Thanks for this—it is one of the reasons I am not a Utilitarian. I just don’t believe that any simple, linear, aggregation function will capture my values (or any human values I’ve seen in action or can sympathize with), either within a life or across multiple lives.
You get closer when you start talking about declining marginal utility based on “same” or “similar” things—not addition, but logarithmic-ish. Even so, it’s very hard to make that legible and compelling. It’s also not currently allowed to acknowledge that indexical attributes (it matters WHICH human we’re talking about) is part of most people’s actual value function.
Thanks for this—it is one of the reasons I am not a Utilitarian. I just don’t believe that any simple, linear, aggregation function will capture my values (or any human values I’ve seen in action or can sympathize with), either within a life or across multiple lives.
You get closer when you start talking about declining marginal utility based on “same” or “similar” things—not addition, but logarithmic-ish. Even so, it’s very hard to make that legible and compelling. It’s also not currently allowed to acknowledge that indexical attributes (it matters WHICH human we’re talking about) is part of most people’s actual value function.