The Pragmatist's Pipe Dream

Do you think you can see trajectories? Based on predispositions or on character, in the case of people? Let's consider a less metaphysical example: they now know that a devastating earthquake will occur in Oregon and Washington State at some time. In fact it's overdue.

It would be wise to prepare but it's hard to get it done because we don't know when it will happen. The trajectory is certain but the timing is uncertain. Let's say it's so uncertain that capital improvements relating to preparedness might not be needed over their useful life.

Do you roll the dice? I wouldn't, but this is the pull between practical considerations and principles, utility and ethics. I don't believe in engineering purely to outcomes but in engineering, including socially, to principles. This is positivism set against normativism. 

There are those who want to do what works and those who want to do what's right. But I argue that these are not choices in parallel and independent within a system but in a series. And I think that practical considerations, working to outcomes, is further out in the system.

If you believe in right and wrong then it's wrong to work only to outcomes because outcomes exist within a moral context. You work to principles and then, secondarily, to outcomes. Practical considerations inform moral choices but moral choices are everything.

Working only to outcomes is a denial not only of a specific morality but that there is such a thing as morality. We are already out on that, moral, branch. It's a choice we can't choose not to make. To try to not make it is the road to chaos and social disintegration.