The problem is that one man’s modus ponens is another man’s modus tollens. Lots of people take the fact that utilitarianism says that you shouldn’t care about your family more than a stranger as a rebuttal to utilitarianism.
Now, we could try to persuade them otherwise, but what’s the point? Even amongst utilitarians, almost nobody gets anywhere near placing as much moral value on a spouse as a stranger. If there’s a part of a theory that is of very little practical use, but is still seen as a strong point against the theory, we should try find a version without it. That’s what I intend scope-sensitive ethics to be.
In other words, we go from “my moral theory says you should do X and Y, but everyone agrees that it’s okay to ignore X, and Y is much more important” to “my moral theory says you should do Y”, which seems better. Here X is “don’t give your family special treatment” and Y is “spend your career helping the world”.
My moral intuitions say that there isn’t really an objective way that I should act, however I do think there are states of the world that are objectively better than others and that this betterness ordering is determined by whatever the best version of utilitarianism is.
So it is indeed better if I don’t give my family special treatment, but I’m not actually obligated to. There’s no rule in my opinion which says “you must make the world as good as possible”.
This is how I have always interpreted utilitarianism. Not having studied philosophy formally I’m not sure if this is a common view or if it is seen as stupid, but I feel it allows me to give my family some special treatment whilst also thinking utilitarianism is in some way “right”.
The problem is that one man’s modus ponens is another man’s modus tollens.
Fair :) I admit I’m apparently unusually inclined to the modus ponens end of these dilemmas.
If there’s a part of a theory that is of very little practical use, but is still seen as a strong point against the theory, we should try find a version without it.
I think this depends on whether the version without it is internally consistent. But more to the point, the question about the value of strangers does seem practically relevant. It influences how much you’re willing to effectively donate rather than spend on fancy gifts, for example, giving (far?) greater marginal returns of well-being to strangers than to loved ones. Ironically, if we’re not impartial, it seems our loved ones are “utility monsters” in a sense. (Of course, you could still have some nonzero partiality while agreeing that the average person doesn’t donate nearly enough.)
I find this as troubling as anyone else who cares deeply about their family and friends, certainly. But I’m inclined to think it’s even more troubling that other sentient beings suffer needlessly because of my personal attachments… Ethics need not be easy.
There’s also the argument that optimal altruism is facilitated by having some baseline of self-indulgence, to avoid burnout, but 1) I think this argument can be taken too far into the realm of convenient rationalization, and 2) this doesn’t require any actual partiality baked into the moral system. It’s just that partial attachments are instrumentally useful.
The problem is that one man’s modus ponens is another man’s modus tollens. Lots of people take the fact that utilitarianism says that you shouldn’t care about your family more than a stranger as a rebuttal to utilitarianism.
Now, we could try to persuade them otherwise, but what’s the point? Even amongst utilitarians, almost nobody gets anywhere near placing as much moral value on a spouse as a stranger. If there’s a part of a theory that is of very little practical use, but is still seen as a strong point against the theory, we should try find a version without it. That’s what I intend scope-sensitive ethics to be.
In other words, we go from “my moral theory says you should do X and Y, but everyone agrees that it’s okay to ignore X, and Y is much more important” to “my moral theory says you should do Y”, which seems better. Here X is “don’t give your family special treatment” and Y is “spend your career helping the world”.
My moral intuitions say that there isn’t really an objective way that I should act, however I do think there are states of the world that are objectively better than others and that this betterness ordering is determined by whatever the best version of utilitarianism is.
So it is indeed better if I don’t give my family special treatment, but I’m not actually obligated to. There’s no rule in my opinion which says “you must make the world as good as possible”.
This is how I have always interpreted utilitarianism. Not having studied philosophy formally I’m not sure if this is a common view or if it is seen as stupid, but I feel it allows me to give my family some special treatment whilst also thinking utilitarianism is in some way “right”.
Fair :) I admit I’m apparently unusually inclined to the modus ponens end of these dilemmas.
I think this depends on whether the version without it is internally consistent. But more to the point, the question about the value of strangers does seem practically relevant. It influences how much you’re willing to effectively donate rather than spend on fancy gifts, for example, giving (far?) greater marginal returns of well-being to strangers than to loved ones. Ironically, if we’re not impartial, it seems our loved ones are “utility monsters” in a sense. (Of course, you could still have some nonzero partiality while agreeing that the average person doesn’t donate nearly enough.)
I find this as troubling as anyone else who cares deeply about their family and friends, certainly. But I’m inclined to think it’s even more troubling that other sentient beings suffer needlessly because of my personal attachments… Ethics need not be easy.
There’s also the argument that optimal altruism is facilitated by having some baseline of self-indulgence, to avoid burnout, but 1) I think this argument can be taken too far into the realm of convenient rationalization, and 2) this doesn’t require any actual partiality baked into the moral system. It’s just that partial attachments are instrumentally useful.