I sense a strong “ends justify the means” mentality amongst Emerson, and to a lesser extent, Kat.
I think that everything we’re seeing here more broadly is a great case study in how that sort of thinking can, and often does, go wrong.
In particular, if you are going to use that type of reasoning, you really need to make sure that you think beyond first order effects. What about the second, and third, and nth order effects? Thinking about such things is often difficult and mistake prone, and so something like virtue ethics is probably the approach that yields the most desirable consequences for most people.
I sense a strong “ends justify the means” mentality amongst Emerson, and to a lesser extent, Kat.
I think that everything we’re seeing here more broadly is a great case study in how that sort of thinking can, and often does, go wrong.
In particular, if you are going to use that type of reasoning, you really need to make sure that you think beyond first order effects. What about the second, and third, and nth order effects? Thinking about such things is often difficult and mistake prone, and so something like virtue ethics is probably the approach that yields the most desirable consequences for most people.