I knew I was in trouble a year or so ago when I found that I was internally using consequentialism to justify not doing things to help other people on the grounds that it would cost too much of my time and energy. The problem with this is that the lens of your mood, energy level, what you ate for lunch, how much sleep you got, etc., all completely transform the calculation of whether the task being asked of you is arduous and burdensome or reasonable and net-positive-utility to execute.
It was very disorienting to realize that I can’t be trusted to do consequentialism in my personal life. I think the community-endorsed alternative is virtue ethics, but that is a vastly less clear prescription than consequentialism. Pick your poison.
I knew I was in trouble a year or so ago when I found that I was internally using consequentialism to justify not doing things to help other people on the grounds that it would cost too much of my time and energy. The problem with this is that the lens of your mood, energy level, what you ate for lunch, how much sleep you got, etc., all completely transform the calculation of whether the task being asked of you is arduous and burdensome or reasonable and net-positive-utility to execute.
It was very disorienting to realize that I can’t be trusted to do consequentialism in my personal life. I think the community-endorsed alternative is virtue ethics, but that is a vastly less clear prescription than consequentialism. Pick your poison.
LOL. Life is complicated :-D