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Single Idea 22387

[filed under theme 20. Action / C. Motives for Action / 5. Action Dilemmas / b. Double Effect ]

Full Idea

Rejection of the doctrine of double effect puts us hopelessly in the power of bad men. Anyone who wants us to do something we think is wrong has only to threaten that otherwise he himself will do something we think worse.

Gist of Idea

Without double effect, bad men can make us do evil by threatening something worse

Source

Philippa Foot (Abortion and the Doctrine of Double Effect [1967], p.25)

Book Ref

Foot,Philippa: 'Virtues and Vices' [Blackwell 1981], p.25

A Reaction

Her example is they will torture five if you don't torture one. Bernard Williams's famous Jim and the Indians is they will shoot twenty if you don't shoot one. Williams aims it at utilitarian calculations. Double effect is highly relevant.

The 14 ideas with the same theme [assessing effects against side effects of an act]:

22384 A 'double effect' is a foreseen but not desired side-effect, which may be forgivable [Foot]
22385 The doctrine of double effect can excuse an outcome because it wasn't directly intended [Foot]
22386 Double effect says foreseeing you will kill someone is not the same as intending it [Foot]
22387 Without double effect, bad men can make us do evil by threatening something worse [Foot]
22388 Double effect seems to rely on a distinction between what we do and what we allow [Foot]
22466 We see a moral distinction between our aims and their foreseen consequences [Foot]
22465 We see a moral distinction between doing and allowing to happen [Foot]
22467 Acts and omissions only matter if they concern doing something versus allowing it [Foot]
23578 Double Effect needs a double intention - to achieve the good, and minimise the evil [Walzer]
4657 Double Effect: no bad acts with good consequences, but possibly good acts despite bad consequences [Glover]
6896 Double effect is the distinction between what is foreseen and what is intended [Mautner]
6897 Double effect acts need goodness, unintended evil, good not caused by evil, and outweighing [Mautner]
7293 It is legitimate to do harm if it is the unintended side-effect of an effort to achieve a good [Grayling]
20068 Describing a death as a side-effect rather than a goal may just be good public relations [Stout,R]