The repugnant resolution: has Coghlan & Cox resolved the Gamer's Dilemma?

Thomas Montefiore; Morgan Luck

doi:10.1007/s10676-024-09807-0

The repugnant resolution: has Coghlan & Cox resolved the Gamer's Dilemma?

Thomas Montefiore^*, Morgan Luck

^*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

1 Citation (Scopus)

6 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

Coghlan and Cox (Between death and suffering: Resolving the gamer’s dilemma. Ethics and Information Technology) offer a new resolution to the Gamer’s Dilemma (Luck, The Gamer’s Dilemma. Ethics and Information Technology). They argue that, while it is fitting for a person committing virtual child molestation to feel self-repugnance, it is not fitting for a person committing virtual murder to feel the same, and the fittingness of this feeling indicates each act’s moral permissibility. The aim of this paper is to determine whether this resolution – the repugnant resolution – successfully resolves the Gamer’s Dilemma. We argue that it does not.

Original language	English
Article number	68
Pages (from-to)	1-11
Number of pages	11
Journal	Ethics and Information Technology
Volume	26
Issue number	4
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1007/s10676-024-09807-0
Publication status	Published - Dec 2024

Bibliographical note

Copyright the Author(s) 2024. Version archived for private and non-commercial use with the permission of the author/s and according to publisher conditions. For further rights please contact the publisher.

Correction to footnote 11 published in Volume 27, article number 3, (2025).

Keywords

Applied ethics
Ethics of technology
Gamer’s Dilemma
Moral disgust
Repugnance
Video game ethics
Virtual actions

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10.1007/s10676-024-09807-0

Publisher version (open access)Final published version, 819 KBLicence: CC BY

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title = "The repugnant resolution: has Coghlan & Cox resolved the Gamer's Dilemma?",

abstract = "Coghlan and Cox (Between death and suffering: Resolving the gamer{\textquoteright}s dilemma. Ethics and Information Technology) offer a new resolution to the Gamer{\textquoteright}s Dilemma (Luck, The Gamer{\textquoteright}s Dilemma. Ethics and Information Technology). They argue that, while it is fitting for a person committing virtual child molestation to feel self-repugnance, it is not fitting for a person committing virtual murder to feel the same, and the fittingness of this feeling indicates each act{\textquoteright}s moral permissibility. The aim of this paper is to determine whether this resolution – the repugnant resolution – successfully resolves the Gamer{\textquoteright}s Dilemma. We argue that it does not.",

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author = "Thomas Montefiore and Morgan Luck",

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AB - Coghlan and Cox (Between death and suffering: Resolving the gamer’s dilemma. Ethics and Information Technology) offer a new resolution to the Gamer’s Dilemma (Luck, The Gamer’s Dilemma. Ethics and Information Technology). They argue that, while it is fitting for a person committing virtual child molestation to feel self-repugnance, it is not fitting for a person committing virtual murder to feel the same, and the fittingness of this feeling indicates each act’s moral permissibility. The aim of this paper is to determine whether this resolution – the repugnant resolution – successfully resolves the Gamer’s Dilemma. We argue that it does not.

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KW - Gamer’s Dilemma

KW - Moral disgust

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KW - Video game ethics

KW - Virtual actions

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The repugnant resolution: has Coghlan & Cox resolved the Gamer's Dilemma?

Abstract

Bibliographical note

Keywords

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