Objections to Utilitarianism and Possible Utilitarian Responses

Professor Peter Singer discusses objections to utilitarianism and counterarguments to those objections. Questions discussed include: Does utilitarianism conflict with our ideas of what is right? Is utilitarianism too demanding? Singer also introduces rule utilitarianism as a possible response to some objections.

[christophernorris-yeqb]

I notice that all these so-called "dilemmas" against utilitarianism consider no more than one or two cascading consequences resulting from their decision limitations. The dilemmas only seem simple and problematic if you are dealing with those dilemmas in a vacuum in which no further fallout occurs. People like @owlnyc666, who commented on this video, might make up dilemmas like this and demand an answer, and get irritated when I tell them they haven't come anywhere close to providing me enough information about the scenario as a whole for me to make an effective utilitarian decision, and THAT is the ONLY weakness utilitarian has: it's dependent on both the time and intelligence of the decision maker to calculate effective choices, and whether or not the decision maker has the information they need to make a good decision. And really, this isn't even a weakness of utilitarianism itself, it's a criticism of human capacity to use utilitarianism. So you could make a reasonable argument that stupid people need effective utilitarians to set ground rules, but I would argue that is exactly the moral system that believers in strict moral laws abide by, because many if not most believe in an omniscient God who designs rules for humanity. And I think if you question those people about how they think god makes moral discernments, they would apply to a conceptual view of morality rather than a rule-based morality, and Wallah!: they have arrived at a form of theological utilitarianism.

[owlnyc]

Utilitarianism vs Deontolgy vs Virtue Ethics. Trolley Dilemma.

[xaviercrain]

It would a law that could be universalizable not universal

[owlnyc]

Did any else notice. There wasn't an answer as what the sherriff should lynch the one to save the five?🤔😊