The Doing and Allowing Distinction

Abstract It is common to distinguish circumstances in which a person does harm from those in which they allow harm to occur. Doing harm is usually thought to be considerably worse, all else being held equal, than allowing harm to occur. Few of us have done serious harm to other people, but all of us have failed to prevent serious harms—for example, when we choose not to provide our available resources to poverty-relief organizations. But it has turned out to be quite difficult to provide a clear and intuitively plausible analysis of the distinction between doing and allowing harm. This chapter explores the role that the doing and allowing distinction plays in common moral thought. It assesses the merits of different philosophical analyses of this distinction. And it considers some arguments that seek to undermine the common conviction that the doing and allowing distinction possesses great moral significance.