ABSTRACT
The idea that if we are able to change things, to elect not to do so is also to determine what will happen in the world, is very old indeed. The most compelling and coherent statement of this view occurs in Engels’s book The Condition of the Working Class in England. Since Bentham’s time, several attempts have been made to give an adequate account of when a failure to act has consequences, and when it does not. Suffering people are likely to see the possibility of their sufferings being relieved as highly eligible, but those who would have to make sacrifices to bring relief are likely to think differently, especially if they have interests which would be permanently prejudiced by any change in the status quo. In this chapter the author have concentrated on showing that the view that we are causally responsible for the harm that we could have prevented is defensible, and what it amounts to.
