Jim is a pacifist; he believes that one ought in no conceivable case to kill a human being. Which of these questions would help us to test whether Jim is consistent now?
Jim is a pacifist; he believes that one ought in no conceivable case to kill a human being. Which of these questions would help us to test whether Jim is consistent now?
This is about Jim's present attitude toward a hypothetical situation. To be consistent now, Jim has to be able to answer YES to this question. If he instead answered NO, then he'd have a duty to get his ethical beliefs and resolutions into harmony with each other; he could then either give up his pacifism or else resolve to follow it in this situation.
Jim is a pacifist; he believes that one ought in no conceivable case to kill a human being. Which of these questions would help us to test whether Jim is consistent now?
This is about what Jim would do if the situation came about -- whether he'd then be consistent. This has nothing to do with whether he's consistent now. Maybe he's consistent now but would panic and become inconsistent if he came home and found a madman about to kill his family.