A consequentialist says: “Death is bad. Person A could have donated their income and saved that child, but they didn’t. The consequence was death. Person B killed a child with a gunshot. The consequence was death. These two situations are equivalent.”
The deontologist says “It was not the duty of person A to save a stranger-child. However, it is the duty of every person not to murder children. Person B is worse than person A, because he did not do his duty.”
The virtue ethicist says—“By his actions, we deduce that Person A is either unaware of the good he could have done, or or he lacks the willpower, or he lacks the goodness to save the child. We deduce that person B is dangerous, impulsive, and should be locked up.”
I think the crux of the divide is that virtue and deontological ethics are focused with evaluating whether an agent’s actions were right or wrong, whereas consequentialist ethics is focused on creating the most favorable final outcome.
Personally, I use virtue ethics for evaluating whether my or another’s action was right or wrong, and use consequentialism when deciding which action to take.
A consequentialist says: “Death is bad. Person A could have donated their income and saved that child, but they didn’t. The consequence was death. Person B killed a child with a gunshot. The consequence was death. These two situations are equivalent.”
Only an extremely nearsighted consequentialist would say this. Whoever’s saying this is ignoring lots of other consequences of Person A and Person B’s behavior. First, Person A has to take an opportunity cost from donating their income to save children’s lives. Person B doesn’t take such an opportunity cost. Second, Person B pays substantial costs for killing children in some combination of possible jail time, lost status, lost allies, etc. Third, the fact that Person B decided to murder a child is strong evidence that Person B is dangerous, impulsive, and should be locked up in the sense that locking up Person B has the best consequences. Etc.
Personally, I use virtue ethics for evaluating whether my or another’s action was right or wrong, and use consequentialism when deciding which action to take.
Truth be told at the end of the day those three moral systems are identical, if examined thoroughly enough. This type of discussion is only meaningful if you don’t think about it too hard...once the words get unpacked the whole thing dissolves.
But if we don’t think too hard about it, there is a difference. Which moral philosophy someone subscribes to describes what their “first instinct” is when it comes to moral questions.
From wikipedia:
a consequentialist may argue that lying is wrong because of the negative consequences produced by lying—though a consequentialist may allow that certain foreseeable consequences might make lying acceptable. A deontologist might argue that lying is always wrong, regardless of any potential “good” that might come from lying. A virtue ethicist, however, would focus less on lying in any particular instance and instead consider what a decision to tell a lie or not tell a lie said about one’s character and moral behavior.
But—if the deontologist thinks hard enough, they will conclude that sometimes lying is okay if it fulfills your other duties. Maximizing duty fulfillment is equivalent to maximizing moral utility.
When a virtue ethicist is judging a person, they will take the intended consequences of an action into account. When a virtue ethicist is judging their own options, they are looking at the range of there own intended consequences...once again, maximizing moral utility.
And, as you just illustrated, the farsighted consequentialist will in fact take both intention and societal repercussions into account, mimicking the virtue and deontological ethicists, respectively.
It’s only when the resources available for thinking are in short supply that these distinctions are meaningful...for these three moral approaches, the starting points of thought are different. It’s a description of inner thought process. Conclusions of these different processes only converge after all variables are accounted for...and this doesn’t always happen with humans.
So in answer to your question, when planning my own actions I first begin by taking possible consequences into account, whereas when judging others I begin by taking intentions into account, and asking what it says about that person’s psychology. Given enough time and processing power, I could use any of these systems for these tasks and come to the same conclusions, but since I do not possess either, it does make a practical difference which strategy I use.
Let’s use examples to tease apart the difference.
A consequentialist says: “Death is bad. Person A could have donated their income and saved that child, but they didn’t. The consequence was death. Person B killed a child with a gunshot. The consequence was death. These two situations are equivalent.”
The deontologist says “It was not the duty of person A to save a stranger-child. However, it is the duty of every person not to murder children. Person B is worse than person A, because he did not do his duty.”
The virtue ethicist says—“By his actions, we deduce that Person A is either unaware of the good he could have done, or or he lacks the willpower, or he lacks the goodness to save the child. We deduce that person B is dangerous, impulsive, and should be locked up.”
I think the crux of the divide is that virtue and deontological ethics are focused with evaluating whether an agent’s actions were right or wrong, whereas consequentialist ethics is focused on creating the most favorable final outcome.
Personally, I use virtue ethics for evaluating whether my or another’s action was right or wrong, and use consequentialism when deciding which action to take.
Only an extremely nearsighted consequentialist would say this. Whoever’s saying this is ignoring lots of other consequences of Person A and Person B’s behavior. First, Person A has to take an opportunity cost from donating their income to save children’s lives. Person B doesn’t take such an opportunity cost. Second, Person B pays substantial costs for killing children in some combination of possible jail time, lost status, lost allies, etc. Third, the fact that Person B decided to murder a child is strong evidence that Person B is dangerous, impulsive, and should be locked up in the sense that locking up Person B has the best consequences. Etc.
What’s the difference?
Truth be told at the end of the day those three moral systems are identical, if examined thoroughly enough. This type of discussion is only meaningful if you don’t think about it too hard...once the words get unpacked the whole thing dissolves.
But if we don’t think too hard about it, there is a difference. Which moral philosophy someone subscribes to describes what their “first instinct” is when it comes to moral questions.
From wikipedia:
But—if the deontologist thinks hard enough, they will conclude that sometimes lying is okay if it fulfills your other duties. Maximizing duty fulfillment is equivalent to maximizing moral utility.
When a virtue ethicist is judging a person, they will take the intended consequences of an action into account. When a virtue ethicist is judging their own options, they are looking at the range of there own intended consequences...once again, maximizing moral utility.
And, as you just illustrated, the farsighted consequentialist will in fact take both intention and societal repercussions into account, mimicking the virtue and deontological ethicists, respectively.
It’s only when the resources available for thinking are in short supply that these distinctions are meaningful...for these three moral approaches, the starting points of thought are different. It’s a description of inner thought process. Conclusions of these different processes only converge after all variables are accounted for...and this doesn’t always happen with humans.
So in answer to your question, when planning my own actions I first begin by taking possible consequences into account, whereas when judging others I begin by taking intentions into account, and asking what it says about that person’s psychology. Given enough time and processing power, I could use any of these systems for these tasks and come to the same conclusions, but since I do not possess either, it does make a practical difference which strategy I use.