Skip to content
Carmelics
TopicsThinkersChangesContributorsLoading account…

    Carmelics

    A reasoning platform. Break down any belief into clear reasons, explore both sides, and weigh the evidence honestly.

    Navigate

    • Topics
    • Search
    • Recent Changes
    • Contribute
    • How It Works
    • Glossary
    • Thinkers
    • Contributors
    • About
    • Statistics
    • Terms
    • Privacy

    Database

    Statements
    —
    Perspectives
    —
    Topics
    —

    Press ? for keyboard shortcuts

    LoyalLoyalJusticeJustice
    Made withinDC&Austin
    Statements
    321,452
    Perspectives
    108,905
    Topics
    42
    Home/Original/inverse
    See Original
    Inverse View

    It is not the case that A rescuer may cut the rope connecting themselves to a victim who is about to fall to their death, even though doing so accelerates the victim's death.

    ?Set your confidence on the premises below to see your aggregate.

    Reasons For

    2 perspectives
    Reason for 1 of 2
    ?
    • 1.An agent who performs the act causally necessary for death — severing the lifeline — is the proximate cause of death, not a mere accelerant.
      ?

      Think about whether this reason is strong or weak

    • 2.The victim's counterfactual death does not transfer moral responsibility for an act that is itself lethal and intentionally performed.
      ?

      Think about whether this reason is strong or weak

    • 3.Foot's doctrine of doing and allowing requires the agent to be a bystander to the harmful sequence, not its active initiator, to escape culpability.
      ?

      Think about whether this reason is strong or weak

    Reason for 2 of 2
    ?
    • 1.Kant's Formula of Humanity prohibits using another person merely as a means, and cutting the rope treats the victim's death as an acceptable cost of the rescuer's survival.
      ?

      Think about whether this reason is strong or weak

    • 2.The supporting argument's distinction between 'accelerating' and 'causing' death collapses when the agent's act is the sufficient condition for death occurring at that moment.
      ?

      Think about whether this reason is strong or weak

    Reasons Against

    1 perspective
    Reason against
    ?
    • 1.Moral agency is not implicated in merely accelerating an evil that is about to happen anyway, as opposed to causing that evil by performing an act necessary for it to occur.
      ?

      Think about whether this reason is strong or weak

    • 2.The victim is about to fall to their death regardless of the rescuer's action.
      ?

      Think about whether this reason is strong or weak

    • 3.Cutting the rope accelerates the victim's death but is not the act that causes the death that would not otherwise occur.
      ?

      Think about whether this reason is strong or weak

    Next step

    Based on where you are in your exploration

    Strongest counterpoint
    Explore the most compelling reason on the other side.