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Utilitarianism, Institutions, and Justice. By James Wood Baily. New York: Oxford University Press, 1997. 203p. $49.95.
Baily starts his argument with the claim that utilitarianism raises two related problems that lead to one paradox. The first is that utilitarianism "requires too much" by imposing impossible costs on some people to alleviate costs to others. The second is that whatever help we may extend, we are unlikely to do much good before we run out of resources. The paradox entailed is that "utilitarianism tells us to make each and every choice such that it leads to the best consequences overall. But an insight made clearer by the development of game theory is that no choice has consequences in isolation, only in conjunction with . . . choices of many other agents" (p. viii). The solution Baily offers may be called institutional utilitarianism: "Both problems and the paradox can be resolved simultaneously. The resolution of the paradox of individual responsibilities is achieved by elaborating an account of institutions as equilibria in complex games" (p. viii).
Chapter 1 discusses some interesting issues surrounding the debate on utilitarianism. An interesting remark is that this philosophical school lends itself better than others to empirical accountability. It should be noted that deontological theories do not show this openness by principle,...