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    The Bolshevik program must be rejected despite the desira... — Carmelics
    Home/Consequentialism
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    The Bolshevik program must be rejected despite the desirability of socialism

    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.Vanguard party structures concentrate power in ways that structurally preclude the democratic accountability necessary for socialist goals.
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    • 2.Rosa Luxemburg's critique of Bolshevism demonstrates that suppressing soviets and free press corrupts socialist ends from within the means chosen.
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    • 3.A socialism achieved through permanent terror cannot instantiate the cooperative social relations that constitute socialism's normative core.
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    Reason for 2 of 2
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    • 1.Mill's harm principle and Russell's own liberal socialism require that political transformation preserve expressive and associative freedoms as non-negotiable constraints.
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    • 2.Instrumental reasoning that sacrifices civil liberties for socialist ends commits the 'galaxy-brained' consequentialist error of discounting near-certain present harms for speculative future gains.
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    Reasons Against

    1 perspective
    Reason against
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    • 1.The Bolshevik program causes pointless suffering
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    • 2.Utilitarian and consequentialist reasoning requires rejecting policies that cause pointless suffering
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    Topics

    ConsequentialismDemocracy & Governance

    Connections

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    Justice & Punishment2 linked

    Related

    A socialism achieved through permanent terror cannot instantiate the cooperative...Instrumental reasoning that sacrifices civil liberties for socialist ends commit...Mill's harm principle and Russell's own liberal socialism require that political...Rosa Luxemburg's critique of Bolshevism demonstrates that suppressing soviets an...
    +3 moreShow less
    The Bolshevik program causes pointless sufferingUtilitarian and consequentialist reasoning requires rejecting policies that caus...Vanguard party structures concentrate power in ways that structurally preclude t...

    Similar

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    Source

    AI-extracted1/3 agreementValid
    SEP: russell-moral
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    Thus despite the desirability of socialism (in Russell’s eyes at any rate) the Bolshevik program had to be rejected for utilitarian or consequentialist reasons. (See also The Practice and Theory of Bolshevism, particularly Part II. ch.iv.) The Bolshevik “habit of militant certainty about doubtful matters” (Practice and Theory: xi) was not only irrational, but dangerous, since it led to pointless suffering. Hence “The Need for Political Skepticism”, the title of one of Russell’s essays, and a maj
    Extraction notes

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

    Details

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