United Muscovite Nations wrote:36 Camera Perspective wrote:
Beneficial does not always mean "what is favorable to the greatest number of people". Benefit can mean "beneficial to one's interest alone", which is why defining morally good as beneficial is ambigous and useless. Beneficial to who? Whose interests matter, and to what extent? Contrary to what you think, this is not an infinite loop of definitions. This is figuring what you mean to say in the first place so that we can have some semblance of a useful ethical theory.
Go back to the trolley problem. If I all I know is that "morally good=beneficial", then despite your assertion that the meaning of "beneficial" should be obvious to everybody, your theory wouldn't help me with the trolley problem at all. I wouldn't know whose benefit I'm supposed to be looking out for.
The correct response to the trolley problem is to acknowledge the absurdity of the situation and work in spite of it towards your own arbitrary goal.
A very existentialist answer.