Depends how you define ‘heartless bastard’. The attitude denisbider describes is actually more compatible with specific, personal acts of kindness than hardcore utilitarianism. Accepting that empathy and compassion evolved to deal with small groups and embracing it means you don’t have to feel bad about helping someone you have direct contact with because your help would be more ‘effective’ from a utilitarian perspective if directed towards a stranger who is objectively worse off.
A consistent utilitarian might, for example, refuse to contribute to a charitable collection to pay for treatment for a co-worker’s child’s leukemia treatment because that money would save more lives if used to help starving children in Africa. Most people would view that as being more of a heartless bastard than someone who contributes but doesn’t donate much if anything to African aid. I happen to think that the majority opinion is right in this case and the utilitarians are the ones who are both wrong and horribly confused.
Accepting that empathy and compassion evolved to deal with small groups and embracing it means you don’t have to feel bad about helping someone you have direct contact with because your help would be more ‘effective’ from a utilitarian perspective if directed towards a stranger who is objectively worse off.
You don’t have to feel bad about it in any case. Decision theory and emotions are different things.
Depends how you define ‘heartless bastard’. The attitude denisbider describes is actually more compatible with specific, personal acts of kindness than hardcore utilitarianism. Accepting that empathy and compassion evolved to deal with small groups and embracing it means you don’t have to feel bad about helping someone you have direct contact with because your help would be more ‘effective’ from a utilitarian perspective if directed towards a stranger who is objectively worse off.
A consistent utilitarian might, for example, refuse to contribute to a charitable collection to pay for treatment for a co-worker’s child’s leukemia treatment because that money would save more lives if used to help starving children in Africa. Most people would view that as being more of a heartless bastard than someone who contributes but doesn’t donate much if anything to African aid. I happen to think that the majority opinion is right in this case and the utilitarians are the ones who are both wrong and horribly confused.
You don’t have to feel bad about it in any case. Decision theory and emotions are different things.
(Previous comment on this.)