Abstract

This chapter propounds a principle for ordering outcomes from worse to better. In the basic case, it is a maximin principle that specifies that one alternative is better than another if it is better from the perspective of the worst-off affected human, or more exactly from the perspective of the worst-off affected period in the life of a normal human. But there are many complications. Some are applicable to cases in which there are facts about the comparability of different individuals’ well-being that legitimate more than merely ordinal comparisons, for instance cardinal comparisons.