This entire argument is definition driven. If you define “making a difference” in the way stated, the author is correct. If you don’t, he’s not. As cleverly pointed out elsewhere, the two-person shooting indicates that this method of ethical evaluation is completely at odds with almost any actual person’s ethical beliefs. For a more real world example, consider the murder of Julius Caesar, or really any conspiracy plot—it would have happened without you, but your involvement was still improper. It may not have “made a difference,” but virtually every person’s concept of morality will register it as immoral.
Indeed, that is exactly why this is a useless definitional dispute: knowing that something “made a difference” doesn’t tell us anything about that thing other than it would not have happened had you not done it. You seem to be endorsing this as some kind of moral framework, which I think it overwhelmingly fails as. This is particularly true if you hold the ideal that any moral framework should be universally practicable, which this one is obviously not.
And a point of forum etiquette: use italics rather than CAPS. CAPS tend to read like I’M SO RIGHT I’M YELLING! and, at least in my experience, correlate inversely with having a good point.
This entire argument is definition driven. If you define “making a difference” in the way stated, the author is correct. If you don’t, he’s not. As cleverly pointed out elsewhere, the two-person shooting indicates that this method of ethical evaluation is completely at odds with almost any actual person’s ethical beliefs. For a more real world example, consider the murder of Julius Caesar, or really any conspiracy plot—it would have happened without you, but your involvement was still improper. It may not have “made a difference,” but virtually every person’s concept of morality will register it as immoral.
Indeed, that is exactly why this is a useless definitional dispute: knowing that something “made a difference” doesn’t tell us anything about that thing other than it would not have happened had you not done it. You seem to be endorsing this as some kind of moral framework, which I think it overwhelmingly fails as. This is particularly true if you hold the ideal that any moral framework should be universally practicable, which this one is obviously not.
And a point of forum etiquette: use italics rather than CAPS. CAPS tend to read like I’M SO RIGHT I’M YELLING! and, at least in my experience, correlate inversely with having a good point.