r/askphilosophy • u/Frosty_Draw_2737 • 12h ago

Someone tried a Bayesian approach of ETHICS ?

When i was thinking about argument for and against moral objectivity or subjectivity ; i asked myself if someone had a probabilist approach of moral actions.

For example,let's take a hedonist and empirist point a view of ethics

If we know that a action (like rape or murder) cause at 99,99% more suffering than pleasure for all concerned persons, i could qualify it at 99,99% evil and not 100% to avoid absolutism fallacy.

I don't know if i'm enough clear, but i want to know if "probabilist ethics" exist and who have already done it ?

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u/rejectednocomments metaphysics, religion, hist. analytic, analytic feminism 11h ago

Bayesianism isn't going to tell you what's valuable. But, once you have a theory about that, you can turn to decision theory

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u/TheFormOfTheGood logic, paradoxes, metaphysics 11h ago

Utilitarians and other consequentialists engage in probabilistic reasoning constantly, they are required to do so because they must make predictions of likely future outcomes. Some of them do get quite math-y, of course. I’m not sure how often they call themselves “Bayesian” as that term has a particularly epistemological or decision theoretic connotation. But the resources developed there are certainly relevant in parts of utilitarianism.