Who is weakening the conditions for a theory being “consequentialism”? The thing described by Peterson seems perfectly in line with consequentialism. And his point about asymmetry among moral theories remains.
Well, there are a lot of things that get called “consequentialism” (take a look at the SEP article for a similar point). I personally find that “consequentialism” connotes to “agent-neutral” in my head, but that may just be me. I feel like requiring neutrality is a more interesting position precisely because bare consequentialism is so weak: it’s not really surprising that almost everything is a form of it.
There’s also the possibility of accidental equivocation, since people use “consequentialism” to stand for so many things. I actually think the stronger interpretations are pretty common (again, the SEP article has a little discussion on this), and so there is some danger of people thinking that this shows a stronger result than it actually does.
The problem with Kantianism-as-”consequentialism” is that the consequences you have to portray the agent as pursuing, are not very plausible ultimate goals, on the face of it. What makes the usual versions of consequentialism appealing is, in large part, the immediate plausibility of the claim that these goals (insert the particular theory of the good here) are what really and ultimately matter. If we specify particular types of actions in the goal (e.g., lying is to be minimized) and index to the agent, that immediate plausibility fades.
Who is weakening the conditions for a theory being “consequentialism”? The thing described by Peterson seems perfectly in line with consequentialism. And his point about asymmetry among moral theories remains.
Well, there are a lot of things that get called “consequentialism” (take a look at the SEP article for a similar point). I personally find that “consequentialism” connotes to “agent-neutral” in my head, but that may just be me. I feel like requiring neutrality is a more interesting position precisely because bare consequentialism is so weak: it’s not really surprising that almost everything is a form of it.
There’s also the possibility of accidental equivocation, since people use “consequentialism” to stand for so many things. I actually think the stronger interpretations are pretty common (again, the SEP article has a little discussion on this), and so there is some danger of people thinking that this shows a stronger result than it actually does.
Nah, people argue all the time about agent neutrality. Agent-neutral consequentialism is simply one form of consequentialism, albeit a popular one.
The problem with Kantianism-as-”consequentialism” is that the consequences you have to portray the agent as pursuing, are not very plausible ultimate goals, on the face of it. What makes the usual versions of consequentialism appealing is, in large part, the immediate plausibility of the claim that these goals (insert the particular theory of the good here) are what really and ultimately matter. If we specify particular types of actions in the goal (e.g., lying is to be minimized) and index to the agent, that immediate plausibility fades.