It seems rather convenient that they mostly arrive at beneficial consequences and jive with human intuitions.
Agreed. It is also rather convenient that maximizing preference satisfaction rarely involves violating anyone’s rights and mostly jives with human intuitions.
And thats because normative ethics is just about trying to come up with nice sounding theories to explain our ethical intuitions.
Umm… torture vs dust specks is both counterintuitive and violates rights. Utilitarian consequentialists also flip the switch in the trolley problem, again violating rights.
It doesn’t sound nice or explain our intuitions. Instead, the goal is the most good for the most people.
maximizing preference satisfaction rarely involves violating anyone’s rights and mostly jives with human intuitions.
Those two examples are contrived to demonstrate the differences between utilitarianism and other theories. They hardly represent typical moral judgments.
Agreed. It is also rather convenient that maximizing preference satisfaction rarely involves violating anyone’s rights and mostly jives with human intuitions.
And thats because normative ethics is just about trying to come up with nice sounding theories to explain our ethical intuitions.
Umm… torture vs dust specks is both counterintuitive and violates rights. Utilitarian consequentialists also flip the switch in the trolley problem, again violating rights.
It doesn’t sound nice or explain our intuitions. Instead, the goal is the most good for the most people.
I said:
Those two examples are contrived to demonstrate the differences between utilitarianism and other theories. They hardly represent typical moral judgments.