Category
Applied ethics
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Compassion fatigue: does the duty to care have limits?
After a hard month on the ward I've been thinking about this. Nurses talk about "compassion fatigue": after enough exposure to suffering, you start to feel less. You become efficient and a little cold, and you hate yourself for it. Care ethics…
Started by Elin Lindqvist1 reply60 views -
Kant and the murderer at the door: can the essay be rescued?
In 1797 Kant published "On a Supposed Right to Lie from Philanthropy", replying to Benjamin Constant. He maintains that you may not lie even to a murderer who asks where your friend is hiding. When I taught this, nearly every student found…
Started by Henrike Vogel4 replies166 views -
What is the doctrine of double effect, and did Aquinas really come up with it?
I drive a city bus in Ankara and listen to philosophy lectures between stops. Yesterday's lecture mentioned the "doctrine of double effect" and said it goes back to Thomas Aquinas. The lecturer moved on quickly and I didn't fully follow. Here's what…
Started by Serkan Aydoğdu4 replies152 views -
Why did Philippa Foot invent the trolley case, and what did Judith Jarvis Thomson change?
I coach high school debate, and the trolley problem comes up at every tournament, usually as a gotcha: "so you'd push the fat man?" My students treat it as a puzzle with a trick answer. I'd like to teach it properly, which…
Started by Sam Ellery4 replies210 views -
Find the structure under the argument first: I tried it on three stories I covered
I cover courts and human rights in Karachi. A lecturer's handout I picked up says that most applied-ethics disputes turn on a handful of recurring structures: moral status, where to draw a line on a continuum, doing versus allowing, intended versus foreseen…
Started by Sana Mir4 replies196 views -
Doing harm and allowing harm differ morally, even when the outcome is the same
I'm an internist in Cairo, and the distinction between doing and allowing is part of my working day. Withdrawing a ventilator from a patient with no prospect of recovery is treated very differently from giving a lethal injection, by law, by most…
Started by Omar Farouk5 replies261 views