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    Judith Jarvis Thomson's work on acts and their consequenc... — Carmelics
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    Challenges→The proximate cause of the husband's death was the wife's voluntary act, not the act of giving her the knives.

    Judith Jarvis Thomson's work on acts and their consequences holds that providing the material means for harm, when that harm is a foreseeable type even if not specific instance, implicates the provider causally.

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    1 reason for
    1 reason against

    Reasons For

    1 perspective
    Reason for
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    • 1.Causal responsibility requires only foreseeability of harm type, not prediction of specific victims, matching how we hold manufacturers accountable.
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    • 2.Providing material means creates a causal chain; withdrawing support would prevent harm, making non-withdrawal a causal contribution.
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    • 3.Moral intuition supports this: gun sellers bear some causal responsibility for foreseeable gun deaths even without knowing specific victims.
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    Reasons Against

    1 perspective
    Reason against
    ?
    • 1.Causal implication requires direct contribution to actual harm, not mere enablement of possibilities among many potential outcomes.
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    • 2.Foreseeability of harm type is too broad; it conflates causal chains with moral responsibility, making ordinary providers causally implicated in rare misuses.
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    • 3.This view collapses the distinction between causing harm and failing to prevent it, undermining a crucial moral-legal boundary.
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    Key Terms

    Acts and their consequences(The main topic of Thomson's philosophical work)
    The study of actions people take and what results from those actions—basically, examining whether an action is good or bad based on what happens because of it.
    Foreseeable(Describes whether the harm could be anticipated)
    Something that a reasonable person could predict or expect would likely happen.
    Implicates causally(The key conclusion about the provider's responsibility for harm)
    Makes someone partially responsible or connected to causing something to happen, even if they didn't directly do it themselves.
    Judith Jarvis Thomson(philosophy history)
    A famous American philosopher who wrote influential work on ethics, rights, and legal responsibility, including ideas about how companies should be held accountable when many of them might share blame.
    Material means(What someone provides that could lead to harm)
    Physical objects, money, tools, or resources that enable or help someone do something.

    Connections

    1 topic

    Consequentialism1 linked

    Related

    Causal implication requires direct contribution to actual harm, not mere enablem...Causal responsibility requires only foreseeability of harm type, not prediction ...Foreseeability of harm type is too broad; it conflates causal chains with moral ...Moral intuition supports this: gun sellers bear some causal responsibility for f...
    +3 moreShow less
    Providing material means creates a causal chain; withdrawing support would preve...The proximate cause of the husband's death was the wife's voluntary act, not the...

    Details

    Type
    claim
    Perspectives
    2 (1 for, 1 against)
    Edits
    1 edit
    This view collapses the distinction between causing harm and failing to prevent ...