-
17Book Review:Persons, Rights, and the Moral Community. Loren E. Lomasky (review)Ethics 99 (3): 640-. 1989.
-
14Consequences of UtilitarianismDialogue 7 (4): 639-642. 1969.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 The argument may be freely rendered as follows. Suppose that we have an agent, Smith, in a society, S, such that the following conditions are satisfied:C1: Smith accepts AU and attempts always to act in accordance with itC2: Smith is rational: he…Read more
-
924The moral foundation of rightsOxford University Press. 1987.What does it mean for someone to have a moral right to something? What kinds of creatures can have rights, and which rights can they have? While rights are indispensable to our moral and political thinking, they are also mysterious and controversial; as long as these controversies remain unsolved, rights will remain vulnerable to skepticism. Here, Sumner constructs both a coherent concept of a moral right and a workable substantive theory of rights to provide the moral foundation necessary to di…Read more
-
11Reply to Hurka and CoppDialogue 28 (1): 149-. 1989.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 ignore the book's relatively peripheral concerns, eve…Read more
-
164Welfare, Happiness, and PleasureUtilitas 4 (2): 199-223. 1992.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 could ever flourish again in its original form; the ev…Read more
-
87Is Virtue Its Own Reward?: L. W. SUMNERSocial Philosophy and Policy 15 (1): 18-36. 1998.If I lead a life of virtue, that may well be good for you. But will it also be good for me? The idea that it will—or even must—is an ancient one, and its appeal runs deep. For if this idea is correct then we can provide everyone with a good reason—arguably the best reason—for being virtuous. However, for all the effort which has been invested in defending the idea, by some of the best minds in the history of philosophy, it remains unproven. Worse, in this skeptical age hardly anyone really belie…Read more
-
9Deliberating on DeathDialogue 23 (3): 503-508. 1984.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-established continuing debate on the morality of e…Read more
-
31Positive Sexism*: L. W. SUMINERSocial Philosophy and Policy 5 (1): 204-222. 1987.No one who cares about equal opportunity can derive much comfort from the present occupational distribution of working women. In the various industrial societies of the West, women comprise between one quarter and one-half of the national labor force. However, they tend to clustered in employment sectors – especially clerical, sales, and service J occupations – which rank relatively low in remuneration, status, autonomy, and other perquisites. Meanwhile, the more prestigious and rewarding manage…Read more
-
3Sumner on Abortion: Moral Theory and Moral Standing: A Reply to Woods and SolesDialogue 24 (4): 691-700. 1985.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 of the needed further development. I address the main points at issue in what I conceive to be their order of ascending importance.
-
54The Moral Status of Animals.By Stephen R.L. Clark. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1977. 221 pages (review)Dialogue 17 (3): 570-575. 1978.
-
26Reply to WilliamsCriminal Law and Philosophy 9 (2): 331-335. 2015.In her review of my book Assisted Death: A Study in Ethics and Law, Glenys Williams raises a number of substantive objections to its argument. In this note I reply to those objections
-
4Criminalizing expression : hate speech and obscenityIn John Deigh & David Dolinko (eds.), The Oxford Handbook of the Philosophy of the Criminal Law, Oxford University Press. 2011.
-
Politician, Judges, and the CharterCanadian Journal of Law and Jurisprudence 21 (1): 227-238. 2008.The complaint is a familiar one: unelected, politically unaccountable judges are using their powers of judicial review to subvert the democratic process by shaping public policy in accordance with their own personal moral/political views. It is tempting to dismiss this complaint as the grumbling of those, usually on the political right, who have been disaffected by court decisions with which they personally disagree. But this temptation must be resisted, since the critics of judicial review, suc…Read more
-
140Assisted death: a study in ethics and lawOxford University Press. 2011.In this timely book L.W. Sumner addresses these issues within the wider context of palliative care for patients in the dying process.
-
21Justice ContractedDialogue 26 (3): 523. 1987.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 truculent frame of mind have continued to seek a …Read more
-
547Welfare, happiness, and ethicsOxford University Press. 1996.Moral philosophers agree that welfare matters. But they disagree about what it is, or how much it matters. In this vital new work, Wayne Sumner presents an original theory of welfare, investigating its nature and discussing its importance. He considers and rejects all notable theories of welfare, both objective and subjective, including hedonism and theories founded on desire or preference. His own theory connects welfare closely with happiness or life satisfaction. Reacting against the value pl…Read more
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Areas of Specialization
Applied Ethics |
Normative Ethics |
Philosophy of Law |
Social and Political Philosophy |
Areas of Interest
Applied Ethics |
Normative Ethics |
Philosophy of Law |
Social and Political Philosophy |