Abstract
Human infants are beings who are obviously vulnerable to the vicissitudes of life in general and who tend to invoke in us special concern and care. One might therefore expect that our moral thinking would show why this special regard somehow cohered with basic moral features of the human condition. It is somewhat surprising that one of the major theories of moral value should not only devalue the intuitions that surround human infants but actually suggest that such intuitions are radically mistaken.1 I shall use this counterintuitive conclusion about young human beings to explore the basic claims and commitments of consequentialism as a metaethical theory.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.
Buying options
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Learn about institutional subscriptionsPreview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
Notes
P. Singer, Practical Ethics (Cambridge: CUP, 1993, 2nd. ed.) (hereafter referred to as ‘Singer’); M. Tooley, ‘Abortion and Infanticide’, Philosophy and Public Affairs 2 (1972) 37–65, reprinted in J. Feinberg (ed.), The Problem of Abortion (Belmont: Wadsworth, 1984, 2nd. ed.).
R. Crisp, ‘Quality of Life and Health Care’, in K. Fulford, G. Gillett, and J. Martin Soskice (eds.), Medicine and Moral Reasoning (Cambridge; CUP, 1994).
J. Glover, Causing Death and Saving Lives (Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1977), pp. 62–3 (hereafter referred to as ‘Glover’).
Hobbes, Leviathan (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1909), p. 96.
Singer, p. 101; ‘intellectually disabled humans’ are referred to as ‘mental defectives’ in the first edition of Practical Ethics (Cambridge: CUP, 1979), p. 84.
D. Hume, A Treatise of Human Nature, ed. Selby-Bigge (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1960), Book III, Part I, sec. i, p. 467.
P. F. Strawson, ‘Freedom and Resentment’, in Freedom and Resentment and other Essays (London: Methuen, 1974).
The consequentialist doctrine of replaceability has been extensively criticised elsewhere: see S. Uniacke and H. McCloskey, ‘Peter Singer and Non-Voluntary “Euthanasia”: Tripping down the Slippery Slope’, Journal of Applied Philosophy 9 (1992) 203–19.
N. Noddings, Caring: a Feminine Approach to Ethics and Moral Education (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1984).
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Copyright information
© 1997 David S. Oderberg and Jacqueline A. Laing
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Gillett, G. (1997). Young Human Beings: Metaphysics and Ethics. In: Oderberg, D.S., Laing, J.A. (eds) Human Lives. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-25098-1_7
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-25098-1_7
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London
Print ISBN: 978-1-349-25100-1
Online ISBN: 978-1-349-25098-1
eBook Packages: Palgrave Religion & Philosophy CollectionPhilosophy and Religion (R0)