Scheffler argues that agent-centered restrictions appear problematic because of the seeming
irrationality of forbidding violations of such restrictions even in circumstances in which a violation would reduce the total number of violations.4
It seems that one who thinks that the killing of
innocent persons is morally objectionable should also (on pain of irrationality) hold that it is at least
sometimes permissible to kill in order to reduce the total number of killings. It is not clear,
however, how one should understand the contemplated relationship between the violation of an
agent-centered restriction and the decrease in the total number of violations of that restriction. I
contend that we can either understand the relationship in strict causal terms or in terms of
motivation or influence. Under either interpretation, agent-centered restrictions do not seem to
require any genuinely irrational behavior.5