PHILOS 2YY3 Lecture Notes - Lecture 20: Thomas Nagel, Deontological Ethics, Consequentialism

• School: McMaster University
• Department: Philosophy
• Course: PHILOS 2YY3
• Professor: V Igneski

Document Summary

Nagel tries to explain what justifies rules of war. Argues that there are certain constraints on what we can do in bringing about certain states of affairs. Which action is going to bring about the best consequences? . It"s perfectly feasible to think that a utilitarian would have problems with torture; you just have to think about all of the consequences. The worry is that utilitarianism here will justify too much - (or justify things that we don"t think should be justify) But of course, that"s only to say that utilitarianism will say that it"s true that you can break the laws of war if breaking them will lead to greater overall utilitarianism. Nagel says that this view is compelling, perhaps we should maximize the good and minimize the evil, he thinks that this view has some force. On the other hand, he has the absolutist view (deontological ethics)