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Comment by George83728

2 years ago

Better to have the rules and sometimes find very compelling reasons to break them, than to never have the rules at all. The rules raise the activation energy. A rule against murder may be overridden when presented with an extreme circumstance, but utilitarianism without such a rule at all will permit (or even require) murder for very marginal theoretical gain. Under such systems you have the government going around murdering farmers so their property can be collectivized for the greater good, and then millions of people starve to death which was never factored into the equation but oops, too late now. Better to live in a society which generally respects deontological principles (and sometimes breaks them) than to live in a utilitarian society with no such compunctions.

There are many forms of utilitarianism, but I don't think any advocate only for considering the most immediate consequences. Like if you're considering murder because it'd be beneficial in the long run, surely you also have to consider the possible negatives as well, which rarely makes a good option.

But really, all moral systems have horrifying failures. If in utilitarianism you can inflict horrors for utility, then in deontology you can inflict an unlimited amount of it if you ever come to the conclusion that it's allowable.

Eg, any time a deontological system decides that foreigners/gays/jews/etc aren't truly people, then they get kicked out of the system completely. And then any amount of suffering they might feel as a result is literally irrelevant -- deontology doesn't even consider it at all.