Contractualism and Risk

ABSTRACT Individualist or non‐aggregative moral theories, such as Scanlonian contractualism, deny the plausibility or the permissibility of interpersonal aggregation of harms and benefits or individual claims to determine what we ought to do. There has recently been much discussion about how these theories should be extended to cover cases in which we face empirical uncertainty about the effects of our actions. In this article, I provide a critical introduction to this debate. I introduce the two main opposing approaches to this problem, the ex‐ante and the ex‐post approach, and introduce the main objections they face.

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Publication Details

Journal
Philosophy Compass
Published
2025-09-01
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1111/phc3.70055
Primary Topic
Free Will and Agency
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
0.00
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article

Contractualism and Risk

Korbinian Rüger
Philosophy Compass
Free Will and Agency
article

Contractualism and Risk

Korbinian Rüger
article en

Abstract

ABSTRACT Individualist or non‐aggregative moral theories, such as Scanlonian contractualism, deny the plausibility or the permissibility of interpersonal aggregation of harms and benefits or individual claims to determine what we ought to do. There has recently been much discussion about how these theories should be extended to cover cases in which we face empirical uncertainty about the effects of our actions. In this article, I provide a critical introduction to this debate. I introduce the two main opposing approaches to this problem, the ex‐ante and the ex‐post approach, and introduce the main objections they face.

Philosophy CompassVol. 20(9)
Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München (DE)
Openalex Percentile: Top 77%
Free Will and Agency
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