IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/cup/buetqu/v8y1998is1p179-185_14.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Altruism, Ingroups, and Fairness: Comments on Messick's “Social Categories and Business Ethics”

Author

Listed:
  • Hartman, Edwin M.

Abstract

In attacking utilitarianism Bernard Williams1 likes to consider the case of the man who has a choice of saving his wife or a stranger from drowning. Williams takes it as clear, and a problem for consequentialism, that the man has a moral obligation to save his wife. The relationship is a good thing without reference to consequences that one might suppose it requires if it is to be valuable.David Messick suggests a consequentialist view of certain relationships—for example, those that create a limited altruism—that have survival value. Some kin relationships are like that; and insofar as they are, there is something to be said for them from a utilitarian point of view. Messick does not rest there, as his primary concern is fairness, but he does seem to hold that there is a utilitarian basis for valuing families and family ties. One need not be a sociobiologist to learn something about practical morality from the facts Messick adduces.

Suggested Citation

  • Hartman, Edwin M., 1998. "Altruism, Ingroups, and Fairness: Comments on Messick's “Social Categories and Business Ethics”," Business Ethics Quarterly, Cambridge University Press, vol. 8(S1), pages 179-185, January.
  • Handle: RePEc:cup:buetqu:v:8:y:1998:i:s1:p:179-185_14
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/S1052150X0040014X/type/journal_article
    File Function: link to article abstract page
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:cup:buetqu:v:8:y:1998:i:s1:p:179-185_14. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Kirk Stebbing (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.cambridge.org/beq .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.