Innocence and Consequentialism: Inconsistency, Equivocation and Contradiction in the Philosophy of Peter Singer

The dictum of Publilius Syrus expresses a central idea of traditional morality. When we say an action is gravely wrong because it betrays the innocent, we assume that morality addresses, at least in part, questions of justice, and further that these questions of justice are inextricably linked with the concept of innocence. The concept of innocence however is as broad as it is multifaceted. An agent may be innocent (of an act, say) or she may be an innocent (a child, perhaps). Condemning an innocent human being is ordinarily considered an evil and abusing or harming the innocent is regarded as a disgraceful thing. Innocence is often seen as finding its opposite in guilt, so that the term necessarily involves a determination of an agent’s liability. But in fact the concept extends far beyond questions of liability and culpability into realms that are not ordinarily discussed by contemporary moral philosophers. These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.