12/28/2023 0 Comments Utility ethical principle![]() ![]() They advise the use of empirical data such as the average number of “life years lost” by people who have died from COVID-19 for comparison against the steep economic toll of lockdowns.Īking trade-offs requires converting different outcomes into a single unit of value. In Project Syndicate, Singer and Plant focused especially on the costs of a slowed economy and argued that these must be weighed in some way against the benefits of social distancing. How do we assess the overall cost to everybody in terms of loss of quality of life, loss of well-being, as well as the fact that lives are being lost? So I think that’s something that needs to come into this discussion. And we can’t really keep everything locked down until there won’t be any more deaths. ![]() No government puts every dollar it spends into saving lives. Because at some point we are willing to trade off loss of life against loss of quality of life. I think the assumption… that we have to do everything to reduce the number of deaths, is not really the right assumption. Outlining the nature of the situation as he sees it, and stressing the need for thinking about outcomes and trade-offs, he explained in the Times: He joined a panel that The New York Timesassembled to discuss the issue after co-authoring an article about it with Michael Plant in Project Syndicate. Singer recently put utilitarianism on display by publicly reasoning through how to approach reopening the U.S. Shouldn’t we always aspire to do the greatest amount of good possible? To be sure, this way of thinking has strong intuitive force. ![]() Generally speaking, it posits that actions are right to the extent they result (or tend to result) in the greatest benefit for the greatest number of people. Utilitarianism is an ethical model that determines right action primarily in reference to outcomes. Wrestling with Singer’s arguments allows us to reflect on how we tend to think through these matters given that our policy deliberations often assume something of a utilitarian form. Amid debates about next steps, Peter Singer, a prominent utilitarian ethicist, has weighed in on the matter.
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