That’s only weak evidence about the correlation between non-consequentialism and dust specking. If we had 670 consequentialists, 50 deontologists, 180 virtue ethicists, and 200 others, and 40% of each chose dust specks, we’d get numbers like yours even though there wouldn’t be a correlation.
I did a crosstab, which should be more informative:
I get different totals for the number of speckers (397) and non-consequentialists (386), though. Maybe my copy of the data’s messed up? (Gnumeric complains the XLS might be corrupt.)
Anyway, I do see a correlation between specks & moral paradigm. My dust speck percentages:
41% for consequentialism (N = 560)
67% for deontology (N = 36)
47% for other/none (N = 145)
65% for virtue ethics (N = 116)
leaving out people who didn’t answer. Consequentialists chose dust specks at a lower rate than each other group (which chi-squared tests confirm is statistically significant). But 41% of our consequentialists did still choose dust specks.
[Edit: “indentation is preserved”, my arse. I am not a Markdown fan.]
Well, you cannot be totally sure. I for one would consider myself a consequentialist, but would still choose dust specks. Correlation doesn’t imply causation!
Well, I guess there are various forms of Consequentialism which would lead one to choose dust specks. That would simply depend on what you’re trying to maximize.
If you want to maximize things like pain, discomfort or the amount of dust in eyes, then yes, you would choose dustspecks.
If, on the other hand, you wanted to maximize the amount of, say, wellbeing, then the only choice available is torture.
In support of this, 435 people chose specks, and 430 chose virtue ethics, deontology, or other.
That’s only weak evidence about the correlation between non-consequentialism and dust specking. If we had 670 consequentialists, 50 deontologists, 180 virtue ethicists, and 200 others, and 40% of each chose dust specks, we’d get numbers like yours even though there wouldn’t be a correlation.
I did a crosstab, which should be more informative:
I get different totals for the number of speckers (397) and non-consequentialists (386), though. Maybe my copy of the data’s messed up? (Gnumeric complains the XLS might be corrupt.)
Anyway, I do see a correlation between specks & moral paradigm. My dust speck percentages:
41% for consequentialism (N = 560)
67% for deontology (N = 36)
47% for other/none (N = 145)
65% for virtue ethics (N = 116)
leaving out people who didn’t answer. Consequentialists chose dust specks at a lower rate than each other group (which chi-squared tests confirm is statistically significant). But 41% of our consequentialists did still choose dust specks.
[Edit: “indentation is preserved”, my arse. I am not a Markdown fan.]
I think we’ve found our answer, then.ETA: Really nice work from satt to prove I was jumping to conclusions here.
Well, you cannot be totally sure. I for one would consider myself a consequentialist, but would still choose dust specks. Correlation doesn’t imply causation!
Well, I guess there are various forms of Consequentialism which would lead one to choose dust specks. That would simply depend on what you’re trying to maximize.
If you want to maximize things like pain, discomfort or the amount of dust in eyes, then yes, you would choose dustspecks.
If, on the other hand, you wanted to maximize the amount of, say, wellbeing, then the only choice available is torture.