Philosophy Dictionary of ArgumentsHome
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| Substitution: in a formula, a symbol can be substituted for another symbol under certain conditions. E.g. If a constant is substituted for a variable, a propositional function becomes a statement. See also Substitutability, Generality, Validity, Statements, Propositional functions, Fine-grained/coarse-grained._____________Annotation: The above characterizations of concepts are neither definitions nor exhausting presentations of problems related to them. Instead, they are intended to give a short introduction to the contributions below. – Lexicon of Arguments. | |||
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Derek Parfit on Substitution - Dictionary of Arguments
Singer I 108 Life/Substitutability/Substitute/D. Parfit/Peter Singer: (D. Parfit 1976)(1): e.g. Suppose two women want to give birth to a child. One of the two women finds out in the 98m third month of her pregnancy that her future child will be severely damaged, but this is averted by taking a simple pill without side effects, which will bring the child into the world without suffering. The second woman is not yet pregnant. She learns that her child will be born with the same defect without any remedy. This defect is averted if she waits three months before she becomes pregnant. We can assume that both women make the right decision. I 109 Let us assume that both decide differently and both give birth to a severely suffering child. You would say they both made a mistake. Is the mistake in one of the two mistakes more serious? Problem: we could say that the mistake is equally serious in both cases. But the first woman has damaged an existing embryo, and the second woman has only helped an embryo to exist. So she can say: "Without my decision you would not have existed. That is why I did not harm you." Replaceability argument/P. Singer: this consideration brings us closer to the argument of substitutability, since it is about the interests of beings that need to be brought into existence in the first place. This in turn leads to reflections on future generations in connection with climate change. >Decision, cf. >Abortion, >Ethics, >Morality, >Climate change. 1. D. Parfit (1976). Rights, Interests and Possible People". In: S. Gorovitz et al. (Eds), Moral Problems in Medicine (Englewood Cliffs, NJ, 1976._____________Explanation of symbols: Roman numerals indicate the source, arabic numerals indicate the page number. The corresponding books are indicated on the right hand side. ((s)…): Comment by the sender of the contribution. Translations: Dictionary of Arguments The note [Concept/Author], [Author1]Vs[Author2] or [Author]Vs[term] resp. "problem:"/"solution:", "old:"/"new:" and "thesis:" is an addition from the Dictionary of Arguments. If a German edition is specified, the page numbers refer to this edition. |
Parf I D. Parfit Reasons and Persons Oxford 1986 Parf II Derekt Parfit On what matters Oxford 2011 SingerP I Peter Singer Practical Ethics (Third Edition) Cambridge 2011 SingerP II P. Singer The Most Good You Can Do: How Effective Altruism is Changing Ideas About Living Ethically. New Haven 2015 |
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> Counter arguments against Parfit
> Counter arguments in relation to Substitution
Ed. Martin Schulz, access date 2024-04-20