copy and pasting this from the daily discussion thread: “struggling so hard with my philosophy paper where we have to analyze any philosopher’s thoughts on ethics we agree with and abide by because i disagree with everyone we’ve learned about in some way 😭 aristotelian virtue ethics, kantian ethics, existentialism, and utilitarianism just have way too many idealist and individualist flaws for me to get behind
are there any prominent philosophers whose thoughts on ethics are compatible with materialism, determinism, etc., and advocate for things like empathy, liberation, etc.?”
if your instructor is good they just want you to be thinking about and engaging with the topic and you could get away with saying you agree with certain specific components but that other shit is a dealbreaker and you don't agree or abide any of them.
hazarding a guess, surely someone has written about reverse backflip utilitarianism where it's about minimizing anti-utility and I think "we want equality and liberation" can work backwards into that.
yeah as i’m writing it i’m basically doing what you’re describing in the first paragraph, i actually just come across something like what you’re desciribing in the second paragraph in negative utilitarianism and honestly that sounds pretty agreeable
