G. E. M. Anscombe Quote

You can argue truly enough, for example, that general respect for the prohibition on murder makes life more commodious. If people really respect the prohibition against murder life is pleasanter for all of us - but this argument is exceedingly comic. Because utility presupposes the life of those who are to be convenienced, and everybody perceives quite clearly that the wrong done in murder is done first and foremost to the victim, whose life is not inconvenienced, it just isn't there any more. He isn't there to complain; so the utilitarian argument has to be on behalf of the rest of us. Therefore, though true, it is highly comic and is not the foundation: the objection to murder is supra-utilitarian.


Contraception and Chastity (1975)


You can argue truly enough, for example, that general respect for the prohibition on murder makes life more commodious. If people really respect the...

You can argue truly enough, for example, that general respect for the prohibition on murder makes life more commodious. If people really respect the...

You can argue truly enough, for example, that general respect for the prohibition on murder makes life more commodious. If people really respect the...

You can argue truly enough, for example, that general respect for the prohibition on murder makes life more commodious. If people really respect the...