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    Possibilism can generate obligations that, if acted on, w... — Carmelics
    Home/Moral Responsibility
    HistoryEditSee Inverse

    Possibilism can generate obligations that, if acted on, would result in the worst possible outcome.

    Consequentialism
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    2 reasons for
    1 reason against

    Reasons For

    2 perspectives
    Reason for 1 of 2
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    • 1.Possibilism evaluates agents against ideal possibilities, not probable behavioral trajectories, as Zimmerman (1996) argues in 'The Concept of Moral Obligation'.
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    • 2.When an agent is obligated to perform an ideal act they will foreseeably fail to execute, possibilism forecloses guidance toward the best achievable outcome.
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    • 3.An obligation that predictably produces worse outcomes than an available alternative violates the core deontic function of directing agents toward the good.
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    Reason for 2 of 2
    ?
    • 1.Jackson and Pargetter's (1986) prospective consequentialism shows that deontic verdicts divorced from expected outcomes systematically misdirect moral deliberation.
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    • 2.Possibilism's ideal-state obligations can crowd out actualist second-best obligations, leaving agents with no action-guiding prescription when ideal action becomes inaccessible.
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    Reasons Against

    1 perspective
    Reason against
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    • 1.Possibilism implies that facts about how agents would freely act play no role in determining deontic verdicts.
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    • 2.When facts about how agents would freely act are excluded from deontic verdicts, the resulting obligations may not align with what produces the best outcomes.
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    Topics

    Moral ResponsibilityConsequentialism

    Connections

    1 topic

    Free Will & Foreknowledge1 linked

    Related

    An obligation that predictably produces worse outcomes than an available alterna...Jackson and Pargetter's (1986) prospective consequentialism shows that deontic v...Possibilism evaluates agents against ideal possibilities, not probable behaviora...Possibilism implies that facts about how agents would freely act play no role in...
    +3 moreShow less
    Possibilism's ideal-state obligations can crowd out actualist second-best obliga...When an agent is obligated to perform an ideal act they will foreseeably fail to...When facts about how agents would freely act are excluded from deontic verdicts,...

    Similar

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    Source

    AI-extracted1/3 agreementValid
    SEP: actualism-possibilism-ethics
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    Perhaps the primary objection to possibilism is that it can generate obligations that, if acted on, would result in the worst possible outcome. Versions of this objection have been raised throughout the literature, (Goldman 1976: 469–70; Sobel 1976: 202–203; Feldman 1986: 52–57; Almeida 1992: 461–462; Woodard 2009: 219–221; Portmore 2011: 211; Ross 2012: 81–82; Gustafsson 2014: 593; Timmerman & Cohen 2016: 674). Possibilism generates this consequence because it implies that facts about how a
    Extraction notes

    Validity: Extracted via Max plan + API grounding/validity checks

    Details

    Type
    claim
    Perspectives
    3 (2 for, 1 against)
    Edits
    1 edit