Introduction

Like certain other slogans – for example, Each person is deserving of equal consideration and respect – the Slogan enjoys widespread acceptance. It underlies many arguments in philosophy and economics, and those appealing to it span the range of theoretical positions, including deontological, consequentialist, and rights-based views. In addition, as with some more famous slogans, most believe that the Slogan expresses a deep and important truth. So, like a powerful modern-day Occam's razor, often the Slogan is wielded to carve out, shape, or whittle down the domain of moral value.

Unfortunately, the Slogan is almost always invoked both implicitly and rhetorically. Perhaps it has been thought to be an ultimate moral principle – that which provides the justification for other claims, but which cannot, and need not, itself be justified. More likely the Slogan has been thought so obvious as to not even require explicit acknowledgment let alone explication or defense. After all, one might rhetorically ask, how could one situation be worse than another if there is no one for whom it is worse?

In this article I shall present considerations relevant to assessing the Slogan and the arguments invoking it. My central claims are three. First, widespread agreement about the Slogan is more apparent than real.