The idea of special obligations is a common argument against consequentialism. The gist of special obligations is that there are obligations to certain individuals that are more important than the obligations we hold to all people (Jeske). To boil this down to a single point, this argues in favor that a parent’s obligation to their own child may hold more weight than a person’s obligation to all of the individuals within their community, as the bond between parent and child is special. This seems a bit unthinkable, as a parent’s obligation to a child should be to safeguard their child from harm, not push their radical beliefs onto a person that is incapable of knowing any better. To move further than that, the idea of special obligations allows us to wrong society for the sake of one individual. One child is not more important than the lives of a thousand others who will be put at risk when the one child is not
The idea of special obligations is a common argument against consequentialism. The gist of special obligations is that there are obligations to certain individuals that are more important than the obligations we hold to all people (Jeske). To boil this down to a single point, this argues in favor that a parent’s obligation to their own child may hold more weight than a person’s obligation to all of the individuals within their community, as the bond between parent and child is special. This seems a bit unthinkable, as a parent’s obligation to a child should be to safeguard their child from harm, not push their radical beliefs onto a person that is incapable of knowing any better. To move further than that, the idea of special obligations allows us to wrong society for the sake of one individual. One child is not more important than the lives of a thousand others who will be put at risk when the one child is not