Hostname: page-component-7479d7b7d-c9gpj Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-10T23:25:06.088Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Acts, Omissions, and Common Sense Morality

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2020

Laurence Thomas
Laurence Thomas*
Affiliation:
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Get access

Extract

Common Sense Morality condemns us for being indifferent to the suffering of others. Even so, it sharply distinguishes between this and our knowingly and needlessly contributing to the suffering of others. (That we are talking about voluntary behavior throughout is to be understood.) And it holds that the latter constitutes the greater moral wrong. It would seem that common sense morality is not without a point. From the premise that a person knowingly and needlessly takes steps to cause others to suffer, it would certainly be correct for us to conclude that he desires to see others suffer and is sufficiently motivated by this desire that he brings about the suffering of others.

Type
Research Article
Information
Canadian Journal of Philosophy Supplementary Volume , Volume 8: New Essays in Ethics and Public Policy , 1982 , pp. 37 - 46
Copyright
Copyright © The Authors 1982

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Select Bibliography

Ackerman, Bruce, Social Justice and The Liberal State (New Haven, Ct.: Yale University Press 1980).Google Scholar
Blumenfeld, Jean, ‘Causing Harm and Bringing Aid,’ American Philosophical Quarterly, 18 (1981) 323-9.Google Scholar
Lerner, Melvin J., ‘The Justice Motive: Some Hypotheses as to its Origins and Forms,' Journal of Personality, 45 (1977).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
J., Macaulay, and L., Berkowitz (editors), Altruism and Helping Behavior (New York: Academic Press 1970).Google Scholar
Rushton J., Phillippe, Altruism, Socialization and Society (Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice Hall 1980).Google Scholar
Singer, Peter, Practical Ethics (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 1979).Google Scholar
Steinbock, Bonnie (editor), Killing and Letting Die (Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, 1980).Google Scholar
Sumner, L.W., Abortion and Moral Theory (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press 1980).Google Scholar
Thibaut, John, and Walker, Laurens, Procedural Justice: A Psychological Analysis (Hillsdale, N.J.: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Publishers 1975).Google Scholar
Wispe, Lauren (editor), Altruism, Sympathy, and Helping: Psychological and Sociological Principles (New York: Academic Press 1978).Google Scholar