Abstract
Ethics calls upon us to have regard, to show respect, to treat beings, all beings, in accordance with their deserts. The deserts of beings, I have argued, arise from and indeed are the measure of their being, that is, their conatus, the dynamic of their project as they affirm, define, express and carry forward their program or plan (Goodman 1991; 1996; 1998). All beings have a conatus but not all have a plan in the subjective sense that brings the act of valuing to the threshold of self-consciousness, self-criticism, and regard for other beings. In all beings prima facie deserts are their very claims; legitimate deserts are those claims equilibrated against the conflicting and complementary claims of all the rest. With beings in general deserts are proportioned to ontic standing. Recognition should respect what beings are. With persons this rule takes a special form.
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© 1999 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht
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Goodman, L.E. (1999). Persons. In: Personhood and Health Care. International Library of Ethics, Law, and the New Medicine, vol 7. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-2572-9_3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-2572-9_3
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