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Speaker I don't always agree with Fred, but I want to reinforce his comment on utilitarianism.

Before we throw utilitarianism out, let's keep in mind that it captures a basic moral intuition. That intuition tells us that we ought to do what is good. We ought to increase the good in this world. Maybe the utilitarians were wrong to try to maximize aggregate good at great cost to some individuals. But let's not lose track of the basic intuition being put forward here.

Some philosophers have suggested that utilitarianism needs is to be qualified or supplemented by a theory of fair shares. The point of such a qualification is to prevent the kinds of tradeoffs that utilitarianism allows in principle. In other words, it would prevent making some people miserable in order to maximize the aggregate amount of good.

It seems to me that utilitarianism and libertarianism both capture important moral intuitions. The one seeks to increase the amount of good in the world. The other seeks to protect the value and autonomy of the individual. Perhaps our challenge is to combine them both into a coherent and morally satisfying whole.




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