I’ve been thinking about Dalinar lately and I’m struck by how close he comes to a worldview that ostensively feels like the antithesis of how he's usually understood - Utilitarianism.
Let's look at his reaction to Jasnah abolishing slavery - Dalinar isn’t outraged because he thinks slavery is right, he’s unsettled because it’s destabilizing. Because it disrupts alliances, economies, and the existing order. Slavery is acceptable as long as it's brings stability in the time of crisis.
He is ofcourse deeply uncomfortable with cruelty in theory. He genuinely believes in honor, responsibility, and doing the right thing. But, when faced with unjust systems, he seems willing to tolerate them as long as they’re normalized, structured, and serving a larger goal.
This shows up earlier too - In Words of Radiance, Dalinar tells Kaladin that real change must come from within the system, that he should work inside it rather than challenge it directly. On the surface, this sounds wise and measured. But here’s the uncomfortable part: Dalinar is already at the top of that system. He’s not speaking as someone powerless, forced to navigate injustice carefully. He’s speaking as someone with real authority, someone who could dismantle parts of the system, but instead urges patience and gradual reform, largely because radical change would bring about chaos (even if it's at the cost of injustice)
Then there's Way of Kings - Dalinar has genuine distaste for the bridgemen system. He says as much. And yet… he uses it anyway.
Because the war effort matters. Because Alethkar matters. Because the larger goal justifies the smaller, ongoing atrocity. The bridgemen are acceptable losses in a system designed to win. That’s utilitarian logic.
What makes this interesting is even while Dalinar grows and becomes a better man (post-Oathbringer) he still often defaults to - “This is terrible, but now is not the time.”
And that’s exactly how unjust systems survive. He's not malicious but he is deeply shaped by power. He believes in goodness, but he also believes that order and stability matter — sometimes more than immediate moral clarity.
Which is why as sad as I am about his death, I'm also relieved that the radiants are no longer led by him.
As great a man as Dalinar was, he was fundamentally a lighteye highprince who profited off his privilege all his life, there are blindspots - structural and moral ones - that he simply can't overcome.
I think you've hit it on the head - Dalinar isn't a utilitarian, or espousing a utilitarian viewpoint. He's essentially someone who is entirely used to a world of political compromises and shady ethical justifications, who later in life has found a font of idealism because it helps him move on from the bad things he did and which he has been running from.
And as you say, his power and privilege and familiarity with that world make him hesitant to embrace change, even change that aligns with his ideals. He's an excellent representation of an establishment political figure in that respect.
That said, this is also why I like Dalinar's death. Not because I believe his leadership may have held things back (although I accept arguments about how it could have), but because he embraces that path rather than insisting that he knows best. He doesn't do the terrible thing and justify it because of his goals. He doesn't even believe that he is necessary to the processes of change and progress. He embraces placing his trust in others, without knowing if they'll succeed or what mistakes they'll make, as a rejection of the alternate path he's been struggling not to take throughout the story. He breaks his oaths, but he upholds his ideals.
Ostensibly*. :)
Stormlight Era 1 definitely has a ton of commentary on pragmatism/rationalism/utilitarianism vs idealism/meritism/heroism/. Dalinar, despite ending his life with what seems like a very utilitarian sacrifice, is ultimately an idealist. The single sacrifice to continue possibility for millions of others does seem like a utilitarian gambit, but for Dalinar, it was entirely rooted in an idealistic motive. Everything in his life told him how important he was, how his merit was great, and his choices were paramount. He was the ideal hero in the minds of many, but he had to learn a new ideal, or else he would be incapable of choosing the greater good.
Stormlight Archive kind of proposes that utilitarianism can be a fantastic tool, but only when humans are righteous people with good principles. Taravangian is completely 100% in the direction of utilitarian, and without any grounding in idealism, he just ends up being completely self-serving. In other words, Dalinar could only serve the greatest good for the greatest number of people by de-centering himself as this hero in everyone else's story. If you have any sort of sense of being the saviour figure in other peoples' story, utilitarian thinking will end up serving you first and others second.
I hope we get a Stormlight Archive post-mortem, many years down the road when the series finishes, because the way all the pieces of oaths, honor, intent, the choices we make, and the things those choices may set in motion... it all just intertwines so well with the magic and the world building. I'm so curious if that was a goal from the outset, or more just the result of the kind of heart and mind that Sanderson has.
Minor point, Dalinar didn't use the bridgeman system.
Didn't he finally agree to use it with Sadeas in WoK?
I believe it was on a joint run one or two times before the betrayal at the Tower (maybe, I don't recall). But it still enforces your point, I think. He finds using the bridgemen distasteful until he feels he has to unite the Alethi army by working with Sadeas. Then he puts it to the side.
Exactly my point. He's willing to make use of them for the 'greater good'.
Eh. He agreed to let Sadeas use it, then back up Sadeas. He never actually had his own bridge crews.
I'm amazed this debate is going on without people actually checking what they're saying is true. At the point of the war of reckoning Dalinar is still just a highprince, sure he has some sway with the king but he has no authority to order Sadeas about. The joint plateau run is an attempt by Dalinar to change the war. Sadeas only agreed to it if he could use his bridge crews to get the armies to the adjacent plateau but Dalinar never assaults a plateau with a human carried bridge.
He only agreed to work with Sadeas’ after Sadeas insisted he’d developed a new system dramatically reducing casualties by giving the bridgemen armor that drew the attention of the listeners.
(This also serves as clever foreshadowing, because he’s already lying to Dalinar by taking credit for this in order to get him on a plateau run.)
He agrees to use some of Sadeas's bridges to cross the chasms to get there, but not on the final approach. It's driving unarmed slaves into Parshendi arrows in place of your soldiers that Dalinar objects to, not necessarily the concept of bridge crews itself.
Dalinar still doesn't use them as sacrifices like Sadeas.
Sadeas went ahead with his army, engaged first, then Dalinar would arrive with his slower bridges. Or in the case of the betrayal, use bridge men from a safe point.
Dalinar is working with Sadeas - a man who does use bridgemen - meaning Dalinar is agreeing to use (exploit) bridgemen for his benefit
He has no choice. He is working to stop the bridgemen being used as they are (among other things that admittedly have more importance in his eyes), but he cannot do that unless he is in a position of more power than he has at the time, and the only way he has to do that is working with Sadeas because Elhokar put that as a requirement before appointing him as Highprince of war.
But Jasnah is the same as Dalinar. She's a Lighteyed Queen using her authority and privilege. Jasnah abolished slavery (does she? Like, honest question, I don't remember. I know she claps herself on the back for freeing 3,000 slaves in WaT, but I don't remember her generally abolishing...) using her absolute power. Same with the duels to the death. In the same vein, Jasnah speaks about creating a democracy/republic, but never accounts for the opinions of the so-called constituents she claims to represent.
Compare this with Elend who actually tried to implement a Constitutional Monarchy, saw it implode and decided to essentially create a Despot-state in a time of war with the hope that it would eventually flourish into the state he dreamed of. Which, it kind of did. It's actually very interesting looking at modern-day democracies. Some of the best examples started as dictatorships. Take South Korea, for example. Syngman Rhee was just as brutal as the Kim family in the north, but the dictator-state stabilized the region that over time democracy could start and flourish.
Elend understands that he is being a hypocrite, and he knows why he has to be. Jasnah fails to see it until WaT.
EDIT:
Since I've seen the 'great good' (FOR THE GREATER GOOD!) used, it furthers my point that Jasnah 'the Greatest Good' (FOR THE GREATER GOOD) Kholin is just as bad, if not worse than her uncle.
Yes, after she became queen of Alethkar she abolishes slavery in alethkar.
You’re kinda hinting at a gripe of mine with Sanderson’s writing in general. He has a lot of commentary around unjust systems (dark eyes and skaa) and the answer he presents is that the unjust system should prevail but a “good” person of the ruling class should take over. It’s never the oppressed people taking over, even in cases where an oppressed person does gain influence and significance they install the “right” light eyes who will correct some aspects of the injustice but never fully recognize the sovereignty and dignity of the oppressed group.
I actually really do like how Mistborn handles politics, personally. In Mistborn Book 1, we see Kelsier's mob about to overthrow the government and then... what? The Skaa don't know how to run a city, let alone a country. As fucked as it sounds, the Noble class does have the skillset to do so. IRL, we see this happen with Rhodesia-Zimbabwe and South Africa, where a social uprising causes the skilled middle-upper classes to leave and the infrastructure collapse.
In Mistborn Book 2, we see Elend establish a Constitutional Monarchy for a people who have never experienced it before, leading to significant splits amongst those in power and his eventual deposition, and his successor nearly handing the city over to Straff. We see a similar case when the US introduced democracy to Iraq and the previously oppressed Shi'ite majority is not exacting vengeance against the Sunnis, which lead them to join terrorist groups and... Point is, it's a new government alien to the people who are now using it.
Book 3, Elend has created a dictator-state where his word is absolute (with some regional councils) in order to provide stability for the New Empire, and in hopes of one day bringing forth his dream of representative rule. Which is in turn carried forward by Spook into the Elendel Basin.
Granted, change takes a long time, and we still see that the system is flawed in Mistborn Era 2, but gradually there are less "Noble" Senators and eventually the greater Basin gets representation.
I don't know that his point is that the right oppressor is the answer, but I saw it as gradual change. Which is also something worth griping about, don't get me wrong.
But I never really read it as "this is the solution" but well, the most important step a man can take is the next one.
That's because he is not presenting an answer he is presenting a realistic outcome given the facts at play.
The reasoning for this was literally outlined in the books as well as the criticism to those decisions. He isn't presenting it as an answer, just a reasonable outcome.
I think it's a bit of a bad faith interpretation to have the take that you are having.
I agree that the Dalinar we meet in Stormlight 1-5 is meant to be a complex character with many admirable qualities and some less admirable ones, but I don't think utilitarianism is the right word for the decisions/reactions you're describing. Utilitarianism is typically a belief system that evaluates the moral "goodness" of decisions based on their maximizing happiness/efficiency. As far as I can remember, Dalinar doesn't ever think "gee, this slavery thing seems deeply unfair to some darkeyes, but the overall happiness of society is maximized, so it's a justifiable practice". Dalinar's position seems to be "I need to do something about these unfair social systems but I'm not sure what and don't have time to figure it out right now".
There's an enormous difference, IMO, between identifying a practice as a social ill but lacking the capacity/opportunity to fix it and accepting the practice as justified. I also don't think its particularly fair to criticize Dalinar for prioritizing the war against the malevolent deity attempting to conquer Roshar and subjugate its people over social reforms. By the time Dalinar consolidates power over the Alethi and is in a position to meaningfully implement any reforms like what you're describing, he's knee-deep in an all-out war with Odium and the Fused.
What you are describing is reformism, the ideology that advocates for small gradual steps from within instead of revolutionary changes.
This has nothing to do with utilitarianism, which is the ethical system that determines that the moral choice is the one that causes the greater good to the greater amount of people.
It is a common criticism of reformism that it only benefits the ruling class, and that it is more of a stalling tactic than a real attempt of change. This criticism is often uttered by those who advocate for overthrowing the ruling class and positioning themselves as the new ruling class.
Is Dalinar a reformist? Maybe. You have highlighted some actions and comments he made that do align with reformist behavior. However, his actions led to a complete revolution in the Alethi society. Let’s look at the state of the Alethi society because of Dalinar’s actions. There were no more bridge runs, the system of power went from a divided self-indulgent aristocracy with a puppet king to a unified monarchy and realm with a common goal, the religious system and norms were practically abolished, and despite all prejudices he started reading and married the former spouse of his brother. None of these changes came from slowly gradual steps from within.
Rather than labeling him as a reformist, I would say that Dalinar is single minded. He only cares about fighting against Odium, and protecting the people of Roshar from him. Everything else is a distraction, and he doesn’t have the luxury of thinking long term about the Alethi society and its injustices. He is the blackthorn after all, and will blind himself of everything around him that is not directly related to his goals.
As Slavoj Žižek said, ideology is like a rose tinted pair of glasses. You don’t notice the glasses themselves, you just experience the world as naturally colored.
The comment was deleted, but I think this makes a good follow up to my comment as well. Here is what I wood have answered to Dalinar still being an utilitarian in addition to reformist.
I can see the utilitarian argument you are making, and I guess I agree that it would be the utilitarian choice. The decision to choose war against odium over other political issues would certainly be the utilitarian choice.
However, he is more complex than that. If he were purely utilitarian, he would would have used bridge runs on plateau assaults. After all, what is the life of few slaves compared to that of all humans in Roshar? He would also not have traded Oathbringer for the life of a few dozen slaves in Bridge 4. With a shard he can do much greater good to a greater number of people than to that of a handful of slaves. This was Amaran’s choice after all.
Those decisions were not made out of utilitarian calculus, but instead out of principled values. He will not pull the lever, because it is wrong thing to do l even if his inaction were to lead to more deaths.
Although Utilitarians would pick the war over abolishing slavery, Dalinar does it out of principles. In his case, out of Honor. However, Honor is dead and all we have is an empty shell that resembles honor. Dalinar is blinded by honor, as much as the shard is.
Dalinar’s greatest accomplishment is to realize that, honor is more than blindingly following oaths. After all, the soldier that shoots to kill innocent children is only following orders. At the end of WaT, as the vessel of Honor, Dalinar breaks all oaths because it is the honorable thing to do. An utilitarian would certainly not have done it. They would have killed Gavinor instantly. What is the life of Gavinor when weighted against all of Roshar? Throughout the books, Dalinar’s most consequential decisions, those that shaped not only the Cosmere but who he is at the core, could not be further from Utilitarian.