PHI 221 Lecture Notes - Lecture 22: Principle Of Double Effect
17 Nov 2017
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Note that the definition includes a specific purpose to terrorism, in addition to specific acts, but does not include the type of people using it. But most people also believe sometimes killing civilians is justified, especially in war. How can we condemn the killing of civilians by terrorists without sounding hypocritical. We must examine a cluster of beliefs (577) Condition 4 seems crucial to our condemnation of terrorism. Other defenders of allied bombings run into similar problems if they want to condemn terrorism. Many authors appeal to the principle of double effect. This appeals to the distinction between intended harms and foreseen harms. Primoratz notes, like kant, that people are due a high respect as moral agents. Trotsky claimed that revolutionaries can have moral intentions, yet use the deaths of innocents for their ends. Primoratz tries to use the idea of collateral damage to echo the doctrine of double effect; but couldn"t terrorist do this as well? (582)
