TimeOut

An excellent conversation on ethics via Sean Carroll's Mindscape podcast....

Best, Emmanuel

The guest, Dr. Singer, makes some good points about consequentialist ethics (of which he is a lifelong proponent), in particular utilitarian consequentialist ethics, and even more specifically utilitarian hedonist consequentialist ethics (genus-species-subspecies). Ultimately, I have always been a deontologist myself since, as opposed to Dr. Singer, I cannot logically or rationally place myself in a hypothetical position of knowing, to any high percentage, how a set of actions, no matter how profoundly well intended they may be to begin with, will effectively turn out to be like in the actual world. In my life experience thus far, there were many well intended actions which ultimately turned out particularly well, some which had little or no effect at all, and certainly some which turned out plainly bad.... I can't imagine most people not having had a comparable statistical outcome over a relatively long lifespan.... 🧐

Much like what Max Weber suggested: an "ethics of conviction" must be complemented by an "ethics of responsibility" because our actions often have highly predictable, even if never entirely certain, consequences...

Academics, on the other hand, would probably label that as the ultimate cop-out of a true philosophical stance x)........