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Frameworks

Advanced / hybrid

Threshold Deontology

Duties bind — until catastrophe.

Guiding principle

Deontological constraints are (near-)absolute in ordinary life but may be overridden when the consequences of adherence become catastrophic.

Key thinkers

Michael Moore · Larry Alexander

Strengths

  • Captures the intuition that torturing one to save millions is at least conceivable.
  • Preserves the everyday force of rights without absurd rigidity.

Common objections

  • Where exactly is the threshold? Any answer looks arbitrary.
  • Once thresholds are admitted, the door to case-by-case override is open.

Mini-example

It is wrong to break a promise to save $10, permissible-and-required to break it to prevent mass casualties. The theory owes an account of the space between.