Objections to Utilitarianism - Part 1

Video Lecture for PHIL 242: Ethics for Engineers & Scientists, University of Nevada - Las Vegas, Fall 2020, Instructor: Phillip Honenberger

[darkengine]

Is there a form of consequentialism that isn't utilitarian? I consider myself extremely consequentialist, but not utilitarian. I evaluate the likely consequences of my actions not based on some universal utilitarian sort of principle that involves all human beings (that demands too much of me both in terms of stretching my empathy too far as well as stretching my limited predictive abilities too far) but more based on the likelihood that it satisfies my long-term self-interests (which do include my desire to protect my loved ones and even strangers to a lesser degree).

For example, I prefer the consequence that I die rescuing a loved one from danger since I prefer the consequence that they live and I die over the one where they die and I have to live knowing that I failed to save them. Yet there's nothing really utilitarian guiding my thoughts, only my desires. I am selfishly altruistic. I can't help but be; if I didn't will it, I wouldn't have done it. I value constantly improving my ability to predict the consequences of my actions so that I can increasingly bring the actual consequences that occur in hindsight in harmony with my self-interests.

I judge other people's actions the same way based on their self-interests. For example, I would consider it immoral for someone who desires to become an engineer to doze off in math classes for consequentialist reasons (they are unlikely to succeed in their longest-term goals given those actions), but I wouldn't consider it immoral as much for someone who just aspires to be a dancer to doze off in math class.