Competing goods
Encyclopedia
The balance of Competing goods is a philosophical problem involving the acknowledgement of multiple social values that may at times conflict with one another.
The 20th-century philosopher Martha Nussbaum
invokes Aristotle
in her discussions of the problem, writing that "[T]he Aristotelian agent scrutinizes each valuable alternative, seeking out its distinct nature. She is determined to acknowledge the precise sort of value or goodness present in each of competing alternatives, seeing each value, so to speak, as a separate jewel in the crown, valuable in its own right, which does not cease to be separately valuable just because the contingencies of the situation sever it from other goods and it loses out in an overall rational choice."; and that Aristotle saw that "the values that are constitutive of a good human life are plural and incommensurable". Nussbaum has argued that Immanuel Kant
and Thomas Aquinas
were mistaken when they dismissed conflicts of obligation as illogical.
Michael Jinkins, citing Isiah Berlin, sees both Plato
and Aristotle as endorsing the concept of a singular, overwheming social good and Machiavelli's works as seminal discussions of competing social goods.
The issue has arisen in the medical professions, since patients may not necessarily rank their potential cures above their other values.
The 20th-century philosopher Martha Nussbaum
Martha Nussbaum
Martha Nussbaum , is an American philosopher with a particular interest in ancient Greek and Roman philosophy, political philosophy and ethics....
invokes Aristotle
Aristotle
Aristotle was a Greek philosopher and polymath, a student of Plato and teacher of Alexander the Great. His writings cover many subjects, including physics, metaphysics, poetry, theater, music, logic, rhetoric, linguistics, politics, government, ethics, biology, and zoology...
in her discussions of the problem, writing that "[T]he Aristotelian agent scrutinizes each valuable alternative, seeking out its distinct nature. She is determined to acknowledge the precise sort of value or goodness present in each of competing alternatives, seeing each value, so to speak, as a separate jewel in the crown, valuable in its own right, which does not cease to be separately valuable just because the contingencies of the situation sever it from other goods and it loses out in an overall rational choice."; and that Aristotle saw that "the values that are constitutive of a good human life are plural and incommensurable". Nussbaum has argued that Immanuel Kant
Immanuel Kant
Immanuel Kant was a German philosopher from Königsberg , researching, lecturing and writing on philosophy and anthropology at the end of the 18th Century Enlightenment....
and Thomas Aquinas
Thomas Aquinas
Thomas Aquinas, O.P. , also Thomas of Aquin or Aquino, was an Italian Dominican priest of the Catholic Church, and an immensely influential philosopher and theologian in the tradition of scholasticism, known as Doctor Angelicus, Doctor Communis, or Doctor Universalis...
were mistaken when they dismissed conflicts of obligation as illogical.
Michael Jinkins, citing Isiah Berlin, sees both Plato
Plato
Plato , was a Classical Greek philosopher, mathematician, student of Socrates, writer of philosophical dialogues, and founder of the Academy in Athens, the first institution of higher learning in the Western world. Along with his mentor, Socrates, and his student, Aristotle, Plato helped to lay the...
and Aristotle as endorsing the concept of a singular, overwheming social good and Machiavelli's works as seminal discussions of competing social goods.
The issue has arisen in the medical professions, since patients may not necessarily rank their potential cures above their other values.