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Full Idea
Noninterference requires justification as much as interference does.
Gist of Idea
Noninterference requires justification as much as interference does
Source
Thomas Nagel (Equality and Partiality [1991], Ch.10)
Book Ref
Nagel,Thomas: 'Equality and Partiality' [OUP 1995], p.100
A Reaction
I'm not convinced by this, as a simple rule. If I spend my whole life doing just the minimum for my own survival, I don't see why I should have to justify that, and I don't see a state is obliged to justify it either.
20869 | The highest degree of morality performs all that is appropriate, omitting nothing [Chrysippus] |
7404 | Nations are not obliged to help one-another, but are obliged not to harm one another [Grotius, by Tuck] |
15824 | There are mere omissions (through ignorance, perhaps), and people can 'commit an omission' [Chisholm] |
4692 | It is not true that killing and allowing to die (or acts and omissions) are morally indistinguishable [Foot] |
4694 | Making a runaway tram kill one person instead of five is diverting a fatal sequence, not initiating one [Foot] |
6998 | Folk morality does not clearly distinguish between doing and allowing [Jackson] |
6479 | Noninterference requires justification as much as interference does [Nagel] |
4658 | Acts and Omissions: bad consequences are morally better if they result from an omission rather than an act [Glover] |
4659 | It doesn't seem worse to switch off a life-support machine than to forget to switch it on [Glover] |
4660 | Harmful omissions are unavoidable, while most harmful acts can be avoided [Glover] |
20881 | The act/omission distinction is important for duties, but less so for consequences [LaFollette] |
21136 | Utilitarians conflate acts and omissions; causing to drown and failing to save are the same [Shorten] |