The problem arises when utilitarianism isn’t utilitarian enough. Ethics based on principles and a cultural conception of “virtue,” which in its effects doesn’t necessarily contradict utilitarianism, can promote cultural change by increasing altruistic action and transforming the behavior of large numbers of people. (Obviously, I’m not referring to a conventional ethics of principles and virtue, but to a conception of human relations based on benevolence, which is only impossible if we do nothing to try to achieve it.)
Promoting the well-being of shrimp and long-term projects for a future humanity ten thousand years from now might have its logic from a utilitarian point of view… but it’s unlikely that these are altruistic projects capable of promoting cultural change. And if there’s no cultural change in the sense of laying the foundations for a humanity that makes altruistic action its main economic activity… very little good will be done in consequentialist terms. The consequentialist may then experience their own case of self-indulgence.
prioritizing expressive concerns and emotional comfort over genuine concern for how people’s lives are concretely affected
The problem arises when utilitarianism isn’t utilitarian enough. Ethics based on principles and a cultural conception of “virtue,” which in its effects doesn’t necessarily contradict utilitarianism, can promote cultural change by increasing altruistic action and transforming the behavior of large numbers of people. (Obviously, I’m not referring to a conventional ethics of principles and virtue, but to a conception of human relations based on benevolence, which is only impossible if we do nothing to try to achieve it.)
Promoting the well-being of shrimp and long-term projects for a future humanity ten thousand years from now might have its logic from a utilitarian point of view… but it’s unlikely that these are altruistic projects capable of promoting cultural change. And if there’s no cultural change in the sense of laying the foundations for a humanity that makes altruistic action its main economic activity… very little good will be done in consequentialist terms. The consequentialist may then experience their own case of self-indulgence.