An Ethics Thought Experiment

In 1971, philosopher Judith Jarvis Thomson published a paper arguing that abortion in cases of rape is morally permissible. In this paper she introduced a thought experiment called the “Famous Violinist” case. The thought experiment is intended to pique your moral intuition in such a way that you will agree that abortion in rape cases is permissible. Interestingly, the case received mixed responses.

Recently, philosopher Jeremy Stangroom has offered an interactive version of the Famous Violinist case in order to better understand people’s intuitions about the case and to gather data about consistency in moral reasoning. The link to this interactive version is below. Click on the site, answer the questions, read the explanations, then do it again. Feel free to post comments about your results. I learned something about how I interpret certain moral claims.

http://www.philosophyexperiments.com/whosebody/Default.aspx

 Judith Jarvis Thomson