The Oxford Companion to Philosophy Part 39. The book is alphabetized by the whole headings of entries, as distinct from the first word of a heading. Hence, for example, abandonment comes before a priori and a posteriori. It is wise to look elsewhere if something seems to be missing. At the end of the book there is also a useful appendix on Logical Symbols as well as the appendices A Chronological Table of Philosophy and Maps of Philosophy. | 360 harm harmed. Problems for the view are especially salient in the ethics of creation. Imagine an embryologist who can choose which embryos to implant in women seeking to have children. She knows which embryos would be born with a painful genetic condition and which without. Does choosing embryos with the condition harm the resultant offspring On the above view it does not. For the choice with respect to each potential individual is existence with pain versus non-existence. The net gain of existing minus some pain must in most cases be more than not existing. Even if one concedes that comparing existence with nonexistence is not to compare like with like the problem remains. For then against what should we compare the offspring s medical state The offspring s suffering is nevertheless due to the embryologist s choice. This perhaps points to some non-consequentialist features of harm focusing perhaps on harmers intentions or some other characteristics of their actions. A further problem is avoiding a collapse of the notion of harm into the related notion of wrong or being wronged. If harming me is simply the commission of a morally wrongful act against me then there will be as many notions of harm as there are moral principles of rightful action towards others which can be breached. A key question here is whether there can be a harmful but not wrongful act. Examples of accidental or unavoidable harms might bear out this distinction. There are also cases where we can place a person at a morally wrongful disadvantage yet would decline to call this a harm. . consequentialism ethics. J. Feinberg Wrongful Life and the Counterfactual Element in Harming in his Freedom and Fulfilment Princeton NJ 1992 . D. Parfit The Non-Identity Problem in Reasons and Persons Oxford 1984 . Harman Gilbert 1938- . Professor of Philosophy at Princeton University best known for contributions in the philosophy ofmind epistemology and ethics. Although it is common to equate being .
