The Limits of Moral Obligation Moral Demandingness and Ought Implies Can Routledge Studies in Ethics and Moral Theory Series

This volume responds to the growing interest in finding explanations for why moral claims may lose their validity based on what they ask of their addressees. Two main ideas relate to that question: the moral demandingness objection and the principle "ought implies can." Though both of these ideas can be understood to provide an answer to the same question, they have usually been discussed separately in the philosophical literature. The aim of this collection is to provide a focused and comprehensive discussion of these two ideas and the ways in which they relate to one another, and to take a closer look at the consequences for the limits of moral normativity in general. Chapters engage with contemporary discussions surrounding "ought implies can" as well as current debates on moral demandingness, and argue that applying the moral demandingness objection to the entire range of normative ethical theories also calls for an analysis of its (metaethical) presuppositions. The contributions to this volume are at the leading edge of ethical theory, and have implications for moral theorists, philosophers of action, and those working in metaethics, theoretical ethics and applied ethics.

1. Ethics on Edge? Introduction to Moral Demandingness and ‘Ought Implies Can’ Marcel van Ackeren and Michael Kühler 2. What is Demandingness? Brian McElwee 3. Differential Demands Vanessa Carbonell 4. Putting the Central Conflict to Rest? Raz on Morality and Well-Being Marcel van Ackeren 5. Over-Demandingness Objections and Supererogation Claire Benn 6. How Encounters with Values Generate Moral Demandingness Sophie Grace Chappell 7. Why Does Ought Imply Can? Robert Stern 8. Demanding the Impossible: Conceptually Misguided or Merely Unfair? Michael Kühler 9. Obligation, Ability, and Blameworthiness Ishtiyaque Haji 10. Demandingness, "Ought", and Self-Shaping Garrett Cullity 11. Moral Conflicts, The "Ought"-Implies-"Can" Principle, And Moral Demandingness Matthew H. Kramer 12. The Force/Scope Trade-off Dale Dorsey

Marcel van Ackeren is Associate Professor for Philosophy and research fellow at the Centre for Advanced Study in Bioethics at the University of Münster, Germany.

Michael Kühler is Associate Professor for Philosophy and research fellow at the Centre for Advanced Study in Bioethics at the University of Münster, Germany.