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    Rawls's 'separateness of persons' objection establishes t... — Carmelics
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    Challenges→The same utility formalism can be used to discuss interpersonal comparisons of resources, opportunities, and capabilities

    Rawls's 'separateness of persons' objection establishes that aggregative utility formalisms obscure distributive structure by collapsing distinct individuals into a single welfare sum.

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    Key Terms

    Aggregative utility(as a type of moral theory being criticized)
    An approach to ethics that tries to make decisions by adding up the happiness or well-being of everyone affected and choosing whatever produces the biggest total.
    Collapsing distinct individuals(as what aggregative utility does problematically)
    Treating separate people as if they were one combined unit, losing sight of their individual circumstances and needs.
    Distributive structure(as what gets overlooked in aggregative approaches)
    How goods, benefits, or burdens are actually divided up among different people—who gets what, and whether the division is fair.
    Formalism / formalisms(as describing how utility theories are structured)
    A system or method that uses mathematical or logical structures to represent ideas, sometimes losing important real-world details in the process.

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    Rawls(as the philosopher whose ideas are being referenced)
    John Rawls, a 20th-century philosopher famous for developing theories about justice and fairness in society.
    Welfare sum(as what aggregative approaches create)
    A total calculation of overall happiness or well-being across an entire group, treating it as a single number rather than recognizing individual shares.
    separateness of persons(Invoked by Taurek and Nozick to resist aggregative moral reasoning.)
    The principle that individuals are distinct and their harms or interests cannot be pooled or traded off against one another as if they belonged to a single entity.

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    2 topics

    Consequentialism1 linkedJustice & Punishment1 linked

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    The same utility formalism can be used to discuss interpersonal comparisons of r...

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