I’m comparing the inaction to the not-self-sacrificing, not to the lack of action. I attempted to clarify the distinction when I said the similarity was not ‘anything specific about the way the question is phrased’.
The similarity is not about the causality but about the cost paid. In many ‘morality of inaction’ problems the cost to self is usually so low as to be neglected but in fact all actions carry a cost. I see the problem not as primarily one of determining causality but more as a cost-benefit analysis. Inaction is usually the ‘zero-cost’ option, action carries a cost (which may be very small, like pressing a button, or extremely large, like jumping in front of a moving trolley). The benefit is conferred directly on other parties and indirectly on yourself according to what value you place on the welfare of others (and possibly according to other criteria).
I think our moral intuition is primed to distinguish between freely chosen actions taken to benefit ourselves that ignore fairly direct negative consequences on others (which we generally view as morally wrong) and refraining from taking actions that would harm ourselves but would fairly directly benefit others (which may or may not be viewed as morally wrong but are generally seen as ‘less wrong’ than the former). We also seem primed to associate direct action with agency and free choice (since that is usually what it represents) and so directly taken actions tend to lead to events being viewed as the former rather than the latter.
I believe the moral ‘dilemma’ represented by carefully constructed thought experiments like this represents a conflict between our ‘agency recognizing’ intuition that attempts to distinguish directly taken action from inaction and our judgement of sins of commission vs. omission. Given that the unusual part of the dilemma is the forced choice imposed by a third party (the evil king) it seems likely that the moral intuition that is primed to react to agency is more likely to be making flawed judgements.
I see the problem not as primarily one of determining causality but more as a cost-benefit analysis.
This makes sense to me, but it seems to run counter to the nature of MrHen’s original claim that the issue is lack of responsibility. For example, if it’s all about CBA, then you would presumably be more uneasy about MrHen’s hostage example ($100 vs. 10 lives) than he seems to be. Presumably also you would become even more uneasy were it $10, or $1, whereas MrHen’s argument seems to suggest that all of this is irrelevant because you’re not responsible either way.
In this example I wouldn’t hold someone morally responsible for the murders if they failed to pay $100 ransom—that responsibility still lies firmly with the person taking the hostages. Depending on the circumstances I would probably consider it morally questionable to fail to pay such a low cost for such a high benefit to others though. That’s a little different to the question of moral responsibility for the deaths however.
Note that I also don’t consider an example like this morally equivalent to not donating $100 to a charity that is expected to save 10 lives as a utilitarian/consequentialist view of morality would tend to hold.
I’m comparing the inaction to the not-self-sacrificing, not to the lack of action. I attempted to clarify the distinction when I said the similarity was not ‘anything specific about the way the question is phrased’.
The similarity is not about the causality but about the cost paid. In many ‘morality of inaction’ problems the cost to self is usually so low as to be neglected but in fact all actions carry a cost. I see the problem not as primarily one of determining causality but more as a cost-benefit analysis. Inaction is usually the ‘zero-cost’ option, action carries a cost (which may be very small, like pressing a button, or extremely large, like jumping in front of a moving trolley). The benefit is conferred directly on other parties and indirectly on yourself according to what value you place on the welfare of others (and possibly according to other criteria).
I think our moral intuition is primed to distinguish between freely chosen actions taken to benefit ourselves that ignore fairly direct negative consequences on others (which we generally view as morally wrong) and refraining from taking actions that would harm ourselves but would fairly directly benefit others (which may or may not be viewed as morally wrong but are generally seen as ‘less wrong’ than the former). We also seem primed to associate direct action with agency and free choice (since that is usually what it represents) and so directly taken actions tend to lead to events being viewed as the former rather than the latter.
I believe the moral ‘dilemma’ represented by carefully constructed thought experiments like this represents a conflict between our ‘agency recognizing’ intuition that attempts to distinguish directly taken action from inaction and our judgement of sins of commission vs. omission. Given that the unusual part of the dilemma is the forced choice imposed by a third party (the evil king) it seems likely that the moral intuition that is primed to react to agency is more likely to be making flawed judgements.
This makes sense to me, but it seems to run counter to the nature of MrHen’s original claim that the issue is lack of responsibility. For example, if it’s all about CBA, then you would presumably be more uneasy about MrHen’s hostage example ($100 vs. 10 lives) than he seems to be. Presumably also you would become even more uneasy were it $10, or $1, whereas MrHen’s argument seems to suggest that all of this is irrelevant because you’re not responsible either way.
Am I understanding you correctly?
In this example I wouldn’t hold someone morally responsible for the murders if they failed to pay $100 ransom—that responsibility still lies firmly with the person taking the hostages. Depending on the circumstances I would probably consider it morally questionable to fail to pay such a low cost for such a high benefit to others though. That’s a little different to the question of moral responsibility for the deaths however.
Note that I also don’t consider an example like this morally equivalent to not donating $100 to a charity that is expected to save 10 lives as a utilitarian/consequentialist view of morality would tend to hold.
Well, you are certainly understanding me correctly.