Preventive War—What Is It Good For?
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1 of 3 Ethics: Consequentialism-Utilitarianism Ethics Script: Consequentialism & Utilitarianism Slide 2 {Introduction To
Ethics Script: Consequentialism & Utilitarianism slide 2 {Introduction to the Theory of Consequentialism} There are two basic principles within the theory of consequentialism: (1) an action’s ethicality depends only on the results of that action, and (2) the more “good” (and less harmful) results an action produces, the better (or more right) the act is. You already know the basic idea behind this concept as “the end justifies the means.” slide 3 {How it Works… and Doesn’t Work} While actions tend to be brief and immediate, the consequences of those actions can have long-term—even permanent—effects. A consequentialist would expect that you (and everyone else) consider the implications of your actions in terms of a “good” or “right” outcome. Consequentialism itself doesn’t define which consequences are “good.” It’s up to you to decide what is right and wrong on a personal basis. Two consequentialists can look at the same choice and completely disagree on the action that should be taken… like in the case of an assisted suicide or how to deal with a pandemic. But they are more likely to agree on what kind of action should be taken in order to help a lost child so some actions are easier to agree on than others. slide 4 {Utilitarianism a Model of Consequentialism and Introduction to Mr. Bentham} The most popular consequentialist model, Utilitarianism, accounts for ambiguities that consequentialism alone does not. Utilitarianism emerged in the early 19th century with British philosopher and “hedonist” Jeremy Bentham, who aimed to assess whether or not Parliament was passing fair and ethical laws at the time. -
Why Retributivism Needs Consequentialism: the Rightful Place of Revenge in the Criminal Justice System
Louisiana State University Law Center LSU Law Digital Commons Journal Articles Faculty Scholarship 2014 Why Retributivism Needs Consequentialism: The Rightful Place of Revenge in the Criminal Justice System Ken Levy Louisiana State University Law Center, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.law.lsu.edu/faculty_scholarship Part of the Law Commons Repository Citation Levy, Ken, "Why Retributivism Needs Consequentialism: The Rightful Place of Revenge in the Criminal Justice System" (2014). Journal Articles. 67. https://digitalcommons.law.lsu.edu/faculty_scholarship/67 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Faculty Scholarship at LSU Law Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Journal Articles by an authorized administrator of LSU Law Digital Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Forthcoming in Rutgers L. Rev. (spring 2014) Why Retributivism Needs Consequentialism: The Rightful Place of Revenge in the Criminal Justice System KEN LEVY* TABLE OF CONTENTS I. Introduction ..................................................................................................... 2 II. The Main Goals of the Criminal Justice System ....................................... 10 A. The First Primary Goal of the Criminal Justice System: Crime Minimization ................................................................................................. 11 B. The Second Primary Goal of the Criminal Justice System: Retribution .................................................................................................... -
Consequentialism and Moral Responsibility
Consequentialism and Moral Responsibility Draft of September 2015 Elinor Mason For Christian Seidel (ed.) Consequentialism: new directions, new problems? OUP, forthcoming. There are two different ways of thinking about the relationship between consequentialism and moral responsibility. First, we might think that consequentialism can give us an account of responsibility. I discuss this possibility briefly, and then set it aside. The other way of thinking about the relationship is the focus of this paper. The question that concerns me, is, to what extent is a normative theory, consequentialism in particular, constrained by requirements that stem from concerns about responsibility? 1. Consequentialist Accounts of Moral Responsibility J.J.C. Smart suggests that we can extend consequentialist reasoning about morality to reasoning about responsibility. One of the attractions of consequentialism is that it provides such a straightforward and attractive account of justification for our moral practices. Why do we pay our taxes, treat each other with respect, look after each other and so on? Because doing so has good consequences. However, this sort of justification, though very appealing when considering moral practice, becomes extremely counterintuitive in other sorts of case. For example, it seems obvious that justification for beliefs cannot be consequentialist. Beliefs must be justified in some way that relates to their truth, though of course there is disagreement about exactly what makes a belief justified. Similarly, so a familiar line of thought goes, whether or not someone is responsible for an act, or for anything else, cannot be determined by looking at the consequences of holding them responsible. The claim that 1 responsibility can be understood in a consequentialist way seems like a category mistake.1 Smart’s view might be correct that, insofar as praising and blaming are actions, consequentialists should take the value of the consequences of performing those acts as the relevant factor in deciding whether or not to perform them. -
Working Paper: Do Not Cite Or Circulate Without Permission
THE COPENHAGEN TEMPTATION: RETHINKING PREVENTION AND PROLIFERATION IN THE AGE OF DETERRENCE DOMINANCE Francis J. Gavin Mira Rapp-Hooper What price should the United States – or any leading power – be willing to pay to prevent nuclear proliferation? For most realists, who believe nuclear weapons possess largely defensive qualities, the price should be small indeed. While additional nuclear states might not be welcomed, their appearance should not be cause for undue alarm. Such equanimity would be especially warrantedWORKING if the state in question PAPER: lacked DO other attributesNOT CITE of power. OR Nuclear acquisition should certainly notCIRCULATE trigger thoughts of WITHOUT preventive militar PERMISSIONy action, a phenomena typically associated with dramatic shifts in the balance of power. The historical record, however, tells a different story. Throughout the nuclear age and despite dramatic changes in the international system, the United States has time and again considered aggressive policies, including the use of force, to prevent the emergence of nuclear capabilities by friend and foe alike. What is even more surprising is how often this temptation has been oriented against what might be called “feeble” states, unable to project other forms of power. The evidence also reveals that the reasons driving this preventive thinking often had more to do with concerns over the systemic consequences of nuclear proliferation, and not, as we might expect, the dyadic relationship between the United States and the proliferator. Factors 1 typically associated with preventive motivations, such as a shift in the balance of power or the ideological nature of the regime in question, were largely absent in high-level deliberations. -
Satisficing Consequentialism Author(S): Michael Slote and Philip Pettit Source: Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society, Supplementary Volumes, Vol
Satisficing Consequentialism Author(s): Michael Slote and Philip Pettit Source: Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society, Supplementary Volumes, Vol. 58 (1984), pp. 139-163+165-176 Published by: Blackwell Publishing on behalf of The Aristotelian Society Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/4106846 Accessed: 15/10/2008 09:26 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use, available at http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp. JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use provides, in part, that unless you have obtained prior permission, you may not download an entire issue of a journal or multiple copies of articles, and you may use content in the JSTOR archive only for your personal, non-commercial use. Please contact the publisher regarding any further use of this work. Publisher contact information may be obtained at http://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=black. Each copy of any part of a JSTOR transmission must contain the same copyright notice that appears on the screen or printed page of such transmission. JSTOR is a not-for-profit organization founded in 1995 to build trusted digital archives for scholarship. We work with the scholarly community to preserve their work and the materials they rely upon, and to build a common research platform that promotes the discovery and use of these resources. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. The Aristotelian Society and Blackwell Publishing are collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society, Supplementary Volumes. -
Extending the Concept of Preventive War and Understanding Its Implications
Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports 2008 Strategies of prevention: Extending the concept of preventive war and understanding its implications Steven T. Walker West Virginia University Follow this and additional works at: https://researchrepository.wvu.edu/etd Recommended Citation Walker, Steven T., "Strategies of prevention: Extending the concept of preventive war and understanding its implications" (2008). Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports. 2747. https://researchrepository.wvu.edu/etd/2747 This Dissertation is protected by copyright and/or related rights. It has been brought to you by the The Research Repository @ WVU with permission from the rights-holder(s). You are free to use this Dissertation in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use. For other uses you must obtain permission from the rights-holder(s) directly, unless additional rights are indicated by a Creative Commons license in the record and/ or on the work itself. This Dissertation has been accepted for inclusion in WVU Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports collection by an authorized administrator of The Research Repository @ WVU. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Strategies of Prevention: Extending the Concept of Preventive War and Understanding Its Implications Steven T. Walker Dissertation Submitted to the Eberly College of Arts and Sciences at West Virginia University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy In Political Science Joe D. Hagan, Ph.D., Co-chair Scott Crichlow, Ph.D., Co-chair Robert Duval, Ph.D. Hong Kim, Ph.D. James Siekmeier, Ph.D. -
World War Ii in Context
April 12, 2001 // 17.423 Causes and Prevention of War // MIT poli. sci. dept. Van Evera, Gabbitas and Lejlic ORIGINS OF THE SECOND WORLD WAR I. WORLD WAR II IN CONTEXT World War II was the greatest war in world history. Some 35-60 million people died in this enormous global conflagration. This vast war closely followed the most elaborate and hopeful effort ever made to design a peaceful world--the 1919 Versailles peace. Never before had world leaders sought so consciously to use their power to shape a peaceful world as they did in 1919. And never has the world seen such violence as it did in Versailles' aftermath. In contrast, the peace that emerged in 1945 was undesigned yet proved far more durable. What does this say of our capacity to engineer a more peaceful world?1 II. WAR & REMEMBRANCE: HOW ILLUSIONS REPLACED REALITY IN EUROPE'S MEMORY OF THE FIRST WORLD WAR (See Holger Herwig, "Clio Deceived...") Sometimes losers write history. They did here, and sold this history to the winners. The world paid dearly for the German-authored Great Social Science Experiment of 1898-1918. (The experiment destroyed the laboratory!) But then someone falsified the lab notes. III. NATIONAL POLICIES AND IDEAS A. Germany: 1. Germans practiced creative history. Weimar-era (1920's) German schools & scholars told and believed lies about: a. The origins of WWI--"The Entente powers encircled Germany and instigated the war!" b. The causes and responsibility for Germany's defeat--"the Jews and the socialists did it!", not Ludendorff and the superhawks. -
Alienation, Consequentialism, and the Demands of Morality,” Peter Railton Introduces an Approach to Consequentialism That Has Since Become Influential
1 Sophisticated Consequentialism and Psychological Coherence In “Alienation, Consequentialism, and the Demands of Morality,” Peter Railton introduces an approach to consequentialism that has since become influential. 1 His approach, which he calls ‘sophisticated consequentialism’, claims that a consequentialist ought to be motivated by whichever set of motivations will in fact lead to maximizing value, instead of being motivated to directly maximize value. As a result, a consequentialist might maximize value by having dispositions to commit acts that may not themselves maximize value. I concern myself here with the psychological tension that might exist in a person with such apparently conflicting commitments: how may a person that is, on one hand, committed to believing that consequences determine how people ought to act, on the other hand, be motivated to generally act in ways that pay no direct attention to consequences? In particular, I will argue that, on Railton's picture, a consequentialist must pay attention to two distinct and inconsistent sets of reasons. First, it is difficult to see how a person can really make decisions in that way, and second, a person situated in the way Railton imagines is not actually in a position to maximize value. But before I get to a more rigorous statement of what I will call the criticism from psychological incoherence, I need to lay the scene. The criticism from psychological incoherence is related to another objection to which Railton was directly responding, the alienation objection. I first set out this objection before moving to a statement of sophisticated consequentialism that handles the alienation objection. -
Vegetarianism and Virtue: Does Consequentialism Demand Too Little?
WellBeing International WBI Studies Repository 1-2002 Vegetarianism and Virtue: Does Consequentialism Demand Too Little? Nathan Nobis University of Rochester Follow this and additional works at: https://www.wellbeingintlstudiesrepository.org/acwp_aafhh Part of the Animal Studies Commons, Other Anthropology Commons, and the Other Nutrition Commons Recommended Citation Nobis, N. (2002). Vegetarianism and Virtue: Does consequentialism Demand Too Little?. Social Theory & Practice, 28(1), 135-156. This material is brought to you for free and open access by WellBeing International. It has been accepted for inclusion by an authorized administrator of the WBI Studies Repository. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Vegetarianism and Virtue: Does Consequentialism Demand Too Little? Nathan Nobis Department of Philosophy, University of Rochester I will argue that each of us personally ought to be a vegetarian.1 Actually, the conclusion I will attempt to defend concerns more than one's eating habits in that I will argue that we should be "vegans." Not only should we not buy and eat meat, but we should also not purchase fur coats, stoles, and hats, or leather shoes, belts, jackets, purses and wallets, furniture, car interiors, and other traditionally animal-based products for which there are readily available plant-based or synthetic alternatives. (Usually these are cheaper and work just as well, or better, anyway.) I will argue that buying and eating most eggs and dairy products are immoral as well. (Since it's much easier -
Consequentialism, Group Acts, and Trolleys
1 Consequentialism, Group Acts, and Trolleys Joseph Mendola Abstract: Multiple-Act Consequentialism specifies that one should only defect from a group act with good consequences if one can achieve better consequences by the defecting act alone than the entire group act achieves. It also holds that when different valuable group agents of which one is part specify roles which conflict, one should follow the role in the group act with more valuable consequences. This paper develops Multiple-Act Consequentialism as a solution to the Trolley Problem. Its relentless pursuit of the good provides act-consequentialism with one sort of intuitive ethical rationale. But more indirect forms of consequentialism promise more intuitive normative implications, for instance the evil of even beneficent murders. I favor a middle way which combines the intuitive rationale of act-consequentialism and the intuitive normative implications of the best indirect forms. Multiple-Act Consequentialism or ‘MAC’ requires direct consequentialist evaluation of the options of group agents. It holds that one should only defect from a group act with good consequences if one can achieve better consequences by the defecting act alone than the entire group act achieves, and that when different beneficent group acts of which one is part specify roles which conflict, one should follow the role in the group act with better consequences. This paper develops MAC as a solution to the Trolley Problem. Section 1 concerns the relative advantages of direct and indirect consequentialisms. Section 2 develops MAC by a focus on competing conceptions of group agency. Section 3 applies MAC to the Trolley Problem. -
Reflections on Consequentialism by Lars Bergström (Stockholm University)
From Theoria, Vol. 62, Part 1-2, 1996, pp.74-94. Reflections on Consequentialism by Lars Bergström (Stockholm University) Consequentialism, or utilitarianism (in a broad sense), can be interpreted in many different ways.1 In The Cambridge Dictionary of Philosophy, there is no separate entry for "consequentialism"; the reader is referred to "utilitarianism", and this is in turn explained as "the moral theory that an action is morally right if and only if it produces at least as much good (utility) for all people affected by the action as any alternative action the person could do instead".2 This is a sufficient starting point for my purposes in this paper. It indicates, for example, that the kind of theory I have in mind is "act consequentialism", rather than "rule consequentialism". A well-known consequentialist theory would be the hedonistic utilitarianism described in the first two chapters of G.E. Moore's Ethics; another example would be Moore's own non- hedonistic "ideal" utilitarianism proposed in the same book.3 Moore takes (hedonistic) utilitarianism to contain the "principle" that "a voluntary action is right, whenever and only when the agent could not, even if he had chosen, have done any other action instead, which would have caused more pleasure than the one he did do".4 Notice, however, that, for Moore, utilitarianism does not only say "that the producing of a maximum of pleasure is a characteristic, which did and will belong, as a matter of fact, to all right voluntary actions (actual or possible)", it also says that "it is because they possess this characteristic that such actions are right".5 I follow Moore here. -
The Ethics of Cyberwarfare Randall R
This article was downloaded by: [University of Pennsylvania] On: 28 February 2013, At: 08:22 Publisher: Routledge Informa Ltd Registered in England and Wales Registered Number: 1072954 Registered office: Mortimer House, 37-41 Mortimer Street, London W1T 3JH, UK Journal of Military Ethics Publication details, including instructions for authors and subscription information: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/smil20 The Ethics of Cyberwarfare Randall R. Dipert a a SUNY (State University of New York) at Buffalo, NY, USA Version of record first published: 16 Dec 2010. To cite this article: Randall R. Dipert (2010): The Ethics of Cyberwarfare, Journal of Military Ethics, 9:4, 384-410 To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/15027570.2010.536404 PLEASE SCROLL DOWN FOR ARTICLE Full terms and conditions of use: http://www.tandfonline.com/page/terms-and- conditions This article may be used for research, teaching, and private study purposes. Any substantial or systematic reproduction, redistribution, reselling, loan, sub-licensing, systematic supply, or distribution in any form to anyone is expressly forbidden. The publisher does not give any warranty express or implied or make any representation that the contents will be complete or accurate or up to date. The accuracy of any instructions, formulae, and drug doses should be independently verified with primary sources. The publisher shall not be liable for any loss, actions, claims, proceedings, demand, or costs or damages whatsoever or howsoever caused arising directly or indirectly in connection with or arising out of the use of this material. Journal of Military Ethics, Vol. 9, No. 4, 384Á410, 2010 The Ethics of Cyberwarfare RANDALL R.