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Off Her Trolley? Frances Kamm and the Metaphysics of Morality

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 March 2008

ALASTAIR NORCROSS
ALASTAIR NORCROSS*
Affiliation:
Rice Universitynorcross@rice.edu
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Extract

Frances Kamm's aptly titled Intricate Ethics is a tour de force of what Peter Unger calls the ‘preservationist’ approach to ethical theory. Here is some of what she says about her methodology:

Consider as many case-based judgments of yours as prove necessary. Do not ignore some case-based judgments, assuming they are errors, just because they conflict with simple or intuitively plausible principles that account for some subset of your case-based judgments. Work on the assumption that a different principle can account for all of the judgments. Be prepared to be surprised at what this principle is . . . . I say, consider your case-based judgments, rather than a survey of everyone's judgments. This is because I believe that much more is accomplished when one person considers her judgments and then tries to analyze and justify their grounds than if we do mere surveys. (5)

Type
Research Article
Information
Utilitas , Volume 20 , Issue 1 , March 2008 , pp. 65 - 80
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2008

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References

1 Kamm, Frances, Intricate Ethics (Oxford, 2007).CrossRefGoogle Scholar Unless otherwise noted, all page references are to this book.

2 Unger, Peter, Living High and Letting Die (Oxford, 1996), pp. 88ff.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

3 See Doris, John, Lack of Character (Cambridge, 2002).CrossRefGoogle Scholar

4 Rachels, James, ‘Active and Passive Euthanasia’, reprinted in Killing and Letting Die, ed. Steinbock, Bonnie and Norcross, Alastair (New York, 1994), p. 115.Google Scholar