PHIL 1550 Lecture Notes - Lecture 16: Watson Institute For International And Public Affairs, Thought Experiment
12 Jun 2020
School
Department
Course
Professor
Document Summary
Smith steps from behind the corner of a nearby building and begins to fire a gun at jones, with the appearance of deliberate intent to kill jones. Surrounded by buildings, jones is afforded no means of escape. Jones, who is carrying a gun himself, shoots at smith and kills him. : at first, this is a straight-forward case of self-defense: Smith"s actions put jones" life directly and immediately in mortal jeopardy, and. Jones" killing smith was necessary to end that threat. From the point of view of self-defense, these facts about smith"s actions are the only relevant ones. The moral justification of the killing rests on them alone given the legitimacy of self- defense. : but then fullinwider adds some new details: Suppose smith, through heavy gambling losses, is in debt to the mob for. The mobsters propose to smith that if he will kill jones (a crusading district attorney, say), they will forgive his debt.
