Campbell Brown (Glasgow): Is Close Enough Good Enough?

Abstract: Suppose that we can spare someone a great harm, but only at the cost of allowing a lesser harm to befall a larger group of people. Does what we should do in this situation depend on the number of people in this group? According to the Close Enough View, the numbers matter only if the harm to the group is not much less (i.e., is ‘close enough’). This paper evaluates the Close Enough View by, first, reviewing some problems faced by various alternatives, and, second, raising some problems for this view.