Thinking Through Utilitarianism by Forcehimes Andrew T.; Semrau Luke;

Author:Forcehimes, Andrew T.; Semrau, Luke;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Hackett Publishing Company, Incorporated
Published: 2019-09-27T00:00:00+00:00

The Ensuring Control Argument against Diachronic Identical Control

1. Ensuring Control is the relevant sense of control for deontic assessment and is Single Exercise.

2. If Ensuring Control is the relevant sense of control for deontic assessment and is Single Exercise, then agents do not possess Identical Control in Diachronic Cases.

3. If agents do not possess Identical Control in Diachronic Cases, then the Principle of Control Sensitivity is not relevant to Diachronic Cases.

4. If the Principle of Control Sensitivity is not relevant to Diachronic Cases, then Actualistic Consequentialism cannot violate the Principle of Control Sensitivity in Diachronic Cases.

5. Hence, Actualistic Consequentialism cannot violate the Principle of Control Sensitivity in Diachronic Cases.

The argument hinges on the first two premises. Premise 1 is well supported. Reflection on the kind of control presupposed by moral requirements reveals that Ensuring Control is what matters for deontic assessment. And, since having this control at any one time precludes the possibility of having it at any other time, it is Single Exercise. Premise 2 is also well supported. To possess Identical Control in Diachronic Cases, agents must, at more than one time, enjoy the relevant kind of control over their acts. But, because that control is Single Exercise, this is not possible. Actualistic Consequentialism thus cannot mishandle Diachronic Cases where the agent enjoys Identical Control. There are no such cases.

{124} In addition to its role in the argument of this section, Ensuring Control also bears on a further matter. What acts count as available in a choice situation? In the next section, we clarify this question and offer an answer.

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