Trying to “do as the virtuous agent would do” (or maybe “do things for the sake of being a good person”) seems to be a really common problem for people.
Ruthless consequentialist reasoning totally short-circuits this, which I think is a large part of its appeal. You can be sitting around in this paralyzed fog, agonizing over whether you’re “really” good or merely trying to fake being good for subconscious selfish reasons, feeling guilty for not being eudaimonic enough—and then somebody comes along and says “stop worrying and get up and buy some bednets”, and you’re free.
I’m not philosophically sophisticated enough to have views on metaethics, but it does seem sometimes that the main value of ethical theories is therapeutic, so different contradictory ethical theories could be best for different people and at different times of life.
Trying to “do as the virtuous agent would do” (or maybe “do things for the sake of being a good person”) seems to be a really common problem for people.
Ruthless consequentialist reasoning totally short-circuits this, which I think is a large part of its appeal. You can be sitting around in this paralyzed fog, agonizing over whether you’re “really” good or merely trying to fake being good for subconscious selfish reasons, feeling guilty for not being eudaimonic enough—and then somebody comes along and says “stop worrying and get up and buy some bednets”, and you’re free.
I’m not philosophically sophisticated enough to have views on metaethics, but it does seem sometimes that the main value of ethical theories is therapeutic, so different contradictory ethical theories could be best for different people and at different times of life.