9. Is a Short and Mediocre Life Preferable to No Life at All?

Chapters in this book

1. Frontmatter i
2. Contents v
3. Preface: An Antimanual of Ethics vii
4. Acknowledgments xi
5. Introduction: What is the Use of Thought Experiments? xiii
6. Part I. Problems, Dilemmas, and Paradoxes: Nineteen Moral Puzzles
7. 1. Emergencies 1
8. 2. The Child Who is Drowning in a Pond 11
9. 3. A Transplant Gone Mad 15
10. 4. Confronting a Furious Crowd 17
11. 5. The Killer Trolley 24
12. 6. Incest in All Innocence 42
13. 7. The Amoralist 56
14. 8. The Experience Machine 65
15. 9. Is a Short and Mediocre Life Preferable to No Life at All? 71
16. 10. I Would Have Preferred Never to Have Been Born 73
17. 11. Must We Eliminate Animals in Order to Liberate Them? 76
18. 12. The Utility Monster 89
19. 13. A Violinist Has Been Plugged Into Your Back 91
20. 14. Frankenstein, Minister of Health 94
21. 15. Who Am I Without My Organs? 100
22. 16. And If Sexuality Were Free? 104
23. 17. It Is Harder to Do Good Intentionally Than It Is to Do Evil 107
24. 18. We Are Free, Even If Everything Is Written in Advance 109
25. 19. Monsters and Saints 113
26. Part II. The Ingredients of the Moral “Cuisine”
27. 20. Intuitions and Rules 131
28. 21. A Little Method! 134
29. 22. What Remains of Our Moral Intuitions? 138
30. 23. Where Has the Moral Instinct Gone? 142
31. 24. A Philosopher Aware of the Limits of His Moral Intuitions Is Worth Two Others, Indeed More 151
32. 25. Understand the Elementary Rules of Moral Reasoning 154
33. 26. Dare to Criticize the Elementary Rules of Moral Argument 163
34. Conclusion 173
35. Glossary 181
36. Notes 191
37. Index 219