Double-Effect Reasoning Doing Good and Avoiding Evil [Hardcover]

T. A. Cavanaugh defends double-effect reasoning (DER), also known as the principle of double effect. DER plays a role in anti-consequentialist ethics (such as deontology), in hard cases in which one cannot realize a good without also causing a foreseen, but not intended, bad effect (for example, killing non-combatants when bombing a military target). This study is the first book-length account of the history and issues surrounding this controversial approach to hard cases. It will be indispensable in theoretical ethics, applied ethics (especially medical and military), and moral theology. It will also interest legal and public policy scholars.

1. The history of double-effect reasoning
2. The contemporary conversation
3. The i/f distinction: distinguishing intent from foresight
4. The i/f distinction's ethical import
5. DER and remaining considerations

Thomas Cavanugh has written a splendid book. he provides a succinct yet comprehensive survey of the history of double-effect reasoning (DER) but also a thoroughly engages the present debate and advances one's understanding with original insights. His writing is philosophically rigorous, yet always clear and comprehensible, and it should be accessible to a wide audience. ... If there is such a thing as a page-turner in ethics, this is it. I thoroughly enjoyed reading it.
--Studies in Christian Ethics

Thomas Cavanaugh has written a fine book and the problem he is struggling with ought to be of great concern to the military profession.
--Journal of Military Ethics

In this work [Cavanaugh] gives a magisterial account of the history, the philosophical basis, and the continued relevance of double-effect reasoning (DER) in ethics. ... I take the text to be without peer in its engagement with teh current debate, and its clarity in the presentation of DER's claims and historical roots.
--International Philosophical Quarterly

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