And the child is right in hunting down the utilitarian in question and eviscerating him. Only to the extent that their own well being is increased by more than the utilitarian’s is worsened, naturally.
Now I’m pondering how wonderfully ironic it would be if it turned out that humanity’s utility would be hugely increased by utilitarianism’s being thoroughly demonized and eradicated as an ideology, and all utilitarians ruthlessly destroyed.
If you measure utility by what people say they want and by how they act, then perhaps humanity’s utility would be hugely increased by killing all atheists and scientists and burning all their books. More likely this was the fact a few hundred years ago when fewer atheists were around.
And so what? Who cares about humanity’s utility aggregate function anyway? I care about mine, and it doesn’t include terms for other people who want to act in ways I consider thoroughly immoral. This happens to include most of the people on the planet by far.
I’d be surprised to learn that anyone really disagrees with this, all the talk of CEV non withstanding...
And the child is right in hunting down the utilitarian in question and eviscerating him. Only to the extent that their own well being is increased by more than the utilitarian’s is worsened, naturally.
Now I’m pondering how wonderfully ironic it would be if it turned out that humanity’s utility would be hugely increased by utilitarianism’s being thoroughly demonized and eradicated as an ideology, and all utilitarians ruthlessly destroyed.
If you measure utility by what people say they want and by how they act, then perhaps humanity’s utility would be hugely increased by killing all atheists and scientists and burning all their books. More likely this was the fact a few hundred years ago when fewer atheists were around.
And so what? Who cares about humanity’s utility aggregate function anyway? I care about mine, and it doesn’t include terms for other people who want to act in ways I consider thoroughly immoral. This happens to include most of the people on the planet by far.
I’d be surprised to learn that anyone really disagrees with this, all the talk of CEV non withstanding...