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The Inquiring Murderer story goes like this. Imagine that an innocent person (maybe
someone you love) is fleeing from a murderer. He tells you exactly where he will hide. Then
the murderer comes to your door and asks you if you know the location of his intended
victim. You do know.
The question raised by this scenario is this: Would it be immoral to lie to this murderer by
telling him that you dont know where the victim is?
To fully clarify the situation being discussed, we have to make a few assumptions:
(1) The inquiring murderer is no threat to you personally; he will not attack you if he
finds out you lied to him.
(2) If you dont lie, the murderer will most probably find and kill the intended victim.
(3) If you do lie, the murderer will most probably not find the intended victim.
Constant argued that in a scenario like this, it would not be immoral to lie to the inquiring
murderer. It may even be immoralnot to lie.
Contemporary students of Kant are scholars influenced by Kants philosophy who are
alive now, or who were alive in the recent past. ChristineKorsgaard is one very
distinguished living Kantian.
To say that something has intrinsic value means that it has value just because of its
existence, and that its value does not depend on any other good things.
Dignity is the quality of being worthy of respect.
The premise at line 1 is a claim about psychology. Kant argues that cruelty to animals will
harden the heartthat is, it will make us less averse to cruelty in general. This, in
turn, will dispose us to be cruel toward all living beingsincluding rational,
autonomous beings.
The premise at line 2 is based on the Principle of Humanity. If you are cruel to a rational,
autonomous being, you obviously fail to respect that being. Kant adds that even doing
something that makes you more likely to be cruel toward rational, autonomous beings
is a way of disrespecting them.
The conclusion at line 3 follows logically from the two premises.
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Relevant links:
http://www.theguardian.com/women-in-leadership/2013/sep/05/insider-tipsrecruiter-avoid-unconscious-bias
http://www.nso.edu/sites/www.nso.edu/files/files/docs/AURADiversityBrochureNov2013.pdf
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