To the Editors:

There were several errors in your “Off the Cuff” article about me. Some of them were minor: the substitution of one word for another, or just the mis-transcription of longer remarks into confusing sentences.

Some were more significant, though. I’d like to take the opportunity to correct them. You report that I am a doctoral candidate; I have a Ph.D. in philosophy.

On the question of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, you quote me as saying, “I think that the ultimate moral assessment will depend on a host of moral issues that are probably addressed to five people who work in these empirical areas.”

What I said was the moral facts are determined by a host of detailed empirical matters, which are themselves better addressed by historians or social scientists. I didn’t speculate as to the numbers of social scientists.

Of course, there is a great deal of philosophical interest in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Rather than elaborate, I will issue an invitation to anyone interested in discussing these matters to contact me.

You also quote me as follows: “I suppose I am most interested in what’s called non-consequentialist moral philosophy, which says that the outcomes of our actions are intrinsically morally significant.”

I did not say this. Non-consequentialism is a family of views, each of which claims that something other than the outcomes of our actions is intrinsically morally significant.

For example, many non-consequentialists assert that there is an intrinsic moral significance to the doing of harm, as opposed to the allowing of harm.

So these philosophers will claim that, in some cases, it is morally worse to do a certain amount of harm than it is to allow that same amount of harm.

Finally, I would like to emphasize that you reported my spirit of toleration for the ladybugs on campus quite accurately. That spirit is undiminished.

–Timothy Hall
Assistant Professor of Philosophy