This thinking could extend to virtually every choice you make and is completely impossible to systematically justify for an ethical system without going completely and utterly insane.
It is the “Butterfly Effect” of ethics. A select path has impacts beyond the initial obvious moral consideration and then more considerations beyond that.
So where is the line? I don’t know that there is one, but I know that its a waste of energy to follow this line of thinking. One initial intuitive layer of moral consideration is more than the average person even remotely considers, and sometimes not even that much. The way elections have gone in the US over the past few years is a good example of this.
I agree that the line can seem or be arbitrary. I’m just pointing out that the specific example that you gave: “happy cow”, is more a figment of your imagination than a reality. It’s not so much “butterfly effect” as simply “effect”. I’m not judging you. I’m just saying you gave a bad example.
This thinking could extend to virtually every choice you make and is completely impossible to systematically justify for an ethical system without going completely and utterly insane.
It is the “Butterfly Effect” of ethics. A select path has impacts beyond the initial obvious moral consideration and then more considerations beyond that.
So where is the line? I don’t know that there is one, but I know that its a waste of energy to follow this line of thinking. One initial intuitive layer of moral consideration is more than the average person even remotely considers, and sometimes not even that much. The way elections have gone in the US over the past few years is a good example of this.
I agree that the line can seem or be arbitrary. I’m just pointing out that the specific example that you gave: “happy cow”, is more a figment of your imagination than a reality. It’s not so much “butterfly effect” as simply “effect”. I’m not judging you. I’m just saying you gave a bad example.