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Philosophical Studies (2006) 128: 285311 Springer 2006
DOI 10.1007/s11098-004-7800-7M.J. ZIMMERMANRISK, RIGHTS, AND RESTITUTIONABSTRACT. In Imposing Risks, Judith Thomson gives a case in which,
by turning on her stove, she accidentally causes her neighbors death. She
claims that both the following are true: (1) she ought not to have caused her
neighbors death; (2) it was permissible for her to turn her stove on. In this
paper it is argued that it cannot be that both (1) and (2) are true, that (2) is
true, and that therefore (1) is false. How this is so is explained, and the
implications of this position regarding the relation between rights and duties
is explored.In Imposing Risks, the article that constitutes Chapter 11 of
her Rights, Restitution, and Risk, Judith Thomson poses the
following problem:[M]y neighbor is not now coming at me with a knife. (It is early morning,
and he is still asleep.) Nor is there anybody whose life or limb I can save by
causing my neighbor a harm. It certainly seems plausible to think that the
circumstances which now obtain just are not circumstances in which it
would be permissible for me to cause my neighbor any harm at all a
fortiori, it seems plausible to think that if anyone said to me now,(1) You ought not cause your neighbors death,he would be speaking truly. So far so good. In fact I want some coee now,
and must turn my stove on if I am to have some. If I turn my stove on, I
impose a risk of death on my neighbor it is a gas stove, and my turning it
on may cause gas to leak into his apartment, or it may cause an explosion,
etc. Feeling a surge of moral anxiety, I ask your advice. You say: Absurd.
Thats a ne stove, in mint condition, and the risk is utterly trivial. So its
not the case that you ought not turn your stove on; that is,(2) It is permissible for you to turn your stove on.It is very plausible to think that (1) and (2) are both true Suppose that, feeling reassured, I turn my stove on. Lo astonishingly,
amazingly my doing so causes an explosion in my neighbors apartment,
and thereby...