I liked this post because of I’ve been thinking about similar issues recently, but find some of the conclusions strange. For example, isn’t there a “generalised trolley problem” for any deontologist who asserts that rule X should be followed:
Aha! So you follow rule X? Well what if I told you that person over there will violate rule X twice unless you break rule X in the next 5 minutes?
?
Why is this relevant? I don’t think at this point the deontologist holds up their hands upon hearing any example of the above and denounces their theory. I think they add another rule that allows them to violate their former rule*. I think more needs to be done to prove that the boundary cases for utilitarianism are wild, but they are not out of the ordinary for deontological ethics.
I liked this post because of I’ve been thinking about similar issues recently, but find some of the conclusions strange. For example, isn’t there a “generalised trolley problem” for any deontologist who asserts that rule X should be followed:
?
Why is this relevant? I don’t think at this point the deontologist holds up their hands upon hearing any example of the above and denounces their theory. I think they add another rule that allows them to violate their former rule*. I think more needs to be done to prove that the boundary cases for utilitarianism are wild, but they are not out of the ordinary for deontological ethics.
* and I see this as about as wild as when the utilitarian doesn’t voluntarily harvest organs because of “societal factors”, and has to add this to their utility function (here: https://www.utilitarianism.net/objections-to-utilitarianism/rights)