A challenge to common sense morality

Abstract

This work challenges conventional notions of morality by arguing that there is no morally significant distinction between making something happen and allowing it to happen (e.g., killing someone or letting them die), effectively rendering moot the traditional distinction between killing and letting die. The common sense belief that there is a difference between the two is rooted in a more general but morally irrelevant contrast between how actions relate to outcomes in a purely causal sense. Beyond this, various analyses examining how an agent’s conduct is relevant to different outcomes fail to justify the widely held belief that harming is worse than allowing harm. – AI-generated abstract.