Weighing Lives

出版者:Oxford University Press, USA

作者:John Broome

页数:288

出版时间:2006-07-20

价格:USD 48.00

装帧:Paperback

isbn号码:9780199297702

具体描述

We are often faced with choices that involve the weighing of people's lives against each other, or the weighing of lives against other good things. These are choices both for individuals and for societies. A person who is terminally ill may have to choose between palliative care and more aggressive treatment, which will give her a longer life but at some cost in suffering. We have to choose between the convenience to ourselves of road and air travel, and the lives of the future people who will be killed by the global warming we cause, through violent weather, tropical disease, and heat waves. We also make choices that affect how many lives there will be in the future: as individuals we choose how many children to have, and societies choose tax policies that influence people's choices about having children. These are all problems of weighing lives. How should we weigh lives? Weighing Lives develops a theoretical basis for answering this practical question. It extends the work and methods of Broome's earlier book Weighing Goods to cover the questions of life and death. Difficult problems come up in the process. In particular, Weighing Lives tackles the well-recognized, awkward problems of the ethics of population. It carefully examines the common intuition that adding people to the population is ethically neutral - neither a good nor a bad thing - but eventually concludes this intuition cannot be fitted into a coherent theory of value. In the course of its argument, Weighing Lives examines many of the issues of contemporary moral theory: the nature of consequentialism and teleology; the transitivity, continuity, and vagueness of betterness; the quantitative conception of wellbeing; the notion of a life worth living; the badness of death; and others. This is a work of philosophy, but one of its distinctive features is that it adopts some of the precise methods of economic theory (without introducing complex mathematics). Not only philosophers, but also economists and political theorists concerned with the practical question of valuing life, should find the book's conclusions highly significant to their work.

用户评价

读完这本书，我最大的感受是它的叙事节奏掌握得炉火纯青。开篇的悬念设置得极高明，让人迫不及待地想知道接下来的发展，而进入中段后，故事并没有陷入平庸的注水，反而通过各种支线情节的巧妙穿插，将宏大的背景徐徐展开。作者似乎是一位精通布局的大师，每一个看似不经意的细节，到最后都会成为推动情节发展的关键。我喜欢那种逐步揭开谜底的过程，那种智力上的满足感是无与伦比的。此外，文字的运用非常讲究，时而如诗歌般优美，时而又干练有力，极大地增强了阅读的沉浸感。它不仅仅是在讲一个故事，更像是在引导读者亲身体验一场漫长而深刻的旅程，让人在字里行间品味出时间的重量。

总的来说，这是一部需要“慢读”的作品。它不像快餐文学那样追求即时的刺激，而是需要你投入时间和心力去细细咀嚼的佳酿。我发现自己时不时地会停下来，回味其中某一句富有哲理的对白，或者某个转折点上人物眼神的微妙变化。它成功地构建了一个完整、自洽的逻辑闭环，即便故事已经结束，角色们的生活仿佛还在继续。真正好的故事是能够超越纸张的界限，在我心中留下永久印记的，而这本书无疑做到了这一点。它不是那种读完就忘的流行小说，更像是被珍藏在书架深处，时不时会拿出来翻阅的经典。

这本书最让我震撼的是它对复杂社会现象的深刻反思。它并非一本单纯的消遣读物，而是披着故事外衣的社会寓言。作者毫不避讳地触及了一些敏感且沉重的话题，但处理得非常高明，没有生硬的说教，而是让读者在角色的命运中自己去寻找答案。我特别留意了其中关于权力结构和个体反抗的部分，那种在巨大体制面前个体的无力感被刻画得淋漓尽致，却又保留了一丝希望的火种。这种批判性的视角使得整本书的思想深度远超同类题材。它迫使我跳出日常的思维定式，去审视我们所处的环境和我们所珍视的价值观。这是一次酣畅淋漓的智力洗礼。

这本小说简直是一场情感的过山车，我从头到尾都被牢牢抓住了。作者构建的世界观细致入微，每一个角落都充满了历史的厚重感和人物命运的无常。故事的主线紧凑却又不失人性的探讨，那些关于选择、牺牲与救赎的议题，让人在合上书本后仍久久不能平静。我尤其欣赏作者对人物内心世界的描绘，那种挣扎、那种矛盾，真实得让人心疼。主角的成长轨迹充满了坎坷，但每一次跌倒都伴随着更深刻的自我认知，这种由内而外的蜕变是极其动人的。更不用说那些错综复杂的人际关系，每一次的交锋都充满了智慧和火花，让人忍不住拍案叫绝。整体而言，这是一部深度与广度兼备的作品，读完后感觉自己的精神世界也被极大地拓宽了。

我必须赞扬作者在环境渲染上的高超技巧。仿佛每一页都散发着那个时代的独特气息和场景的实感。无论是宏伟的宫殿还是阴暗的小巷，作者都能用精准的笔触勾勒出鲜明的画面感，让人仿佛置身其中，甚至能闻到空气中的味道。这种强大的代入感，得益于作者对细节的偏执追求。而且，这种环境描写并非孤立存在，而是与人物的心境紧密结合，相互映衬，共同构筑了作品独特的氛围。读到一些描写特定地点的段落时，我甚至停下来反复阅读了几遍，只为细细品味那份美感。对于追求极致阅读体验的读者来说，这本书的文字功底绝对值得称道。

对于betterness的研究是landmark级别的

对于betterness的研究是landmark级别的

对于betterness的研究是landmark级别的

对于betterness的研究是landmark级别的

对于betterness的研究是landmark级别的