Requirements to Rescue and Permissions Not to

Abstract

Abstract Chapter 1 introduces the book’s basic framework of requiring reasons and permitting reasons. Requiring reasons serve to make acts required. Permitting reasons serve to make acts permissible (without serving to make acts required) by serving to prevent requiring reasons from making acts wrong. An act is required—wrong not to do—when there is most requiring reason overall to do it and no sufficiently strong permitting reason not to do it. The chapter then proceeds to defend two main claims: first, that there are (strong) requiring reasons to rescue strangers from (large) harms and, second, that there are (cost-based and autonomy-based) permitting reasons not to rescue, which can make it permissible not to act in accord with the balance of requiring reasons to rescue. Finally, the chapter discusses the compatibility of these two claims with three competing views of rights to be rescued.