Interesting diagnosis! But unless they’re absolutists, shouldn’t they be equally suspicious of themselves? That is, nobody (but Kant) thinks the intrinsic value of integrity is so high that you should never tell a lie even if the entire future of humanity depended on it. So I don’t really see how they could think that the intrinsic value of integrity makes any practical difference to what a longtermist really ought to do.
(Incidentally, I think this is also a reason to be a bit suspicious of Will MacAskill’s appeals to “normative uncertainty” in these contexts. Every reasonable view converges with utilitarian verdicts when the stakes are high.)
Interesting diagnosis! But unless they’re absolutists, shouldn’t they be equally suspicious of themselves? That is, nobody (but Kant) thinks the intrinsic value of integrity is so high that you should never tell a lie even if the entire future of humanity depended on it. So I don’t really see how they could think that the intrinsic value of integrity makes any practical difference to what a longtermist really ought to do.
(Incidentally, I think this is also a reason to be a bit suspicious of Will MacAskill’s appeals to “normative uncertainty” in these contexts. Every reasonable view converges with utilitarian verdicts when the stakes are high.)
I’m inclined to agree with both those claims, yes.