Abstract
My object in this paper is to show how moralists working in the Kantian tradition go from their general moral principles to judgments in individual cases; and to do so by examining how they would proceed in an exemplary individual case. In an earlier paper [5] I attempted to exhibit the contemporary doctrine of informed consent in medical practice as an example of how moral precepts are arrived at in the Kantian tradition. In now attempting to explain how moral principles are applied in that same tradition, I have chosen an example that is more revealing than any I know of in medicine: President Truman’s decision to drop atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. However, its application is universal.
“My sympathies are all in the wrong place, and I don’t like it [said Wimsey]. I know all about not doing evil that good may come. It’s doing good that evil may come that’s so embarrassing”.
“My dear boy”, said the Rector, “it does not do for us to take too much thought for the morrow. It is better to follow the truth and leave the result in the hand of God. He can foresee where we cannot…” Dorothy L. Sayers, The Nine Tailors
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Donagan, A. (1988). The Relation of Moral Theory to Moral Judgments: A Kantian Review. In: Brody, B.A. (eds) Moral Theory and Moral Judgments in Medical Ethics. Philosophy and Medicine, vol 32. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-2715-5_13
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