Mirror of Justice

A blog dedicated to the development of Catholic legal theory.
Affiliated with the Program on Church, State & Society at Notre Dame Law School.

Wednesday, October 6, 2004

Intrinsic Evil vs. Other Moral Issues

I agree with Amy that merely labeling something as an intrinsic evil is not helpful in terms of casting votes, precisely becuase it ignores the question of effectiveness of course of action. Labeling something intrinsically evil does not mean there are not prudential judgments involved in determining how to eradicate that evil. That a candidate agrees with me that abortion is immoral does not mean I agree with the candidate about how to address that immorality.
Still, that does not make the distinction irrelevent for voting purposes in that it at least helps establish a hierarchy of issues on which one will evaluate a candidate (which evaluation will include the candidate's means of addressing the intrincis evil) and has something to say about the strength with which one insists that the moral value be addressed in public policy debates.

https://mirrorofjustice.blogs.com/mirrorofjustice/2004/10/intrinsic_evil__1.html

Stabile, Susan | Permalink

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» http://aurochsandangels.typepad.com/aurochs_and_angels/2004/10/susan_stabile_i.html from Aurochs and Angels
Susan Stabile is a new contributor at Mirror of Justice. Her first post concerns the distinction between actions that are intrinsically evil (like abortion) and actions or issues that require prudential judgment (like when to go to war, when to [Read More]