A short answer might be “In real life, people view these two scenarios very differently, and ignoring psychology and sociology may get you some interesting thought experiments but will not lead you anywhere useful when working with actual humans.”
“Because we believe that trust, cooperation, and accurate information are essential to doing good, we strive to be honest and trustworthy. More broadly, we strive to follow those rules of good conduct that allow communities (and the people within them) to thrive.” Not killing people seems like a pretty basic requirement for trust and cooperation. There are socially-agreed-upon exceptions like governments having use of force, but even those are divisive.
Thank you very much! The links were especially helpful—the doctor scenario in the first example is pretty much what I was talking about above, so their explanation of why it would be unwise to kill makes a lot of sense!
A short answer might be “In real life, people view these two scenarios very differently, and ignoring psychology and sociology may get you some interesting thought experiments but will not lead you anywhere useful when working with actual humans.”
Or to quote the EA Guiding Principles:
“Because we believe that trust, cooperation, and accurate information are essential to doing good, we strive to be honest and trustworthy. More broadly, we strive to follow those rules of good conduct that allow communities (and the people within them) to thrive.” Not killing people seems like a pretty basic requirement for trust and cooperation. There are socially-agreed-upon exceptions like governments having use of force, but even those are divisive.
Some other writing that’s addressed this:
https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/prb8raC4XGJiRWs5n/consequentialism-need-not-be-nearsighted
https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/K9ZaZXDnL3SEmYZqB/ends-don-t-justify-means-among-humans
Thank you very much! The links were especially helpful—the doctor scenario in the first example is pretty much what I was talking about above, so their explanation of why it would be unwise to kill makes a lot of sense!