Agent-Relative Deontological Thresholds.

The article examines how personal relationships, particularly friendships, can alter the deontic status of actions—specifically, how acts that are typically impermissible may become permissible or even morally required when done for a friend rather than a stranger. It argues that this phenomenon can be explained through the concept of agent-relative deontological thresholds, which are moral limits that can be justifiably overridden in specific, high-stakes situations to prevent a moral catastrophe. Friendships create these agent-relative thresholds because friends possess experiential knowledge of each other's overall virtuous character, enabling them to reasonably judge when violating a moral restriction is justified. This framework accounts for why such deontic changes occur only in certain cases, distinguishing morally permissible acts for friends from wrongful acts like nepotism or deliberate harm.