The Road To Hell Is Paved With Good Logicians

Matt Yglesias posted this awhile ago and it stuck with me. Choice excerpt:

The well-intentioned person, being well-intentioned, will try his best to ensure that bad things don't happen. If things that occur as a result of well-intentioned actions are defined as not-so-bad, however, then the well-intentioned person doesn't really need to try his best to ensure that bad things don't happen. After all, the person, being well-intentioned, by definition isn't going to do any very bad things. The things he does, after all, are all well-intentioned things, not bad things.

Matt Yglesias graduated magna cum laude with a degree in philosophy from Harvard University. Knowing this, I wasn't surprised to see him make this sort of argument. It's a pragmatic argument for consequentialism; and it's undeniably clever. The whole thing is worth a read.