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Originally Posted by tore
I don't think any sociopath who loves to kill have strived to do so in the utilitaristic way.
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Neither do I. The question is whether their actions are justifiable or even 'right' based on utilitarian logic.
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The death of a dog or the death of a human is something that your inherent morals can relate to. Of course people are worth more to us than dogs as our fitness is dependent on other people. I would argue that you don't really need utilitarianism to cover that bit. Instead you'd use it to help you when you don't have a gut feeling.
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Our fitness is dependent on certain people. We also compete with other people. It isn't as simple as saying we care about all humans because it makes good evolutionary sense. That isn't always the case.
The utilitarian model also wouldn't save us from this, assuming suffering is the metric being used. The dog's suffering is undeniably greater than the human's suffering in this case.
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Whether or not an interest in fetuses is natural, I just don't think it can be. I think that gut feeling is placed there by culture, religious indoctrination or some other moral conditioning from the environment. As I mentioned, fetuses were just not a feature in the daily lives of our ancestors and neither were abortions. Therefore we can't have a natural instinct towards them. Imagine your lover being with another man; the feeling of jealousy is pretty much universal. It's natural and relevant to every man, even if some are more jealous than others. But can you say the same for wanting to protect fetuses? I don't think I have a gut feeling for fetuses and abortions, yet I am otherwise a healthy human being with normal feelings (including jealousy). You do stir feelings in me by showing me a picture of a 6 months old baby because that looks human to me, but an early embryo not so much.
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I don't think that all gut feeling morality is purely instinctual. You're right to say culture has probably played its role here. I would argue it has also played its role in convincing us to value fidelity. The jealousy you feel over your partner cheating is no more 'natural' than the urge to protect an innocent human fetus.