Philosophy Dictionary of ArgumentsHome | |||
| |||
Benefit: In philosophy, "benefit" pertains to the advantageous or valuable outcome, result, or advantage gained from a particular action, situation, or state of affairs, often considered in ethical or consequentialist contexts._____________Annotation: The above characterizations of concepts are neither definitions nor exhausting presentations of problems related to them. Instead, they are intended to give a short introduction to the contributions below. – Lexicon of Arguments. | |||
Author | Concept | Summary/Quotes | Sources |
---|---|---|---|
Max Black on Benefit - Dictionary of Arguments
III 148 Benefit/Black: product of value and probability minus costs - ((s) E.g. small benefit, high probability corresponds to inverse proportion of great benefit/low probability). Black: Problem: quantification of benefit, so that a conversion becomes useful. Benefit/Black: for given cost the positive or negative development of the benefit depends on the probability and the rating. Sufficiently high ratings always secure a benefit. III 151 Political Elections/Benefits/Black: Suppose one vote does not make a difference, only at least 100 would: then the problem reproduces itself on the line between 99 and 100. - E.g. Suppose you know that your own vote does not matter - Then the benefit is negative. - i.e., the costs exceed it. - Then it is irrational to vote. Problem: if others also follow this premise, it is wrong! - Self-denying prophecy. Variant: if Joe is late, then the election is "already decided" - Vs: every vote counts equally. III 155 Similarly: the individual vote is not critical, as long as not too many others also abstain - that refutes itself if followed consistently. BlackVs: this should not be. Ad III 157 ((s) this comes down to an epistemic rather than ontological problem. III 159 Solution/Black: I want as many voters of my party as possible to vote - that includes myself - (no categorical argument, but the best one possible). >Political elections._____________Explanation of symbols: Roman numerals indicate the source, arabic numerals indicate the page number. The corresponding books are indicated on the right hand side. ((s)…): Comment by the sender of the contribution. Translations: Dictionary of Arguments The note [Concept/Author], [Author1]Vs[Author2] or [Author]Vs[term] resp. "problem:"/"solution:", "old:"/"new:" and "thesis:" is an addition from the Dictionary of Arguments. If a German edition is specified, the page numbers refer to this edition. |
Black I Max Black "Meaning and Intention: An Examination of Grice’s Views", New Literary History 4, (1972-1973), pp. 257-279 In Handlung, Kommunikation, Bedeutung, G. Meggle (Hg), Frankfurt/M 1979 Black II M. Black The Labyrinth of Language, New York/London 1978 German Edition: Sprache. Eine Einführung in die Linguistik München 1973 Black III M. Black The Prevalence of Humbug Ithaca/London 1983 Black IV Max Black "The Semantic Definition of Truth", Analysis 8 (1948) pp. 49-63 In Truth and Meaning, Paul Horwich, Aldershot 1994 |