our moral instincts reliably guide us toward the greater good, then why bother with moral philosophy, utilitarian or otherwise? Here it’s important not to confuse our two tragedies. Once again, our moral instincts do well with the Tragedy of the Commons (Me vs. Us), but not so well with the Tragedy of Commonsense Morality (Us vs. Them). The utilitarian thing to do, then, is to let our instincts carry us past the moral temptations of everyday life (Me vs. Us) but to engage in explicit utilitarian thinking when we’re figuring out how to live on the new pastures (Us vs. Them).
