March 2012
4 posts
In theory, if not practice
Democracy is obviously preferable in practice but I don’t think it’s necessarily ideal in theory. In theory, I wouldn’t necessarily prefer a democracy over a ‘benevolent dictatorship’ if the latter could be maintained without unnecessary force and had the best interests of the community as a whole in mind. The policies that a government should implement are the...
My view on abortion/family planning and population
I initially became pro-choice on the basis of autonomy and individual rights but now I’m only directly concerned with the happiness and suffering that’s directly or indirectly caused or prevented by an abortion in a particular scenario or it’s legal status. The following factors in to whether or not I think an abortion, or legalizing abortion, is justified :
*the...
Separateness of persons
Utilitarianism is sometimes charged with disregarding the ‘separateness of persons’ (it doesn’t, it only claims that the interests of separate people are commensurable ) but considering the apparent interconnectedness of everything in nature, utilitarians might be justified in doing so. The neurons in any sentient animal’s nervous system are constantly replacing or being...
Utilitarianism is not 'cold'
Although I don’t consider myself to be a utilitarian (beyond just intellectual agreement and in terms of being an ethical person and acting on utilitarian reasoning), I think utilitarianism (and more specifically, hedonistic utilitarianism as opposed to preference utilitarianism, act utilitarianism as opposed to rule utilitarianism and total utilitarianism as opposed to average...
