can we calculate special relations in utilitarianism? .☘︎ ݁˖
my thoughts on Julia Driver from maybe two years ago.....beware
Driver proposes some proponents of utilitarianism fit special relations into the framework by arguing that they are a helpful fiction. This is much akin to Jackson's 'sector argument' by which typical relative value arguments are reconstructed to be found useful via their consequences. I found the parallel between the cognitive tactic of attention (like the cocktail party effect) and the use of special obligations to direct utility-based efforts interesting to chew on and turn over.
Given a utilitarian framework, where every decision is moralized, where even just the leftover change from buying a bagel can leave the actor surmounted with finite resources but infinite alternative routes that have differing methods of maximization and increasing utility. Convinced via fiction that your relatives are of special obligation for you to increase the utility of allows the actor to make faster decisions and not be struck inactive by deliberation that could decrease utility. This of course, is an ad hoc argument. Instead of doing mental gymnastics to make the most common social phenomenon (ie having or feeling one has special obligation to family) fictitious, I turn to the more obvious intuition that impartial utility understood from the consequentialist view is not the sole intrinsic good.
There is a different causal good that drives us to believe helping someone related and known to us is a morally right decision when met with the choice between stranger and related. Even if we return to the cocktail party effect, the analogy does not hold that there is fictitious importance attached to one's name. One's name does have value more than a random conjunction or adjective thrown about without context. Perhaps this analogy leads to a relative actor theory of value. The case however stands that utilitarianism fails to capture the nuance of special obligation that each person is acutely aware of in their own life.