Scanlon and the claims of the many versus the one

Abstract

John Taurek (1977) has famously argued that when faced with the choice between saving one stranger's life and two (or more) different strangers' lives, we should follow a principle that directs us to flip a fair coin to determine whom to save just as we would do when faced with a choice between saving one stranger and a single other stranger. We should flip a fair coin because we treat each of the one and the the many with equal concern and respect only if we give each an equal and positive chance of being saved. We give the one no chance of being saved if we instead follow a principle of saving the greater number in such cases.

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