PHL275H1 Lecture Notes - Lecture 12: Organ Transplantation, Consequentialism, Collateral Damage
Document Summary
In williams" critique of utilitarianism, it is said that utilitarianism ignores the distinction between doing and enabling (pg. 353-354: failing to save someone from death is no different or better from outrightly murdering said someone. However, the intuition objection from williams is not just about utilitarianism"s demand for one to abandon one"s own commitments and/or recreation. Everyday, non-moralist grants what philosophers call an agent-relative permission": in deciding how to act, someone may give more weight to one"s own happiness over the happiness of others, whether they be individuals or collectives. With regards to consequentialism"s excessive permissions, utilitarianism holds that the ends always justify the means: however, many think this is wrong because there are cases where the act with the best overall outcome is wrong nonetheless. However, while enabling bad consequences are by no means good, enabling is less morally objectionable.
