How about, “What do I think /I/ want out of society, and how do I optimize for that?”?
In theory that might be the best way of going about things, but if it doesn’t generalize well to other people, you’re unlikely to get others on board with it, which limits the usefulness of framing the question that way.
But surely DataPacRat’s is the correct question. (Of course, if what DataPacRat really desires is that other people get what they want, then it’s hard to distinguish the questions.) Once answered, and in the optimisation phase, then we consider how best to frame discussions of the issues to convince other people that they want it too (or whatever is most effective).
I wonder if it’s possible to try to resolve the difference between the two. (I remember reading about something called ‘desire utilitarianism’ which, IIRC, was focused on reconciling such matters.)
In theory that might be the best way of going about things, but if it doesn’t generalize well to other people, you’re unlikely to get others on board with it, which limits the usefulness of framing the question that way.
But surely DataPacRat’s is the correct question. (Of course, if what DataPacRat really desires is that other people get what they want, then it’s hard to distinguish the questions.) Once answered, and in the optimisation phase, then we consider how best to frame discussions of the issues to convince other people that they want it too (or whatever is most effective).
I wonder if it’s possible to try to resolve the difference between the two. (I remember reading about something called ‘desire utilitarianism’ which, IIRC, was focused on reconciling such matters.)