Philosophy, et cetera 2008-07-23

Introducing 'Merely Normative' Risk

I expect to write a few posts on this topic, so here's a quick overview and introduction:We should be wary of bringing about terrible outcomes, in face of empirical uncertainty. I assume it's terrible to kill innocent persons (i.e. conscious, rational beings with goals for the future). So if there was a 10% chance that fetuses had mature psychological capacities, that would - I take it - count as a decisive reason against getting an abortion (in typical circumstances). But what about merely normative uncertainty? Suppose we're sure that fetuses have minimal mental lives of type F, but we nonetheless grant a 10% chance that killing a type-F is as morally bad as killing a mature person. What weight should we grant this moral uncertainty in our practical reasoning? Here are three possible answers:(I) Full weight: The two kinds of ...

read more   

more posts from Philosophy, et cetera