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111Personal and Omnipersonal DutiesThe Harvard Review of Philosophy 23 1-15. 2016.This paper’s main aim is to discuss the relations between our duties and moral aims at different times, and between different people’s moral aims and duties. The paper is unfinished because it was written as part of an intended chapter in the third volume of my book On What Matters, and I later decided to drop this chapter. That is why this paper asks some questions which it doesn’t answer. But though this paper does not end with some general conclusions, it defends some particular conclusions.
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110CorrespondencePhilosophy and Public Affairs 8 (4): 395-397. 1979.An exchange of correspondence with Charles Fried. Parfit's section begins: "I am puzzled. Consider Case One: I could save either one stranger or five others. Both acts would involve a heroic personal sacrifice. I choose, for no reason, to save the one rather than the five. Fried argues: (i ) Since both acts would involve a heroic sacrifice, I could not be criticized if I chose to do neither. (2) If I could not be criticized for choosing to do neither, I cannot be criticized for choosing …Read more
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110Rationality and TimeProceedings of the Aristotelian Society 84. 1984.One theory about rationality is the Self-interest Theory, or S. S claims that what each of us has most reason to do is whatever would be best for himself. And it is irrational for anyone to do what he knows would be worse for himself. When morality conflicts with self-interest, many people would reject the Self-interest Theory. But most of these people would accept one of the claims that S makes. This is the claim that we should not care less about our further future, simply because it is furthe…Read more
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99Acts and Outcomes: A Reply to Boonin‐VailPhilosophy and Public Affairs 25 (4): 308-316. 1996.Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of J STOR’s Terms and Conditions of Use, available at http://www.jstor.org/about/terms.html. J STOR’s Terms and Conditions of Use provides, in part, that unless you have obtained prior permission, you may not download an entire issue of a journal or multiple copies of articles, and you may use content in the JSTOR archive only for your personal, non—commercial use
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96PostscriptIn Jesper Ryberg & Torbjörn Tännsjö (eds.), The Classical Review, . pp. 387-388. 2004.The reasoning in this anthology shows how hard it is to form acceptable theories in cases that involve different numbers of people. That's highly important. And it gives us ground for worry about our appeal to particular theories in the other two kinds of case: those which involve the same numbers, in the different outcomes, though these are not all the same people, and those which do involve all and only the same people. But there is still a clear distinction between these three kinds of case. …Read more
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86CorrespondencePhilosophy and Public Affairs 10 (2): 180-181. 1981.An act utilitarian tries to maximize expected utility. This is the sum of possible benefits, minus possible costs, with each benefit or cost multiplied by the chance that his act will produce it. Two recent essays claim that, in this calculation, the act utilitarian should ignore very tiny chances. If this is so, he will have no reason to vote, support revolutionary movements, or contribute to countless other public..
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68Personal and Omnipersonal DutiesThe Harvard Review of Philosophy 23 1-15. 2016.This paper’s main aim is to discuss the relations between our duties and moral aims at different times, and between different people’s moral aims and duties. The paper is unfinished because it was written as part of an intended chapter in the third volume of my book On What Matters, and I later decided to drop this chapter. That is why this paper asks some questions which it doesn’t answer. But though this paper does not end with some general conclusions, it defends some particular conclusions.
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65Bombs and coconuts, or rational irrationalityIn Christopher W. Morris & Arthur Ripstein (eds.), Practical Rationality and Preference: Essays for David Gauthier, Cambridge University Press. pp. 81--97. 2001.
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59A reply to SterbaPhilosophy and Public Affairs 16 (2): 193-194. 1987.I did not, as James Sterba writes, claim to have explained "the asymmetry view." I claimed that, since my suggested explanation makes it impossible to solve the Paradox of Future Individuals, "we must abandon" one of its essential premises (my p. i52). Sterba's main claim is that my suggested explanation "does not so much explain or justify the [asymmetry] view as simply restate it." Is this so? My explanation assumed (W) that an act cannot be wrong if it will not be bad for any of the people wh…Read more
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50On What Matters: Volume ThreeOxford University Press UK. 2011.Derek Parfit presents the third volume of On What Matters, his landmark work of moral philosophy. Parfit develops further his influential treatment of reasons, normativity, the meaning of moral discourse, and the status of morality. He engages with his critics, and shows the way to resolution of their differences.
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32Life, Death, and Meaning: Key Philosophical Readings on the Big QuestionsRowman & Littlefield Publishers. 2004.Do our lives have meaning? Should we create more people? Is death bad? Should we commit suicide? Would it be better if we were immortal? Should we be optimistic or pessimistic? Life, Death, and Meaning brings together key readings, primarily by English-speaking philosophers, on such 'big questions.'.
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29The Puzzle of Reality: Why Does the Universe Exist?In Peter van Inwagen & Dean W. Zimmerman (eds.), Metaphysics: The Big Questions, Blackwell. pp. 418-427. 1992.
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29Life, Death, and Meaning: Key Philosophical Readings on the Big Questions (edited book)Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. 2004.Do our lives have meaning? Should we create more people? Is death bad? Should we commit suicide? Would it be better to be immortal? Should we be optimistic or pessimistic? Since Life, Death, and Meaning: Key Philosophical Readings on the Big Questions first appeared, David Benatar's distinctive anthology designed to introduce students to the key existential questions of philosophy has won a devoted following among users in a variety of upper-level and even introductory courses.
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29Reasons and Motivation.Supplement to the Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society 71 (1): 99-130. 1997.
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28On What Matters: Volume TwoOxford University Press. 2011.This is the second volume of a major new work in moral philosophy. It starts with critiques of Derek Parfit's work by four eminent moral philosophers, and his responses. The largest part of the volume is a self-contained monograph on normativity. The final part comprises seven new essays on Kant, reasons, and why the universe exists.
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27Personal IdentityIn Tim Crane & Katalin Farkas (eds.), Metaphysics: a guide and anthology, Oxford University Press Uk. 2004.
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26Divided Minds and the Nature of PersonsIn Susan Schneider (ed.), Science Fiction and Philosophy: From Time Travel to Superintelligence, Wiley. 2016.This chapter discusses problems for informational patternism and the popular soul theory of personal identity, suggests that they are incoherent, and urges that the self does not really exist. It employs the science fiction pseudotechnology of a teleporter and presents the example of split brains from actual neuroscience cases. There are two theories about what persons are, and what is involved in a person's continued existence over time. On the Ego Theory, a person's continued existence cannot …Read more
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26Persons, bodies, and human beingsIn Theodore Sider, John Hawthorne & Dean W. Zimmerman (eds.), Contemporary Debates in Metaphysics, Blackwell. 2008.
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22Why Anything? Why This?In Tim Crane & Katalin Farkas (eds.), Metaphysics: a guide and anthology, Oxford University Press Uk. 2004.
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22Later selves and moral principlesIn Alan Montefiore (ed.), Philosophy and personal relations, Mcgill- Queen's University Press. 1973.
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19Later selves and moral principlesIn Alan Montefiore (ed.), Philosophy and Personal Relations: An Anglo-French Study, Mcgill-queen's University Press. pp. 137-169. 1973.
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19Improving Scanlon’s ContractualismIn Markus Stepanians & Michael Frauchiger (eds.), Reason, Justification, and Contractualism: Themes from Scanlon, De Gruyter. pp. 109-118. 2021.
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12Iv Lewis, Perry, and What MattersIn Amélie Oksenberg Rorty (ed.), Identities of Persons, University of California Press. pp. 91-108. 1976.
Derek Parfit
(1942 - 2017)
Areas of Specialization
Metaphysics |
Meta-Ethics |
Normative Ethics |
Areas of Interest
Metaphysics |
Meta-Ethics |
Normative Ethics |