ABSTRACT
An account of agent-relativity should answer two questions. First, where is the fundamental relativity located? In other words, with respect to what aspect of a moral theory is agent-relativity defined? This chapter aims to evaluate three accounts which answer these questions in different ways. The first account takes a theory’s verdicts regarding moral permissibility to be the fundamental location of agent-relativity; the second emphasizes moral reasons themselves; and the third concentrates on moral principles. The inability of Amartya Sen’s account to accommodate certain sorts of moral theory is a significant shortcoming. Another fundamental difficulty is that Sen assumes without argument that moral permissibility must be the core notion in an account of agent-relativity. The chapter argues that a better account of agent-relativity is given by locating the fundamental agent-relativity in a moral theory’s ranking of various states of affairs in terms of moral preferability.
