[Avodah] trolley revisited

[Micha Berger]

On Wed, Mar 26, 2025 at 06:27:21AM +0200, Joel Rich via Avodah wrote:
> One of the things I've thought a lot about is the characterization of
> Chazal as being consequentialist or deontological, etc. I just wonder if we
> are trying to put their thoughts into our paradigms or whether they had
> their own different paradigm which was completely consistent with another
> theory.

These are less paradigms as categories of theories. Rather than object to
forcing Chazal's theories into someone else's "paradigm" I would instead
ask whether Consequentialism vs. Deontology is a false dichotomy, and
the Torah's ethics are a third category.

As I said in a previous musing of yours on the subject of Trolley
Problems, I think the amount of attention paid to Hilkhos Dei'os and
Middos, the Torah appears to take a Virtue Ethics approach. Which is
fairly deontological in that our focus in on rules, not outcomes. The
difference being that Ethics aren't being defined directly as "following
the rules", but on the rules as a way to shape the person. The value
of "Haadam nif'al lefi pe'ulosav", in the Chinukh's idiom.

:-)BBii!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger                 Our greatest fear is not that we're inadequate,
http://www.aishdas.org/asp   Our greatest fear is that we're powerful
Author: Widen Your Tent      beyond measure
- https://amzn.to/2JRxnDF                      - Anonymous