PHI 221 Lecture Notes - Lecture 12: Principle Of Double Effect, Consequentialism
17 Nov 2017
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Note that utility and kant are both absolute and monist theories. Ross developed a special pluralist theory of moral rightness. Prima facie duty = excellent, permanent but not absolute reason do or not do something. Moral duties sometimes are in conflict; but we cannot give a fixed ranking to rules! But ross thought that basic duties are self-evident, at least to most adults. And when we come to moral dilemmas with a conflict of duties, the best we can do is use reason (discussion?) to try to judge which duty should take precedence in a particular situation; people can disagree. People who believe certain acts are always wrong, but also recognize that in some cases doing good involves evil consequences as well, have used dde to explain why some acts are permitted even when some evil is done. Double-effect rejects simple consequentialism, and combines judgments about the morality of acts in themselves with a recognition of result-oriented considerations.
