Rights and Their Limits

F.M. Kamm is the Henry Rutgers University Professor of Philosophy and Distinguished Professor of Philosophy in the Department of Philosophy, Rutgers University. Over the course of a distinguished career focused on normative ethical theory and practical ethics, Kamm has published many articles and nine books, including: Morality, Mortality vols. 1 and 2; Intricate Ethics; Bioethical Prescriptions; The Trolley Problem Mysteries (the Berkeley Tanner Lectures 2013); and Almost Over: Aging, Dying, Dead. Kamm has received fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, the NEH, the centers for ethics at Harvard and Princeton, the Center for Advanced Study at Stanford, and the Department of Clinical Bioethics at the NIH. In addition to serving on the editorial boards of Philosophy & Public Affairs, Legal Theory, and the Journal of Moral Philosophy, Kamm has served as a consultant to the World Health Organization and is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Introduction and Acknowledgements

Part I: Rights by Theory and Cases

1. Moral Status, Rights, and Parfit's No-Difference View
2. Rights That Ethical Responsibility Cannot Justify
3. What "Must" Be Done to Answer Practical Questions?
4. Rights and Their Related Duties
5. Intuitions, the Veil of Ignorance, and Strains of Commitment

Part II: Rights and the Trolley Problem

6. Neuroscience, Psychology and Moral Reasoning
7. The Irrelevance of Deontological Distinctions?
8. Duties That Become Supererogatory or Forbidden
9. Nonconsequentialism in Light of the Trolley Problem
10. The Use and Abuse of the Trolley Problem: Self Driving Cars, Medical Treatments, and the Distribution of Harm
11. The Trolley Problem and Economic Policy

Part III: Rights and Extreme Cases

12. Thought Experiments: Art and Ethics
13. The Torture Puzzle
14. Rights and Aggregation in a Pandemic
15. Harms, Wrongs, and Meaning in a Pandemic

Appendix 1: Claiming and Waiving Rights

Appendix 2: The Moral Rights and Status of Animals: Comparing Some Arguments