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The entire Dune series is an examination of consequentialism. There are good consequences for all of humanity. Whether Herbert endorses consequentialism in the

• lapcat 3y ago
  If you can find a copy, "The Maker of Dune" gives some nice insights into Herbert's thinking. The book looks to be pretty hard to find now, though. I used to have a copy, but I must have sold it at some point when I was poorer. [Edit:] The internet archive has it: https://archive.org/details/the-maker-of-dune-insights-of-a-master-of-science-fiction-by-frank-herbert-tim-o-reilly https://archive.org/details/the-maker-of-dune-insights-of-a-...
• dragonwriter 3y ago
  > The entire Dune series is an examination of consequentialism. There are good consequences for all of humanity. Mighty big asterisk on the “all” there.
  • smt88 3y ago
    > Mighty big asterisk on the “all” there. As long as [unacceptable sacrifice] is objectively smaller than [benefit], it works as an analogy for real-world consequentialism like the develoment/use of the atom bomb. The book went to some lengths to tell you with certainty that the sacrifice was smaller than the benefit.
    • ahepp 3y ago
      I think their point is that a straightforward reading of the statement “this had good consequences for all of humanity” would need to be evaluated by examining the finite equivalent “there does not exist a member of humanity for whom this had bad consequences”. Hence they propose an asterisk next to “all”, because “all of humanity” means something more like “humanity as a whole (decided by someone?)” or “humanity (the ones who aren’t dead?)”