When a view like this is on the table consequentialism starts to look pretty empty. (Just take the value function that ranks outcomes solely based on how many lies you personally tell.)
Consequentialist value systems are a huge class; of course not all consequentialist value systems are praiseworthy! But there are terrible agent-neutral value systems, too, including conventional value systems with an extra minus sign, Clippy values, and plenty of others.
Here’s a non-agent-neutral consequentialist value that you might find more praiseworthy: prefer the well-being of friends and family over strangers.
Consequentialist value systems are a huge class; of course not all consequentialist value systems are praiseworthy! But there are terrible agent-neutral value systems, too, including conventional value systems with an extra minus sign, Clippy values, and plenty of others.
Yeah, the objection wasn’t supposed to be that because there was an implausible consequentialist view on that definition of “consequentialism”, it was a bad definition. The objection was that pretty much any maximizing view could count as consequentialist, so the distinction isn’t really worth making.
Consequentialist value systems are a huge class; of course not all consequentialist value systems are praiseworthy! But there are terrible agent-neutral value systems, too, including conventional value systems with an extra minus sign, Clippy values, and plenty of others.
Here’s a non-agent-neutral consequentialist value that you might find more praiseworthy: prefer the well-being of friends and family over strangers.
Yeah, the objection wasn’t supposed to be that because there was an implausible consequentialist view on that definition of “consequentialism”, it was a bad definition. The objection was that pretty much any maximizing view could count as consequentialist, so the distinction isn’t really worth making.