Toward a Responsibility-Catering Prioritarian Ethical Theory of Risk

Area of Science:

• Ethics
• Risk Management
• Decision Theory

Background:

• Standard risk management tools like cost-benefit analysis rely on utilitarian ethics, focusing solely on probabilities and consequences.
• Philosopher Carl F. Cranor identified key aspects of risk acceptability beyond simple utility maximization, suggesting non-consequentialist ethical theories.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate if responsibility-catering prioritarianism can incorporate Cranor's identified aspects of risk acceptability.
• To propose an operational framework for a non-consequentialist ethical approach to societal risk management.

Main Methods:

• Revisiting Carl F. Cranor's list of plausible aspects of risk acceptability.
• Developing a prioritarian social welfare function that incorporates responsibility-adjusted utilities.

Main Results:

• Responsibility-catering prioritarianism effectively accommodates the aspects of risk acceptability identified by Cranor.
• The proposed operational framework provides a method for applying this ethical theory to risk management.

Conclusions:

• Responsibility-catering prioritarianism offers a viable and ethically robust alternative to traditional risk management tools.
• This ethical approach provides a more nuanced consideration of risk acceptability beyond consequentialist metrics.