“Thou shall not kill” is actually nothing more that a consequentialist heuristic posing as deontological/virtue ethics.
If Batman kills Joker in lieu of a trial, he is a de facto “good guy” authority setting a precedent for such eye-for-eye behavior throughout all of Gotham. That is a potentially powerful meme given Batman’s status and could reasonably lead to a norm of ruthless, draconian law enforcement methods for decades to come. There are meta-consequentialist considerations at play.
Killing Joker means, in some sense, Batman had to agree that Joker’s ethics—killing your enemy to advance your ends—work.
Of course there are times where killing, stealing, lying are consequentially a net positive, but it is very useful to have deontological norms prohibiting those actions and ascribe virtues to those people who follow the rules. It is, in fact, the best consequentialist policy over time.
Killing Joker means, in some sense, Batman had to agree that Joker’s ethics—killing your enemy to advance your ends—work.
At least in The Dark Knight, the Joker was an outright nihilist. His primary goal was simply to prove that everyone is as crazy as him underneath.
Mind, the whole supposed Moral Dilemma about Society on the Brink of Collapse should anyone ever See Through the Noble Lie and realize that the Joker Was Right and there really is just Nothing… well, it kinda goes away once you confront the abyss yourself and realize that, given a blank canvas, you’d prefer to paint a pretty picture than burn the building down.
(Or in other words, the Joker presumed to prove that people must be Nihilists like him underneath, without considering whether the result might not be a heavily-armed batch of Existentialists.)
This is the best response, I think.
“Thou shall not kill” is actually nothing more that a consequentialist heuristic posing as deontological/virtue ethics.
If Batman kills Joker in lieu of a trial, he is a de facto “good guy” authority setting a precedent for such eye-for-eye behavior throughout all of Gotham. That is a potentially powerful meme given Batman’s status and could reasonably lead to a norm of ruthless, draconian law enforcement methods for decades to come. There are meta-consequentialist considerations at play.
Killing Joker means, in some sense, Batman had to agree that Joker’s ethics—killing your enemy to advance your ends—work.
Of course there are times where killing, stealing, lying are consequentially a net positive, but it is very useful to have deontological norms prohibiting those actions and ascribe virtues to those people who follow the rules. It is, in fact, the best consequentialist policy over time.
At least in The Dark Knight, the Joker was an outright nihilist. His primary goal was simply to prove that everyone is as crazy as him underneath.
Mind, the whole supposed Moral Dilemma about Society on the Brink of Collapse should anyone ever See Through the Noble Lie and realize that the Joker Was Right and there really is just Nothing… well, it kinda goes away once you confront the abyss yourself and realize that, given a blank canvas, you’d prefer to paint a pretty picture than burn the building down.
(Or in other words, the Joker presumed to prove that people must be Nihilists like him underneath, without considering whether the result might not be a heavily-armed batch of Existentialists.)