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    LoyalLoyalJusticeJustice
    Made withinDC&Austin
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    321,452
    Perspectives
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    42
    Whether an action is wrong depends on whether it is optim... — Carmelics
    Home/Justice & Punishment
    HistoryEditSee Inverse

    Whether an action is wrong depends on whether it is optimal to apply sanctions to that action

    Consequentialism
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    1 reason for
    2 reasons against

    Reasons For

    1 perspective
    Reason for
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    • 1.An action is wrong if and only if it is optimal to sanction that action
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    • 2.Mill holds that whether sanctions ought to be applied to an action depends upon the utility or expediency of doing so
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    Reasons Against

    2 perspectives
    Reason against 1 of 2
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    • 1.An action can be morally wrong even when sanctions against it would produce worse outcomes than non-enforcement (e.g., private vices harming only the agent).
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    • 2.Mill himself distinguishes in On Liberty between actions that are merely imprudent self-regarding acts and actions that are genuinely immoral, indicating wrongness precedes sanctionability.
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    • 3.Collapsing wrongness into sanction-optimality confuses the criteria for moral assessment with the criteria for legal or social enforcement, a category error Mill's own harm principle resists.
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    Reason against 2 of 2
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    • 1.If wrongness is defined by optimal sanctioning, then in societies where enforcement is systematically corrupt or weak, previously wrong actions become permissible by institutional accident.
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    • 2.Ross's prima facie duties framework demonstrates that moral wrongness tracks agent-relative obligations (fidelity, reparation, gratitude) whose bindingness is independent of any third-party sanctioning calculus.
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    Topics

    Justice & PunishmentConsequentialism

    Related

    An action can be morally wrong even when sanctions against it would produce wors...An action is wrong if and only if it is optimal to sanction that actionCollapsing wrongness into sanction-optimality confuses the criteria for moral as...If wrongness is defined by optimal sanctioning, then in societies where enforcem...
    +3 moreShow less
    Mill himself distinguishes in On Liberty between actions that are merely imprude...Mill holds that whether sanctions ought to be applied to an action depends upon ...Ross's prima facie duties framework demonstrates that moral wrongness tracks age...

    Similar

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    Source

    AI-extracted1/3 agreementValid
    SEP: mill-moral-political
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    Notice that these relationships among duty, justice, and rights do not yet introduce any utilitarian elements. But Mill does think that whether sanctions ought to be applied to an action—and hence whether it is wrong—and whether society ought to enforce an individual’s claim—and hence whether she has a right—both depend upon the utility or expediency of doing so (V 25). He does not say precisely what standard of expediency he has in mind. In particular, he does not say whether the relevant test
    Extraction notes

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

    Details

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