Necessity and liability: On an honour-based justification for defensive harming
This paper considers whether victims can justify what appears to be unnecessary defensive harming by reference to an honour-based justification. I argue that such an account faces serious problems: the honour-based justification cannot permit, first, defensive harming, and second, substantial unnece...
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| Format: | Journal article |
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University of Oxford, Oxford Uehiro Centre for Practical Ethics
2016
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| _version_ | 1826263529419702272 |
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| author | Bowen, J |
| author2 | Savulescu, J |
| author_facet | Savulescu, J Bowen, J |
| author_sort | Bowen, J |
| collection | OXFORD |
| description | This paper considers whether victims can justify what appears to be unnecessary defensive harming by reference to an honour-based justification. I argue that such an account faces serious problems: the honour-based justification cannot permit, first, defensive harming, and second, substantial unnecessary harming. Finally, I suggest that, if the purpose of the honour based justification is expressive, an argument must be given to demonstrate why harming threateners, as opposed to opting for a nonharmful alternative, is the most effective means of affirming one’s honour. Along the way, I also suggest why I think that internalism about the constraints on defensive harming (the view that the satisfaction of the necessity constraint is a necessity condition of a threatener’s liability) is correct. Most importantly, externalism implies that threateners can be liable to suffer gratuitous harm. I take this to be an unattractive consequence of the view. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-06T19:53:13Z |
| format | Journal article |
| id | oxford-uuid:24acf075-1c67-46ff-92d8-6eaac087beaa |
| institution | University of Oxford |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-06T19:53:13Z |
| publishDate | 2016 |
| publisher | University of Oxford, Oxford Uehiro Centre for Practical Ethics |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | oxford-uuid:24acf075-1c67-46ff-92d8-6eaac087beaa2022-03-26T11:51:20ZNecessity and liability: On an honour-based justification for defensive harmingJournal articlehttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_dcae04bcuuid:24acf075-1c67-46ff-92d8-6eaac087beaaSymplectic Elements at OxfordUniversity of Oxford, Oxford Uehiro Centre for Practical Ethics2016Bowen, JSavulescu, JThis paper considers whether victims can justify what appears to be unnecessary defensive harming by reference to an honour-based justification. I argue that such an account faces serious problems: the honour-based justification cannot permit, first, defensive harming, and second, substantial unnecessary harming. Finally, I suggest that, if the purpose of the honour based justification is expressive, an argument must be given to demonstrate why harming threateners, as opposed to opting for a nonharmful alternative, is the most effective means of affirming one’s honour. Along the way, I also suggest why I think that internalism about the constraints on defensive harming (the view that the satisfaction of the necessity constraint is a necessity condition of a threatener’s liability) is correct. Most importantly, externalism implies that threateners can be liable to suffer gratuitous harm. I take this to be an unattractive consequence of the view. |
| spellingShingle | Bowen, J Necessity and liability: On an honour-based justification for defensive harming |
| title | Necessity and liability: On an honour-based justification for defensive harming |
| title_full | Necessity and liability: On an honour-based justification for defensive harming |
| title_fullStr | Necessity and liability: On an honour-based justification for defensive harming |
| title_full_unstemmed | Necessity and liability: On an honour-based justification for defensive harming |
| title_short | Necessity and liability: On an honour-based justification for defensive harming |
| title_sort | necessity and liability on an honour based justification for defensive harming |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT bowenj necessityandliabilityonanhonourbasedjustificationfordefensiveharming |