What Have I Done?

Main Article Content

Timothy Chappell

Abstract

An externalist view of intention is developed on broadly Wittgensteinian grounds, and applied to show that the classic Thomist doctrine of double effect, though it has good uses in casuistry, has also been overused because of the internalism about intention that has generally been presupposed by its users. We need a good criterion of what counts as the content of our intentional actions; I argue, again on Wittgensteinian grounds, that the best criterion comes not from foresight, nor from foresight plus some degree of probability, nor from any metaphysics of “closeness”, but simply from our ordinary shared understanding of what counts as doing a given action, and what does not.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

Article Details

How to Cite
Chappell, Timothy. 2013. “What Have I Done?”. Diametros, no. 38 (December):86-112. https://doi.org/10.13153/diam.38.2013.539.
Section
Special topic – THE MORAL PHILOSOPHY OF THOMAS AQUINAS AND CONTEMPORARY PRACTICAL ETHICS
Author Biography

Timothy Chappell, The Open University

Timothy Chappell Professor of Philosophy The Open University Ethics Centre Department of Philosophy Faculty of Arts The Open University Walton Hall Milton Keynes MK7 6AA UK e-mail: t.chappell@open.ac.uk
Share |

References

Adams Douglas, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Orion Publishing, London 2012.

Bolt Robert, A Man for all Seasons, Macmillan, Basingstoke 1985.

Boyle Joseph, “Toward Understanding the Principle of Double Effect,” Ethics (90) 1980.

Boyle Joseph, “Who is Entitled to Double Effect?,” The Journal of Medicine and Philosophy (16) 1991.

Chappell Timothy, “Two Distinctions that Do Make a Difference. The Action/Omission Distinction and the Principle of Double Effect,” Philosophy (77) 2002.

Chappell Timothy, The Polymorphy of Practical Reason, [in:] idem, Values and Virtues, Oxford University Press, Oxford 2007.

Chappell Timothy, “Moral Perception,” Philosophy (83/4) 2008.

Chappell Timothy, “Ethics Beyond Moral Theory,” Philosophical Investigations (32/3) 2009.

Finnis John, “The Rights and Wrongs of Abortion: a Reply to Judith Thomson,” Philosophy & Public Affairs (2/2) 1973.

Grisez Germain, Living a Christian Life, Franciscan Press, Quincy, Illinois 1993.

Kamm Frances, “The Doctrine of Triple Effect and why a Rational Agent Need not Intend the Means to His End,” Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society. Supplementary Volume (74) 2000.

Thomas Aquinas, Summa theologiae, available at http://www.corpusthomisticum.org/sth0000.html.

Pascal Blaise, Provincial Letters, available at http://fr.wikisource.org/wiki/Les_Provinciales [26.1.2011].

Rizzolatti G., Sinigaglia C., Mirrors in the Brain: How We Share our Actions and Emotions, Oxford University Press, Oxford 2008.

Shaw Joseph, “Intentions and Trolleys,” Philosophical Quarterly (56/222) 2006.

Thomson J.J., “A Defence of Abortion,” Philosophy & Public Affairs (1/1) 1971.

Wedgwood Ralph, “Defending Double Effect,” Ratio (24/4) 2011.

Wittgenstein Ludwig, Philosophical Investigations, Blackwell, Oxford 1967.