Means, ends, and persons: toward an ethics of conduct

Kant's injunction that we must treat persons as ends in themselves and never merely as means is plausible but often misunderstood. This book shows how the notions of treating persons as ends in themselves and, by contrast, merely as means, can be anchored outside Kant and clarified in ways that enhance their usefulness in ethical theory and in practical ethics, where they are often felt to have considerable intuitive force.

Includes index.

The ethics of protecting persons -- The instrumental treatment of persons -- Means and ends -- Instrumental versus end-regarding treatment -- Treating solely as a means versus merely as a means -- Instrumental treatment as human conduct -- The motivation and controllability of merely instrumental conduct -- Constraints, moral character, and self-control -- Motivation, constraints, and the appraisal of character -- Action, treatment and conduct -- Action, endeavor, and consequence -- Levels of behavioral description -- Conduct as a morally important category -- Manners of action versus actions as defined by manner -- The wrong-making character of merely instrumental treatment -- Thick and thin moral questions -- Substantive and contrastive views of merely instrumental treatment -- Persons as ends versus good ends for persons -- Internal and external goods for persons -- The ethics of respecting persons -- Treating others as ends in themselves -- Caring about the good of others -- Kinds of normativity -- Descriptive grounds of end-regarding treatment -- End-regarding treatment and respect for persons -- Good deeds, good reasons, and good conduct -- End-regarding treatment, intention…