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contractualist OP t1_ir4wl56 wrote

Thanks for the comment

I’ve addressed why utility isn’t foundational here

https://open.substack.com/pub/garik/p/the-utility-coach-thought-experiment?r=1pded0&utm_medium=ios&utm_campaign=post

And free will here https://open.substack.com/pub/garik/p/why-free-will-exists?r=1pded0&utm_medium=ios&utm_campaign=post

Freedom is foundational in that it’s required to underlie ethics and has a strong factual ground in our experience. And ethics needs to be built from there. A concern for the worlds welfare or our moral intuitions meanwhile are weak foundations and can’t be the basis of morality. Also, utilitarians have claimed we commit moral wrongs even as a result of actions beyond our control since outcomes matter rather than agency. Although since we can’t do anything about them, not focusing on them is strictly practicable.

I’ll be making more posts on utilitarianism in the future and I’d appreciate your thoughts.

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