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Absolutism and its Limits
Hawthorne, John Patrick Isaacs, Yoaav Littlejohn, Clayton
Hawthorne, John Patrick
Isaacs, Yoaav
Littlejohn, Clayton
Abstract
Many philosophers think that given the choice between saving the life of an innocent person and averting any number of minor ailments or inconveniences, it would be better to save the life. How, then, should one compare the risk of an innocent person’s life to such minor ailments and inconveniences? If lives are infinitely more important than insignificant factors then any risk cannot be outweighed, and that is untenable. An alternative approach seems more promising: let the values of such insignificant factors be bounded, as then there will be well-behaved tradeoffs between insignificant things and the risk to an innocent life. We argue, however, that bounding the values of insignificant factors poses myriad problems.
Keywords
philosophy, deontology, absolutism, decision theory, moral philosophy
Date
2023
Type
Journal article
Journal
Book
Volume
105
Issue
20
Page Range
170-189
Article Number
ACU Department
Dianoia Institute of Philosophy
Faculty of Theology and Philosophy
Institute for Religion and Critical Inquiry
Faculty of Theology and Philosophy
Institute for Religion and Critical Inquiry
Collections
Relation URI
Event URL
Open Access Status
License
All rights reserved
File Access
Controlled
Notes
© John Hawthorne et al., 2023
Published with license by Koninklijke Brill NV
Published with license by Koninklijke Brill NV