Absurd Implications:

P1.  Utilitarianism implies that it is morally permissible and/or required that one perform a certain act (implement a policy, maintain an institution)
P2.  It is not morally permissible to perform that act
C.  Therefore, Utilitarianism is false.
 

Two responses:
“Oh yeah?”
“So what?”
 

Example 1:
P1.  According to Utilitarianism, the aboriginals “must be helped in spite of themselves.”  That is, the greater good is served by forcibly removing the aboriginal children from their families and “educating” them.

P2.  It is immoral to forcibly remove the aboriginal children from their families.

C.  Therefore, Utilitarianism is false.
 
 

Example 2:

P1. According to utilitarianism, it is morally permissible for Jack to kill an innocent person to save hundreds of thousands of innocent lives.

P2.  But it is never permissible to intentionally kill an innocent person.

C.   Therefore, utilitarianism is false.
 

considered moral judgment
 

Example 3: Bountiful BC
P1.  According to Utilitarianism, the children of Bountiful must be saved from oppressive socialization.  That is, the greater good will be served by forcibly removing these children from their families.
P2.  It is immoral to forcibly remove children from their families.
C.  Therefore, Utilitarianism is false.
 

Tolstoy Selction

Leo Tolstoy (1828-1910)

“A complete picture of human life; a complete picture of the Russia of that day; a complete picture of everything in which people place their happiness and greatness, their grief and humiliation.”

Napoleonic War (1803-1815)
Chapter titled “Sept. 1812”.
war-torn village on the road from France to Moscow

“…Count Rostopchin smiled disdainfully at himself. ‘I had other duties,’ though he. ‘The people had to be mollified.  Many another victim has perished and is perishing for the public good’ – and he began reflecting on the social obligations he had towards his family and towards the city entrusted to his care, and on himself…”

“…Lightly swayed on the easy springs of the carriage and no longer hearing the terrible sounds of the crowd, Rostopchin grew calmer physically and, as always happens, simultaneously with physical relief his reason suggested arguments to salve his conscience.  The thought which reassured Rostopchin was not a new one.  Ever since the world was created and men began killing one another no man has ever committed a crime of this character against his fellow without comforting himself with this same idea --  le bien public, the hypothetical welfare of other people.”

Multiple dimensions to this discussion.

Need to distinguish:

• Reason vs. rationalization
• Character vs. act (object of evaluation)
• Question of fact vs. question of principle
• Possibly more a question of fact:


“The man not actuated by passion never knows what this good is; but the man who has committed a crime is always very sure where that welfare lies.”

York v. Story, 1968
 
In October, 1958, appellant [Ms. Angelynn York] went to the police department of Chino for the purpose of filing charges in connection with an assault upon her.  Appellee Ron Story, an officer of that police department, then acting under color of his authority as such, advised appellant that it was necessary to take photographs of her.  Story then took appellant to a room in a police station, locked the door, and directed her to undress, which she did.  Story then directed appellant to assume various indecent positions, and photographed her in those positions.  These photographs were not made for any lawful purpose.
     Appellant objected to undressing.  She stated to Story that there was no need to take photographs of her in the nude, or in the positions she was directed to take, because the bruises would not show in any photograph.
     Later that month, Story advised appellant that the pictures did not come out, that he had destroyed them.  Instead, Story circulated these photographs among the personnel of the Chino police department.  In April, 1960, two other officers of that police department, appellee Louis Moreno and defendant Henry Grote, acting under color of their authority as such, and using police photographic equipment located at the police station made additional prints of the photographs taken by Story.  Moreno and Grote then circulated these prints among the personnel of the Chino police department.