Diacritica 25-2_Filosofia.indb - cehum - Universidade do Minho

BETTERNESS, SPECTRUM CASES AND THE CHALLENGE TO TRANSITIVITY IN AXIOLOGY
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seems to be better than A 1 . But there is more to say. Th e series starts with
options that our intuitions tell us to be increasingly worse than A 1 : A 1 >A 2 ;
A 2 >A 3 ; A 3 >A 4 ..., and it ends with options that are decreasingly better than
A n : A n-3 >A n-2 ; A n-2 >A n-1 ; A n-1 >A n . We can represent these two sets of intuitions
as follows.
Th e two trends in the diagram are represented by lines that never meet.
However, if we are going to be able to decide which option is better and
which one is worse, we cannot accept this. Th e reason is, obviously, that it
assigns two values to the diff erent alternatives we fi nd in the spectrum. Th e
problem may be solved, though, if we postulate some point i (even if it is a
blurry one) at which these two opposing trends may meet. But that could only
be possible if something like what the next diagram shows were the case:
For this to be possible, the two trends I mentioned above should change
at some point. Th ere should be two points of infl exion as regards our preference
for the alternatives in the spectrum. First, there should be one point h
Diacritica 25-2_Filosofia.indb 133 05-01-2012 09:38:25