It has been said that for something to be bad for or count as a wrong to a person, that person must experience the bad or wrong. Let’s call this claim E (for “experience”).
Assume, for the sake of argument, that E is true.
It would follow that cases of murder in which the victim doesn’t experience the murder are not bad for and don’t wrong the victim. (Suppose, for example, the victim is killed painlessly in his sleep and never becomes aware of the murder.) It would also follow that cases in which an offender uses a drug to render his victim unconscious and then harms the victim would not be bad for and would not wrong the victim were the victim not to become aware of the violation.
In my mind, such examples clearly are bad for and wrong the victim. Hence, it seems, these examples reduce E to absurdity. Thus, arguably, E is false.
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