Matt Simpson: Many an experiment has been thought for the sole purpose of showing how utilitarianism is in direct conflict with our moral intuitions.
I disagree, or you’re referring to something I haven’t heard of. If I know what you mean here, those are a species of strawman (“act”) utilitarianism that doesn’t account for the long-term impact and adjustment of behavior that results.
(I’m going to stop giving the caveats; just remember that I accept the possibility you’re referring to something else.)
For example, if you’re thinking about cases where people would be against a doctor deciding to carve up a healthy patient against his will to save ~40 others, that’s not rejection of utilitarianism. It can be recognition that once a doctor does that, people will avoid them in droves, driving up risks all around.
Or, if you’re referring to the case of how people would e.g. refuse to divert a train’s path so it hits one person instead of five, that’s not necessarily an anti-utilitarian intuition; there are many factors at play in such a scenario. For example, the one person may be standing in a normally safe spot and so consented to a lower level of risk, and so by diverting the train, you screw up the ability of people to see what’s really safe, etc.
Matt Simpson: Many an experiment has been thought for the sole purpose of showing how utilitarianism is in direct conflict with our moral intuitions.
I disagree, or you’re referring to something I haven’t heard of. If I know what you mean here, those are a species of strawman (“act”) utilitarianism that doesn’t account for the long-term impact and adjustment of behavior that results.
(I’m going to stop giving the caveats; just remember that I accept the possibility you’re referring to something else.)
For example, if you’re thinking about cases where people would be against a doctor deciding to carve up a healthy patient against his will to save ~40 others, that’s not rejection of utilitarianism. It can be recognition that once a doctor does that, people will avoid them in droves, driving up risks all around.
Or, if you’re referring to the case of how people would e.g. refuse to divert a train’s path so it hits one person instead of five, that’s not necessarily an anti-utilitarian intuition; there are many factors at play in such a scenario. For example, the one person may be standing in a normally safe spot and so consented to a lower level of risk, and so by diverting the train, you screw up the ability of people to see what’s really safe, etc.