RT Article
T1 Dirty Hands, Supreme Emergencies, and Catholic Moral Theology
JF Journal of religious ethics
VO 49
IS 4
SP 739
OP 767
A1 Sandsmark, Evan
LA English
PB Wiley-Blackwell
YR 2021
UL https://www.ixtheo.de/Record/178842008X
AB Is it ever permissible to commit an intrinsically evil act in order to avert catastrophe? Consequentialists say yes, denying the very concept of intrinsic evil, since the action that leads to the best consequences is by definition right. Moral absolutism, in contrast, insists that it is never permissible to commit an action that is inherently evil, regardless of the consequences. However, there is a middle position, occupied by “dirty hands” theorists, who claim that actions can be both necessary and immoral. I argue that Catholic moral theology, although generally associated with moral absolutism, can and should make conceptual space for the idea of dirty hands, both because it saves the Church from committing itself to what seem to be moral absurdities and because the phenomenon of dirty hands captures a genuine dimension of our moral experience in a fallen world.
K1 Intrinsic evil
K1 Michael Walzer
K1 Christian Ethics
K1 Catholic moral theology
K1 supreme emergency
K1 problem of dirty hands
DO 10.1111/jore.12371