“The ABCD guide to making better ethical decisions”
– I’ll be honest, I can’t argue with most of those things, however, it’s extremely long-winded, and nobody stands a chance of remembering all those things in the heat of the moment. They should have made each one short and snappy. Also, it includes that famous duff blooper from Kant:
“Would it be responsible of me if I thought everyone should act this way in my situation?”
which everyone assumes is a thing, because it’s apparently about the only example of a philosophical moral principle that has ever been constructed, however, it’s just not something that comes anywhere near the top of people’s decision-making process. For moral philosophers, it’s all they’ve got, so they wave it like a flag at every opportunity, but it’s a waste of time. We sometimes say “how would you feel if everyone did that?” – but not very often.
For me, these are better, and sum up the heart of the situation well:
- think about other people besides yourself
- think about the long term
- practise virtue – good habits learned through practice
However, the BigThink page doesn’t have a comments section, which says it all – I presume that the chance of any improvement on their philosophical wonder didn’t occur to them.
It was James Q Wilson in “On Character” who gave me the idea for that – so, big ups to him, even though he’s no longer with us. It’s annoying that all these clever moral philosophers waste their lives barking up the wrong tree.
Simon Paynton 7 years, 4 months ago.
