I think we are using different definitions. I think of ethics first as applied to choosing one’s own decisions, and only second as a tool to analyze and predict the decisions of others.
If I were to program a decision bot, I would certainly employ a mixture of algorithms. Some of them would have a model of what it means to, say, be fair (a virtue) and generate possible actions based on that. Others would restrict possible actions based on a deontological rule such as “thou shalt not kill” (cf. Asimov’s laws). Yet others would search the space of outcomes of possible actions and pick the ones most in line with the optimization goal, if there is one. Different routines are likely to output different sets of actions, so they are not orthogonal.
“Orthogonal” means you can be a virtue ethicist without a commitment on consequentialism, and vice versa.
A virtue ethicist who is not a consequentialist is the old school Greek ethicist.
A consequentialist who is not a virtue ethicist is one of the modern variety of maximizers.
A virtue ethicist + consequentialist is someone who tries to work out ethics in multiplayer situations where some players are dicks and others are not. So defection/cooperation ought to depend on the ‘ethical character’ of the opponent, in some sense.
I think we are using different definitions. I think of ethics first as applied to choosing one’s own decisions, and only second as a tool to analyze and predict the decisions of others.
If I were to program a decision bot, I would certainly employ a mixture of algorithms. Some of them would have a model of what it means to, say, be fair (a virtue) and generate possible actions based on that. Others would restrict possible actions based on a deontological rule such as “thou shalt not kill” (cf. Asimov’s laws). Yet others would search the space of outcomes of possible actions and pick the ones most in line with the optimization goal, if there is one. Different routines are likely to output different sets of actions, so they are not orthogonal.
“Orthogonal” means you can be a virtue ethicist without a commitment on consequentialism, and vice versa.
A virtue ethicist who is not a consequentialist is the old school Greek ethicist.
A consequentialist who is not a virtue ethicist is one of the modern variety of maximizers.
A virtue ethicist + consequentialist is someone who tries to work out ethics in multiplayer situations where some players are dicks and others are not. So defection/cooperation ought to depend on the ‘ethical character’ of the opponent, in some sense.