Any modification to the thought experiment to get around these problems would require a fantastical level of secrecy, which wouldn’t play out in reality.
That sounds like a hope which reality may or may not be benign enough to fulfil. There are philosophers who argue that the surgeon should kill the one to harvest their organs to save five, and who do not hastily back away from the conclusion, but say yes, yes he should, and not only keep the act secret, but keep secret the doctrine of true consequentialism, which is not for the public. See “Secrecy in Consequentialism: A Defence of Esoteric Morality” by Katarzyna de Lazari-Radek and Peter Singer. The surgeon well-placed to save five lives by cutting up one in secret is morally obliged to do so. The best action is always compulsory, and this is the best action.
They characterise the “esoteric morality” of their title by the following tenets:
• There are acts which are right only if no one – or virtually no one – will get to know about them.
• Some people know better, or can learn better, than others what it is right to do in certain circumstances.
• There are at least two different sets of instruction, or moral codes, suitable for the different categories of people.
• Though the consequentialist believes that acts are right only if they have consequences at least as good as anything else the agent could have done, the consequentialist may need to discourage others from embracing consequentialism.
• Paradoxically, it may be the case that philosophers who support esoteric morality should not do so openly, because as Sidgwick said: ‘it seems expedient that the doctrine that esoteric morality is expedient should itself be kept esoteric’
They go on to say that despite various philosophers arguing against it, “Esoteric morality is a necessary part of a consequentialist theory, and all of the points above can be defended.” They proceed to defend them.
The reference to Sidgwick is to his book, “The Methods of Ethics”, whose thesis is summarised (and agreed with) by the authors:
Sidgwick famously divided society into ‘enlightened utilitarians’ who may be able to live by ‘refined and complicated’ rules that admit exceptions, and the rest of the community to whom such sophisticated rules ‘would be dangerous.’
I’ve quoted all this just to point out that there are consequentialists, notably Peter Singer, inspiration for EA, who take consequentialism to be absolutely axiomatic and firmly bite every bullet. Although not to the extent of not publishing their esoteric morality.
Eliezer has written, “Go three-quarters of the way from deontology to utilitarianism and then stop. You are now in the right place. Stay there at least until you have become a god.” de Lazari-Radek and Singer say: We are sufficiently enlightened to be able to be total utilitarians, and therefore we must. Deontology is a second-best that is all that the less mentally able can handle.
That sounds like a hope which reality may or may not be benign enough to fulfil. There are philosophers who argue that the surgeon should kill the one to harvest their organs to save five, and who do not hastily back away from the conclusion, but say yes, yes he should, and not only keep the act secret, but keep secret the doctrine of true consequentialism, which is not for the public. See “Secrecy in Consequentialism: A Defence of Esoteric Morality” by Katarzyna de Lazari-Radek and Peter Singer. The surgeon well-placed to save five lives by cutting up one in secret is morally obliged to do so. The best action is always compulsory, and this is the best action.
They characterise the “esoteric morality” of their title by the following tenets:
• There are acts which are right only if no one – or virtually no one – will get to know about them.
• Some people know better, or can learn better, than others what it is right to do in certain circumstances.
• There are at least two different sets of instruction, or moral codes, suitable for the different categories of people.
• Though the consequentialist believes that acts are right only if they have consequences at least as good as anything else the agent could have done, the consequentialist may need to discourage others from embracing consequentialism.
• Paradoxically, it may be the case that philosophers who support esoteric morality should not do so openly, because as Sidgwick said: ‘it seems expedient that the doctrine that esoteric morality is expedient should itself be kept esoteric’
They go on to say that despite various philosophers arguing against it, “Esoteric morality is a necessary part of a consequentialist theory, and all of the points above can be defended.” They proceed to defend them.
The reference to Sidgwick is to his book, “The Methods of Ethics”, whose thesis is summarised (and agreed with) by the authors:
I’ve quoted all this just to point out that there are consequentialists, notably Peter Singer, inspiration for EA, who take consequentialism to be absolutely axiomatic and firmly bite every bullet. Although not to the extent of not publishing their esoteric morality.
Eliezer has written, “Go three-quarters of the way from deontology to utilitarianism and then stop. You are now in the right place. Stay there at least until you have become a god.” de Lazari-Radek and Singer say: We are sufficiently enlightened to be able to be total utilitarians, and therefore we must. Deontology is a second-best that is all that the less mentally able can handle.