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    Bernard Williams showed that agent-relative integrity con... — Carmelics
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    Challenges→Non-consequentialist theories that include prohibition dilemmas are implausible.

    Bernard Williams showed that agent-relative integrity constraints capture genuine moral phenomena that impartial consequentialism systematically distorts.

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    1 reason for
    1 reason against

    Reasons For

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    Reason for
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    • 1.People have deep commitments to projects and relationships that feel intrinsically valuable, not merely instrumentally useful for overall welfare.
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    • 2.Impartial consequentialism requires sacrificing personal integrity when doing so maximizes utility, but this conflicts with how moral agents actually reason.
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    • 3.Agent-relative constraints (like not betraying a friend for greater good) capture moral intuitions that pure impartiality cannot adequately explain.
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    Reasons Against

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    • 1.Williams's distinction between agent-relative and agent-neutral may overstate the gap—sophisticated consequentialism can accommodate personal projects through indirect reasoning.
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    • 2.Privileging agent-relative integrity risks moral arbitrariness: why one's own projects matter more than equally valid projects of others facing real harm.
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    • 3.Williams identifies a psychological fact about moral motivation but doesn't establish that consequentialists distort genuine moral phenomena rather than exposing uncomfortable trade-offs.
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    Consequentialism1 linkedJustice & Punishment1 linked

    Related

    Agent-relative constraints (like not betraying a friend for greater good) captur...Impartial consequentialism requires sacrificing personal integrity when doing so...Non-consequentialist theories that include prohibition dilemmas are implausible.People have deep commitments to projects and relationships that feel intrinsical...
    +3 moreShow less
    Privileging agent-relative integrity risks moral arbitrariness: why one's own pr...Williams identifies a psychological fact about moral motivation but doesn't esta...Williams's distinction between agent-relative and agent-neutral may overstate th...

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    claim
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    2 (1 for, 1 against)
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