[Question] Consequentialism and Accidents

https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/Z8uPjEzHdcSZsAXX7/consequentialism-and-accidents

Can’t seem to find criticism on consequentialism regarding mistakes/​accidents. For example, an act of someone who unwillingly saves 100 lives he was trying to kill is seen, to consequentialists, as moral as an act of someone who knowingly and voluntarily saved 100 lives. I intuitively regard those acts as not on the same moral pedestal, despite overall agreeing with the consequentialist/​utilitarian approach to ethics. Would love to hear some thoughts on this.

Comment

https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/Z8uPjEzHdcSZsAXX7/consequentialism-and-accidents?commentId=XDt9CbXSuBbKAqDha

This is actually a pretty big topic.

https://​​plato.stanford.edu/​​entries/​​moral-luck/​​

https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/Z8uPjEzHdcSZsAXX7/consequentialism-and-accidents?commentId=XrKx7T5kTMHrpokPd

Focus on the goodness of the action and the outcome, not of the person. Saving 100 lives is a good consequence, right? Whatever behavior led to it was a good action.
Trying to kill 100 is a bad thought-action, as the most expected consequence is 100 killings. This would be a bad consequence.
Fantasizing about killing 100 and then not doing it is … neutral. No consequences.
[ note: oversimplified and possibly at odds with some thinking about consequentialism, especially for the common semi-consequentialist-with-deontological-fallback-when-it-gets-confusing philosophy that a lot of people use. I’m probably not in the mainstream when I say "having been lucky is good"].

Comment

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    K39ZP5DzFuRhKzkiK
  • authors
    TAG
  • score
    1
  • omega_karma
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    1
  • date_published
    2020-06-07T19:45
https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/Z8uPjEzHdcSZsAXX7/consequentialism-and-accidents?commentId=K39ZP5DzFuRhKzkiK

Focus on the goodness of the action and the outcome, not of the person.

For what purpose?

Comment

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    sCozQrfegoz7A4WNP
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    Dagon
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    2
  • omega_karma
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    1
  • date_published
    2020-06-08T16:24

For what purpose? Thank you! I was mostly just reacting to a question, without really thinking about why or acknowledging that there are distinct reasons to choose a framework to judge an action or person. Which are themselves different from using the framework to choose your own future actions. It’s very useful to be reminded of the complexity. For purposes of evaluating whether an action is something you should encourage or discourage in the future, you should generally recognize that people are often mistaken about their motivation and reasoning, and heavily weight the actual outcome of those behaviors.
For purposes of punishment or signaling to others about whether a person should be part of your society, you should probably use BOTH outcome and intent.