Sagoff

Mark Sagoff succeeds in bring to light the problems experienced in a society that uses a cost-benefit analysis to judge different situations. I felt that he did an excellent job of presenting the problems with an economic-based value system and offering a different possible perspective, the Kantian one, to judge given situations of right and wrong. The quote by Reiff offered on p. 627 “the public world is constituted as one vast stranger…” I thought was a strong illustration of how the individual views the world around themselves currently.
I felt that Sagoff’s critique of the cost-benefit analysis adequately displayed the problems in using such a system. How could a person’s life, or even their safety for that matter, ever be treated as a commodity and therefore given an exact monetary value? Coinciding with Sagoff, I believe that one’s life cannot be accounted for in this manner and that human life, as well as environmental quality has a greater, inherent value. Given this, I did find the first few sections of the article to be a bit overwhelming; however they did continue to illustrate his Kantian viewpoint.
With that aside, I had a question of whether or not this Kantian value system was one that Sagoff thought could be implemented practically. He describes the system as needing individuals to “put aside their personal interests, it would follow that they put aside their power as well.” (p.627) However, isn’t he advocating that this value or practice of neutral positioning be instilled in the individual, since there would be no way to enforce it? How could we force individuals in power to accept this Kantian view in order to find a neutral position from which to judge? Also, if this system were accepted, what would happen in situations where there are opposed sides, each with their own legitimate claims? I understand that this may be delving too much into the practicality of the issue but it just arose as I finished reading the piece.
Overall Sagoff clearly displays the problem with the cost-benefit value system in today’s society and does a good job of calling for a replacement using the Kantian value system. I felt a personal agreement with the aim of a society where the individual is valued for himself and the population disregards making decisions in a cost-benefit manner because it ensures that there is never an acceptable amount of personal suffering. Also, he does an excellent job of calling to the individual to realize the power they possess in their actions and use it to benefit others not just look in self-interest.