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Having read that, gosh isn't it great that there are utilitarians out there to save the world from us crazy deontologists?
Come on. In that example, in wartime that's not "shooting an unarmed man", that's "enemy soldier engaging in act of war" and legitimate target. Maybe be clearer on what you mean, because even if it feels like it, online arguing is not the Battle of the Somme.
Unironically yes.
Maybe the people who make a big deal about calling themselves utiliatarian and talk about it all the time (eg me) aren't the best examples, but if we didn't have someone guiding humanity who cared about good outcomes for people as a goal in-and-of-itself, we'd never have advanced very much as a civilization.
I guess we can quibble about what makes someone a utilitarian, I count people who intuitively have 'the overall well being of everyone' as the basis of their moral reasoning and goal structure, even if they've never heard of utilitarianism and don't do calculations on anything. Maybe you'd want to call those people something else.
I honestly don't want to be mean, because I accept that many of the people claiming the label Utilitarian do have "overall well being of everyone" at heart.
It's just the air of "Of course this is the One True Way, everyone else is a flâneur or cosplaying at ethics or has their head in the sand" that is irksome if one is not a Utilitarian of any stripe and has no wish to be and disagrees with some/much/all of the philosophies involved.
Some of the rest of us also like to think we are in it for the well-being of everyone, too, you know!
If you justify your deontology in terms of its consequences, doesn't that make you a consequentialist who thinks that certain rules happen to be the optimal policy?
Oh gosh, you got me there, how clever you are! Yes, we're all secretly consequentalists!
Really, can we not play this type of "gotcha!" game? I'm trying to be civil so far and not lay into Utilitarians, but it's getting tougher by the minute.
I'm really not trying to play gotcha games. I guess we are playing definition games, but I guess I'd say you have to choose which you prioritize: The well-being of everyone, or following rules. If you follow rules only for the sake of the well-being of everyone, then I guess I'd call you a consequentialist. I'm not trying to be clever or counter-intuitive.
And I think you're setting up a false dichotomy: follow rules OR universal well-being.
If I make it a rule to always prioritize the well-being of everyone, am I really a consequentialist? After all, that's following a rule, not deciding on the basis of consequences!
Yes, consequentialism are rule-following are special cases of each other. You got me. The usual meaning of the word refers to situations in which they differ, i.e. any rule other than "maximize utility".
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