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No problem! And yeah, I had a moral philosophy professor who had endless examples like that, including that one. They were hilarious and so intuitively potent,
by samhw 5y ago
No problem! And yeah, I had a moral philosophy professor who had endless examples like that, including that one. They were hilarious and so intuitively potent, I just wish I could remember more of them. He could spend a full 5-10 minutes in a lecture just retailing dozens of those ridiculous counter-examples. (It was especially funny because he was a very urbane old Oxonian professor - think Richard Dawkins for a pretty close analogue to his general mien - whom you wouldn't expect to start enthusiastically talking about gang rape.)
- philipkglass 5y agoPhilosophy professor John Holbo had a blog post about ridiculously whimsical scenarios in philosophy under the delightful title Occam's Phaser: https://crookedtimber.org/2012/02/25/occams-phaser/ https://crookedtimber.org/2012/02/25/occams-phaser/ There are good examples in the comments too, though I mostly recall it for getting into a heated argument with someone making utilitarian arguments for torture.
- samhw 5y agoInteresting, thanks! My position on the whole 'using moral intuitions in applied cases to disprove fundamental moral theories' is basically what I said in this thread: https://twitter.com/samziz/status/1412198411579887622 https://twitter.com/samziz/status/1412198411579887622 Incidentally I wouldn't agree with utilitarian arguments for torture, but not - necessarily - because I don't agree with utilitarianism. I think it's certainly possible to make higher-order or rule-utilitarian arguments against torture, within the parameters of utilitarianism.