and nonhuman animals. (shrink)

Buscarei neste artigo examinar alguns aspectos da filosofia de Rawls ligados ao problema da justificação na ética. Apresentaremos inicialmente a importância do tema da justificação e veremos os traços principais do que normalmente é chamado de argumento coerentista. Depois, sugeriremos que a metodologia rawlsiana oscila entre uma abordagem objetivista e uma subjetivista , sendo marcada, nos dois casos, por um intuicionismo mitigado. A estratégia rawlsiana encontra-se sujeita às críticas que podem ser feitas ao intuicionismo, em especial, que seu coerentismo é (...) vítima do relativismo. Um esboço de resposta rawlsiana a esta crítica será oferecido, porém. (shrink)

This article describes the importance of Parfit ́s point of view in the public debate. The central thesis of Parfit is that three of the most outstanding points of view in moral philosophy -Kantianism, Consequencialism and, Contractualism-- converge in a form of rule ́s consequentialism under Kant ́s inspiration. In support of these thesis, Parfit endorses moral realism and a externalist conception of reasons. He refuses, in this way, the underlying ideas of rational election theory. .