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    Selecting the 'bystander never present' baseline is quest... — Carmelics
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    Challenges→It is not clear that failing to rescue a drowning child harms the child.

    Selecting the 'bystander never present' baseline is question-begging because it presupposes that positive duties cannot generate harm, which is precisely what is at issue.

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    1 reason for
    1 reason against

    Reasons For

    1 perspective
    Reason for
    ?
    • 1.A baseline choice that assumes the conclusion (that positive duties harmlessly differ from negative duties) cannot settle the debate about their moral status.
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    • 2.If positive duties can generate harm through omission, then selecting 'bystander absent' as baseline unfairly excludes this possibility from consideration.
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    • 3.Neutral baselines should be selected independently of controversial moral claims, not chosen to pre-validate one side of the dispute.
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    Reasons Against

    1 perspective
    Reason against
    ?
    • 1.Every baseline selection involves some substantive moral judgment; no baseline is truly neutral or question-free.
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    • 2.The 'bystander never present' baseline reflects a conceptual truth about causation, not a moral claim about duties or harm.
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    • 3.The charge of begging the question requires showing the baseline *logically entails* the disputed conclusion, not merely that it supports one view.
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    Rights & Liberty1 linkedJustice & Punishment1 linked

    Related

    A baseline choice that assumes the conclusion (that positive duties harmlessly d...Every baseline selection involves some substantive moral judgment; no baseline i...If positive duties can generate harm through omission, then selecting 'bystander...It is not clear that failing to rescue a drowning child harms the child.
    +3 moreShow less
    Neutral baselines should be selected independently of controversial moral claims...The 'bystander never present' baseline reflects a conceptual truth about causati...The charge of begging the question requires showing the baseline *logically enta...

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    claim
    Perspectives
    2 (1 for, 1 against)
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