Innocence Lost: An Examination of Inescapable Moral Wrongdoing

Our lives are such that moral wrongdoing is sometimes inescapable for us. For we have moral responsibilites to persons which may conflict and which are wrong to violate even when they do conflict. Christopher Gowans argues that we must accept this conclusion if we are to make sense of our moral experience and the way in which persons are valuable to us. In defending this position, he examines the recent moral dilemmas debate, and criticizes utilitarian and Kantianapproaches. He also discusses Melville's Billy Budd, methodology in moral philosophy, moral pluralism, moral tragedy, and "dirty hands" in politics.