Timeline for Do all systems of ethics boil down to maximizing pleasure and/or minimizing suffering?
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| Aug 13, 2021 at 2:57 | comment | added | Futilitarian | @C.Moore. How is it determined that the pleasure the professor receives for acting morally is ancillary rather than a driving force? The scenario seems to provide a clear example of an instance in which a highly principled person derives more pleasure from acting morally than otherwise. The alternative is for him to act against his morals, which - for such a principled person - would be far worse. To capitulate to a fraudulent allegation would be to act contrary to his very sense of self, so even unjust punishment becomes 'maximally pleasurable' in this context. | |
| Aug 12, 2021 at 23:50 | comment | added | sendit | The point of your question seemed to me to ask whether these ethical systems are, at their root, utilitarian, and not "why is the right thing the right thing". I don't think you can answer that question from a purely materialistic standpoint. | |
| Aug 12, 2021 at 23:49 | comment | added | sendit | It seems like at this point you have to factor in the relative probabilities. If we could quantify the harm caused by each event with, say, H, then in my opinion P(patient dies and school shut down)H(allowing cheating)<<P(professor goes to prison)H(reports student). I say this simply because that scenario seems so unlikely. This is particularly the case if we're considering, say, a business calculus class instead of human anatomy. | |
| Aug 12, 2021 at 23:44 | comment | added | Ryan_L | Allowing cheating puts the whole institution at risk. Maybe she's in a medical program, she doesn't learn her studies, a patient dies because she doesn't know the material, and an investigation is launched as part of a wrongful death suit. As a result of this investigation, it's discovered that the school allowed this cheating and still graduated her. | |
| Aug 12, 2021 at 23:37 | comment | added | sendit | I'm skeptical of the claim that the harm inflicted on society by this instance of kowtowing to blackmail is greater than the suffering or harm caused by sending the innocent professor to prison. The point of the analogy is to give evidence for the fact that not all ethical systems have to min/max suffering/pleasure, and that including even a relatively simple moral code like "be honest" can cause a deviation away from utilitarianism. | |
| Aug 12, 2021 at 23:27 | comment | added | Ryan_L | Kowtowing to the blackmail might maximize pleasure or minimize pain for the professor and student, but society as a whole suffers. It's also not clear it would be beneficial for them either; a cheating student is likely to not get much out of their studies, a prof who takes bribes is likely to get caught eventually. More generally, this kind of argument misses the point. Why is the right thing the right thing, is the question. | |
| Aug 12, 2021 at 22:41 | review | First posts | |||
| Aug 13, 2021 at 8:07 | |||||
| Aug 12, 2021 at 22:39 | history | answered | sendit | CC BY-SA 4.0 |