Stephen Darwall

Sidgwick maintains, plausibly, that the concept of a person's good is a normative one and takes for granted that it is normative for the agent's own choice and action. I argue that the normativity of a person's good must be understood in relation to concern for someone for that person's own sake. A person's good, I suggest, is what one should want for that person in so far as one cares about him, or what one should want for him for his sake. I examine Sidgwick's defence of the axioms of rational prudence and argue that it is powerless to convince anyone who lacks self-concern or thinks he has no reason to care for himself. To the extent that Sidgwick is persuasive, I argue, it is because he insinuates an assumption of self-concern. Similarly, Sidgwick's defence of the axiom of rational benevolence tacitly assumes, not just impersonality, but equal concern

Dancy’s famous arguments for the position he calls _moral particularism_ proceed entirely on the basis of general features of normative reasons for acting rather than anything having to do with _morality_ more specifically. Dancy argues plausibly that there being normative reason for an agent to do something need not depend on the existence of valid general norms or principles from which these reasons derive. But Dancy simply does not consider whether there might be something about morality in particular that requires the existence of general _moral_ principles. This paper argues that this is indeed the case. What is distinctive about morality is the idea not just that there are good reasons favouring or supporting action, but that action is _required_ of us—that we are morally _obligated_ to act in the sense of being _accountable_ for doing so and of being warrantedly _held_ responsible and blamed if we do not and lack valid excuse.