Ethics Without Intention

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Ethics Without Intention tackles the questions raised by difficult moral dilemmas by providing a critical analysis of double effect and its most common ethical and political applications. The book discusses the philosophical distinction between intended harm and foreseen but unintended harm. This distinction, which, according to the doctrine of double effect, makes a difference to the moral justification of actions, is widely applied to some of the most controversial ethical and political questions of our time: collateral damages in wars and acts of terrorism; palliative care, euthanasia, abortion, and embryo research; self-defence, suicide, and self-sacrifice. It is also crucial to the now notorious theoretical cases of the trolley problem and the knobe effect. Di Nucci approaches the doctrine of double effect from four key directions: its historical origins, which can be traced further back than the classic attribution to Aquinas; its theoretical coherence, which is the subject of a lively contemporary debate in philosophy; its moral intuitiveness, which has always been taken for granted but has recently begun to be questioned; and finally its relevance to the difficult moral and political decisions of our time. An engaging and comprehensive introduction to the doctrine of double effect.

Reviews

In his Ethics without Intention. An Essay on Double Effect Ezio di Nucci provides the first in-depth action theoretic analysis of the infamous Doctrine of Double Effect, without already presupposing a particular ethical theory. He offers eight arguments against the doctrine, and convincingly shows that we cannot justify a particular immoral action by way of distinguishing between intended means and its merely foreseen side-effects. His study is original, lucid, and analytically sharp. His book is a must read for everyone interested in the moral relevance of intentions. * Monika Betzler, Chair for Practical Philosophy, University of Bern, Switzerland. *

Author Bio

Ezio Di Nucci is Assistant Professor in Philosophy at Universitt Duisburg-Essen, Germany.