A radical rejection of spectrum arguments
Spectrum arguments are purported to show that the betterness relation is not a transitive relation. This is a drastic conclusion since much normative theorizing and everyday reasoning assume that betterness is transitive. In order to avoid this conclusion, many reject a plausible view on trade-offs between quality and quantity. The rejection can take the form of a radical or a conservative rejection. The radical rejection seemingly deviates more from the underlying intuition of the view than the conservative rejection. In this paper, I will argue that it is, nevertheless, more plausible to opt for a radical rejection. This will be done by showing how appeals to non-conventional value relations, such as parity and incomparability, that are associated with conservative rejection, will not provide a satisfying response to spectrum arguments.
Authors
- Henrik Andersson (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4191-8347)
Institutions
- Lund University (SE)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Synthese
- Published
- 2026-01-06
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1007/s11229-025-05417-5
- Primary Topic
- Philosophical Ethics and Theory
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.00
Funders
- McGill University