So… you value following duty as a character trait?
I guess you could spin it that way—but let me take an example.
For the last couple of weeks, my wife and I have been involved in some drama in our extended family. When we discuss in private and try to decide how we should act, I’ve noticed my wife keeps starting off with “If we were to do X, what would happen?”. She likes to try to predict different outcomes and she wants to pick the action that leads to the best one. So maybe she is a consequentialist through and through.
I tend to see the whole sorry business as too complicated for us to predict, especially since I don’t want to neglect consequences 10 or 20 years down the line. So I fall back to trying to apply rules that would be generally applicable. “What is our duty to family member X? What is our duty to family member Y?”
It’s not that I would ever say “We should do X, even though it leads to worse outcomes.” But I do want to consider the long run and I’d prefer not to destroy useful Schelling points for short term gain.
OK, so you use virtue ethics (doing one’s duty is virtuous) and deontology as shortcuts for consequentialism, given that you lack resources and data to reliably apply the latter. This makes perfect sense. Your wife applies bounded consequentialism, which also makes sense. Presumably your shortcuts will keep her schemes in check, and her schemes will enlarge the list of options you can apply your rules to.
So… you value following duty as a character trait?
I guess you could spin it that way—but let me take an example.
For the last couple of weeks, my wife and I have been involved in some drama in our extended family. When we discuss in private and try to decide how we should act, I’ve noticed my wife keeps starting off with “If we were to do X, what would happen?”. She likes to try to predict different outcomes and she wants to pick the action that leads to the best one. So maybe she is a consequentialist through and through.
I tend to see the whole sorry business as too complicated for us to predict, especially since I don’t want to neglect consequences 10 or 20 years down the line. So I fall back to trying to apply rules that would be generally applicable. “What is our duty to family member X? What is our duty to family member Y?”
It’s not that I would ever say “We should do X, even though it leads to worse outcomes.” But I do want to consider the long run and I’d prefer not to destroy useful Schelling points for short term gain.
OK, so you use virtue ethics (doing one’s duty is virtuous) and deontology as shortcuts for consequentialism, given that you lack resources and data to reliably apply the latter. This makes perfect sense. Your wife applies bounded consequentialism, which also makes sense. Presumably your shortcuts will keep her schemes in check, and her schemes will enlarge the list of options you can apply your rules to.
I like that formulation, thank you!