Isn’t the question of someone being a good or a bad person at all a part of virtue ethics? That is, for a utilitarian the results of the bystander’s and murderer’s actions were the same, and therefore actions were as bad as each other, but that doesn’t mean a bystander is as bad as the murderer, because that’s not a part of utilitarian framework at all. Should we implement the policy of blaming or punishing them the same way? That’s a question for utilitarianism. And the answer is probably “no”.
I’ve had similar thoughts in the past few days. It does seem that utilitarianism merely prescribes the moral action, without saying anything about the goodness or badness of people. Of course, I’ve seen self-identifying utilitarians talk about culpability, but they seem to be quickly tacking this on without thinking about it.
It is possible to talk about utilitarian culpability, but it’s a question of “would blaming/punishing this (kind of) person lead to good results”. Like you usually shouldn’t blame those who can’t change their behavior as a response to blame unless they self-modified themselves to be this way or if them being blameless would motivate others that can… That reminds me of the Eight Short Studies On Excuses, where Yvain has demonstrated an example of such an approach.
Isn’t the question of someone being a good or a bad person at all a part of virtue ethics? That is, for a utilitarian the results of the bystander’s and murderer’s actions were the same, and therefore actions were as bad as each other, but that doesn’t mean a bystander is as bad as the murderer, because that’s not a part of utilitarian framework at all. Should we implement the policy of blaming or punishing them the same way? That’s a question for utilitarianism. And the answer is probably “no”.
I’ve had similar thoughts in the past few days. It does seem that utilitarianism merely prescribes the moral action, without saying anything about the goodness or badness of people. Of course, I’ve seen self-identifying utilitarians talk about culpability, but they seem to be quickly tacking this on without thinking about it.
It is possible to talk about utilitarian culpability, but it’s a question of “would blaming/punishing this (kind of) person lead to good results”. Like you usually shouldn’t blame those who can’t change their behavior as a response to blame unless they self-modified themselves to be this way or if them being blameless would motivate others that can… That reminds me of the Eight Short Studies On Excuses, where Yvain has demonstrated an example of such an approach.