HPSC1000 Lecture Notes - Lecture 21: Methamphetamine, Semiotics, Paternalism
9 Jun 2018
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Lecture 21: Markets and morals
Should some things not be for sale?
e.g. sex, people, votes, organs, blood, tissue, grades
Why not?
- Wrongful exploitation: some markets e.g. in organ sales- might encourage the strong to
exploit the vulnerable
- Misallocation: some markets e.g. university admissions- might cause those goods to be
allocated unjustly
- Rights violations
- Paternalism: some markets e.g. in crystal meth- might cause people to make self-
destructive choices
- Harm to others: some markets e.g. in pit bulls- might lead to greater violence or injury
to others
- orruptio ertai arkets e.g. i Dise priesses for oe’s daughters- will tend to
cause us to develop defective preferences
- externalities- individuals may benefit but society as a whole could be worse off e.g.
greater pressure on poor women to sell their organs
- semiotics- markets send the wrong signals; they treat things as commodities which
changes the meaning of those good
Brennan & Jaworski- if you can do it, then you can do it for money
Some market exchanges are wrong, but that is because there is something morally wrong with
what is being traded e.g. child porn
This wrongness comes from the nature of the commodity, not the trade
Incidental v inherent wrongness
- B & J: ou should’t sell soethig that’s stole, or that ou proised ot to sell, or
that ill e used i a rie. But these are’t iheret to the arket- they are just
special circumstances that make certain trades wrong in certain contexts
- They think there are no inherent limits to markets, that is, there are no things that it is
ok to possess but wrong to buy and sell
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
Should some things not be for sale? e. g. sex, people, votes, organs, blood, tissue, grades. Wrongful exploitation: some markets e. g. in organ sales- might encourage the strong to exploit the vulnerable. Misallocation: some markets e. g. university admissions- might cause those goods to be allocated unjustly. Paternalism: some markets e. g. in crystal meth- might cause people to make self- destructive choices. Harm to others: some markets e. g. in pit bulls- might lead to greater violence or injury to others (cid:272)orruptio(cid:374) (cid:272)ertai(cid:374) (cid:373)arkets e. g. i(cid:374) dis(cid:374)e(cid:455) pri(cid:374)(cid:272)esses for o(cid:374)e"s daughters- will tend to cause us to develop defective preferences. Brennan & jaworski- if you can do it, then you can do it for money. Some market exchanges are wrong, but that is because there is something morally wrong with what is being traded e. g. child porn. This wrongness comes from the nature of the commodity, not the trade.
