Nice passage! I actually mean to leave open that importance may be agent-relative. (You could reasonably judge it more important to save your own child than to save two strangers, for example -- that's a perfectly reasonable-seeming pattern of concern.) But it would seem self-indulgent, IMO, to care more about maintaining "clean hands" …
Nice passage! I actually mean to leave open that importance may be agent-relative. (You could reasonably judge it more important to save your own child than to save two strangers, for example -- that's a perfectly reasonable-seeming pattern of concern.) But it would seem self-indulgent, IMO, to care more about maintaining "clean hands" than about saving lives. Cf. Nye, Plunkett & Ku in 'Non-Consequentialism Demystified' on how this would seem "monstrously narcissistic": https://www.philosophyetc.net/2015/02/thoughts-on-non-consequentialism.html
Nice passage! I actually mean to leave open that importance may be agent-relative. (You could reasonably judge it more important to save your own child than to save two strangers, for example -- that's a perfectly reasonable-seeming pattern of concern.) But it would seem self-indulgent, IMO, to care more about maintaining "clean hands" than about saving lives. Cf. Nye, Plunkett & Ku in 'Non-Consequentialism Demystified' on how this would seem "monstrously narcissistic": https://www.philosophyetc.net/2015/02/thoughts-on-non-consequentialism.html