% IMPORTANT: The following is UTF-8 encoded. This means that in the presence
% of non-ASCII characters, it will not work with BibTeX 0.99 or older.
% Instead, you should use an up-to-date BibTeX implementation like “bibtex8” or
% “biber”.
@ARTICLE{Rther:1034971,
author = {Rüther, Markus},
title = {{E}xpectable {O}utcome {D}eontology – {A} {N}ew {T}heory
of {L}ife’s {M}eaning},
journal = {The journal of value inquiry},
volume = {.},
issn = {0022-5363},
publisher = {Springer},
reportid = {FZJ-2025-00079},
pages = {.},
year = {2024},
abstract = {The question of what constitutes a meaningful life has
recently regained attentionafter being largely neglected in
the 20th century. A new debate in ethics, knownas the debate
on meaning in life, has emerged around this question. In
this article,I propose a new normative theory of
meaningfulness, which I label as ExpectableOutcome
Deontology (EOD), to contribute to this debate. EOD is an
axiologicaltheory that evaluates lives based on the idea
that a person’s life is meaningful to theextent that they
perform intrinsically meaningful actions. An intrinsically
meaning-ful action, moreover, is an action that possess
meaningfulness – as it is sometimesput – “in
itself”, “for its own sake” or “in its own
right”.1 While the theory is deon-tological at its core, I
contend that intrinsically meaningful actions are those
thatmost likely bring about specific outcomes, typically
those that promote the good, thetrue, and the beautiful.
Thus, although the theory is not driven or motivated by
con-sequentialist considerations, it very much accomodates
such demands too. I arguethat EOD is, with suitable
clarifications, the correct theory of meaningfulness.To
support the argument for EOD, I proceed in four steps.
First, I clarify the cen-tral terms and premises I adopt in
EOD. Second, I explain how the theory fits intothe ongoing
debate on meaningfulness and what makes it promising
compared toother theories. Thirdly, I present the key
components of the theory that address thechallenges
encountered by some traditional theories. Finally, I respond
to severalnovel objections, thereby bolstering the rationale
of EOD.},
cin = {INM-7},
ddc = {340},
cid = {I:(DE-Juel1)INM-7-20090406},
pnm = {5255 - Neuroethics and Ethics of Information (POF4-525)},
pid = {G:(DE-HGF)POF4-5255},
typ = {PUB:(DE-HGF)16},
UT = {WOS:001328508600001},
doi = {10.1007/s10790-024-10006-9},
url = {https://juser.fz-juelich.de/record/1034971},
}