ABSTRACT
You ought not to commit murder. So, by the argument above, it follows that if you commit murder, you both ought and ought not to do so. Now there may indeed be cases where you both ought and ought not to do something, as when I promise to take my daughter to a party and my son to a film. The party was to be today, the film tomorrow, but both events are then postponed until 3 o’clock the day after tomorrow, so that I cannot keep both promises. I have conflicting obligations, both genuine. (See The Paradox of Democracy.) But the ‘ought and ought not’ in the murder example is not a case of conflicting obligations like these. So something must be wrong with the argument.
