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Neonomos's avatar

This seems like "any free action that direclty affects another person's freedom must be justified on reasons." The golden rule and universalizability are just guides to examine the reasonableness of our actions.

Universalizable principles can be justified if they are specific enough., or at least given a reasonable interpretation. Its principles that need to be universalizable, not actions. You need principles. You can't judge actions on their own.

For instance, for voting, you may say that you have a duty to vote if you have a non-zero preference for one choice over the other. Yet you have no duty to do so if the chance of your vote affecting the election is lower than the chance that you'll die on the way to go vote. This principle may still be universalizable without justifying extreme behavior like no one voting.

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