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Doubts about Dutilitarianism
Umeå University, Faculty of Arts, Department of historical, philosophical and religious studies.ORCID iD: 0000-0001-9093-3995
2025 (English)In: Asian Journal of Philosophy, E-ISSN 2731-4642, Vol. 4, no 1, article id 64Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]

Peterson presents a new hybrid ethical theory in his paper “Dutilitarianism.” As the name suggests, the theory is a mixture of Utilitarianism and Duty ethics. Its main motivation is that it will improve on both. In my commentary, I raise some doubts about this idea. One problem is that Dutilitarianism will not have morally acceptable implications: it will classify some wrong acts as right. Another problem is that it cannot provide any plausible explanation for its verdicts: a believable combination of utilitarian and Kantian explanations for why right acts are right does not seem to fit dutilitarian verdicts. A third problem is that the formula that Peterson suggests for calculating dutilitarian degrees of rightness is unhelpful: it cannot be used to compare acts that are partly right in different ways. A fourth problem is that Dutilitarianism is needlessly complex: it uses degrees of rightness, rather than the standard binary rightness, but this invention neither reflects the potential complexities of rightness grounds nor helps us decide what to do.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Springer Nature, 2025. Vol. 4, no 1, article id 64
Keywords [en]
Dutilitarianism, Utilitarianism, Duty ethics
National Category
Philosophy
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:umu:diva-239398DOI: 10.1007/s44204-025-00286-8Scopus ID: 2-s2.0-105007070273OAI: oai:DiVA.org:umu-239398DiVA, id: diva2:1962519
Available from: 2025-05-30 Created: 2025-05-30 Last updated: 2025-06-30Bibliographically approved

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Enflo, Karin

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