Actually, I have a lot of sympathy with what you are saying here. I am ultimately somewhat inclined to endorse âin principle, the ends justify the means, just not in practiceâ over at least a fairly wide range of cases. I (probably) think in theory you should usually kill one innocent person to save five, even though in practice anything that looks like doing that is almost certainly a bad idea, outside artificial philosophical thought experiments and maybe some weird but not too implausible scenarios involving war or natural disaster. But at the same time, I do worry a bit about bad effects from utilitarianism because I worry about bad effects from anything. I donât worry too much, but thatâs because I think those effects are small, and anyway there will be good effects of utilitarianism too. But I donât think utilitarians should be able to react with outrage when people say plausible things about the consequences of utilitarianism. And I think people who worry about this more than I do on this forum are generally acting in good faith. And yeah, I agree utilitarians shouldnât (in any normal context) lie about their opinions.
Actually, I have a lot of sympathy with what you are saying here. I am ultimately somewhat inclined to endorse âin principle, the ends justify the means, just not in practiceâ over at least a fairly wide range of cases. I (probably) think in theory you should usually kill one innocent person to save five, even though in practice anything that looks like doing that is almost certainly a bad idea, outside artificial philosophical thought experiments and maybe some weird but not too implausible scenarios involving war or natural disaster. But at the same time, I do worry a bit about bad effects from utilitarianism because I worry about bad effects from anything. I donât worry too much, but thatâs because I think those effects are small, and anyway there will be good effects of utilitarianism too. But I donât think utilitarians should be able to react with outrage when people say plausible things about the consequences of utilitarianism. And I think people who worry about this more than I do on this forum are generally acting in good faith. And yeah, I agree utilitarians shouldnât (in any normal context) lie about their opinions.