The Nonidentity Problem is an Artifact of Faulty Causal Reasoning

Abstract

This paper argues that the nonidentity problem is really an artifact of faulty causal reasoning. In order to solve the nonidentity problem, we must determine that an agent causes a loss of happiness to another agent by means of an action that also causes the victim to exist. Woodward’s (2003) test for actual causation yields just this result. Equally crucial to solving the problem is the recognition that harms must be intentional and that intentionality is a function of norm-violation; this latter position is defended by Holton (2010). That the solution proposed is adequate is defended on the grounds that it yields intuitively correct judgments for a host of imaginary scenarios contemplated by theorists focused on determining what should count as harms.