Because it works.
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Original Question
If someone were to argue that something is a good system because "it works" for example some people argue that first past the post voting is a good system because "it works" in that so much as that it always finds a winner. Of course it does, that not addressing the flaws in the system, same could be said for variable drop hanging, in a literal sense "it works" but that says nothing about the morality of the death penalty. You could make a device that kills kittens and going look I invented a device the kills kitten, why do you want to kill kittens, I don't, but it works...
Answers
2X is good because it works
Falls more into the category of a claim. This can be reasonable when "works" comprises all the factors that can reasonably make something good. For example, a vaccine "works" not only if it prevents disease, but doesn't harm people. A vaccine that prevents COVID by instantly killing the person prevents COVID 100% of the time, but no reasonable person would claim that it "works." Which brings us to a variation of the claim:
X is good because it works.
Therefore, Y is good because it works.
To include your disturbing example, we can agree that a vaccine is good if it works, but to say that the kitten killer 2000 must also be good because it "works" would be an example of equivocation , since the usage of "works" in the vaccine included the moral component and the usage in the kitten example does not.
To sum up, simply saying something is good because it "works" only makes sense when "works" comprises all the factors that would make something "good," otherwise, we just have a contrarian opinion. When we links two claims like my example, we might have the fallacy of equivocation .
In addition to what Dr Bo said, I'd add that this is just lazy thinking. Yes, technically everything "works", since it fulfils a certain purpose. That does not mean it is 'good', and even if it is 'good', that does not mean it cannot be improved upon or replaced. FPTP advocates won't make a convincing argument by simply stating that their preferred system "works", since...so do PR, RC and other alternatives.
But yes, this is also equivocation because "works" is used in multiple senses in the same argument.
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