thomblake comments on Survey Results - Less Wrong

48 Post author: Yvain 12 May 2009 10:09PM

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Comment author: thomblake 13 May 2009 03:13:03PM 0 points [-]

Then there are further questions:

  1. why maximize that? , and

  2. why use those constraints?

Note that both of these are ethical questions. The way you answer one might have implications for the answer to the other.

Comment author: MichaelBishop 13 May 2009 07:33:04PM 0 points [-]

Can't both of these questions be asked of pure consequentialists?

Comment author: thomblake 13 May 2009 08:30:23PM 0 points [-]

Sure, but the point is that one concern will probably collapse into the other. For a pure consequentialist, question 2 is either irrelevant or answered by question 1, and for question 1 you will end up in a bit of a circle where "because it maximizes overall net utility" is the only possible answer, with maybe an "obviously" down the line.

Comment author: conchis 14 May 2009 11:36:06PM *  0 points [-]

For a pure consequentialist...

Well, yes. But we're not talking about pure consequentialists. It's obvious that hybrid deontology-consequentialism is inconsistent with pure consequentialism; it's also beside the point.

Deontological constraints are seldom sufficient to determine right action. When they're not it seems perfectly natural to try to fill the neither-prohibited-nor-obligatory middle ground with something that looks pretty much like consequentialism.