When Doing the Right Thing Is Impossible
by Lisa Tessman
Format: Hardcover
ISBN13: 9780190657581
Hardcover|9780190657581
✨ Featured Offer
Used, Like New
$43.74
List Price: $28.99
🚚
See all 5 offers from $21.40 FREE standard delivery by: 01 Apr 2026
Overview
Suppose that in an emergency evacuation of a hospital after a flood, not all of the patients can make it out alive. You are the doctor faced with the choice between abandoning these patients to die alone and in pain, or injecting them with a lethal dose of drugs, without consent, so that they die peacefully. Perhaps no one will be able to blame you whatever you decide, but, whichever action you choose, you will remain burdened by guilt.
What happens, in cases like this, when, no matter what you do, you are destined for moral failure? What happens when there is no available means of doing the right thing?
Human life is filled with such impossible moral decisions. These choices and case studies that demonstrate them form the focus of Lisa Tessman's arresting and provocative work. Many philosophers believe that there are simply no situations in which what you morally ought to do is something that you can't do, because they think that you can't be required to do something unless it's actually in your power to do it. Despite this, real life presents us daily with situations in which we feel that we have failed morally even when no right action would have been possible. Lisa Tessman boldly argues that sometimes we feel this way because we have encountered an 'impossible moral requirement.' Drawing on philosophy, empirical psychology, and evolutionary theory, When Doing the Right Thing Is Impossible explores how and why human beings have constructed moral requirements to be binding even when they are impossible to fulfill.
What happens, in cases like this, when, no matter what you do, you are destined for moral failure? What happens when there is no available means of doing the right thing?
Human life is filled with such impossible moral decisions. These choices and case studies that demonstrate them form the focus of Lisa Tessman's arresting and provocative work. Many philosophers believe that there are simply no situations in which what you morally ought to do is something that you can't do, because they think that you can't be required to do something unless it's actually in your power to do it. Despite this, real life presents us daily with situations in which we feel that we have failed morally even when no right action would have been possible. Lisa Tessman boldly argues that sometimes we feel this way because we have encountered an 'impossible moral requirement.' Drawing on philosophy, empirical psychology, and evolutionary theory, When Doing the Right Thing Is Impossible explores how and why human beings have constructed moral requirements to be binding even when they are impossible to fulfill.
| ISBN-13 | 9780190657581 |
|---|---|
| ISBN-10 | 0190657588 |
| Weight | 0.53 Pounds |
| Dimensions | 7.20 x 0.70 x 5.30 In |
| List Price | $28.99 |
| Edition | 1st Edition |
| Format | Hardcover |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Pages | 184 pages |
| Publisher | Oxford University Press |
| Published On | 2017-07-03 |
View All Offers
Sort by:
Price
Condition
Seller
Seller Comments
Price
Used, Good
Seller details
Book Culture Inc.
New York, NY, USA
All pages and cover are intact. Possible minor highlighting and marginalia. Ships from an indie book...
Free delivery by: 01 Apr 2026
Used, Good
Seller details
SurplusTextSeller
Columbia, MO, USA
Ships in a BOX from Central Missouri! May not include working access code. Will not include dust j...
Free delivery by: 01 Apr 2026
Used, Very Good
Seller details
Books From California
Simi Valley, CA, USA
Cover and edges may have some wear. Very Clean Copy-Over 500, 000 Internet Orders Filled.
Free delivery by: 01 Apr 2026
✨ Used, Like New
Seller details
Books From California
Simi Valley, CA, USA
As New Condition-Over 500, 000 Internet Orders Shipped.
Free delivery by: 01 Apr 2026
Used, Good
Seller details
Bonita
Santa Clarita, CA, USA
Access codes and supplements are not guaranteed with used items. May be an ex-library book.
Free delivery by: 01 Apr 2026