This seems relevant to the Pascal discussion, as various interlocutors try to argue with Unknown’s claim that negative (egoist) consequentialist reasoning leads conveniently to psychologically comforting Christianity. While I would say that Unknown’s position reflects this bias, it seems similar wishful thinking (that maximizing consequentialism will match the current values of much of OB’s atheist readership) plays a role in many of the dismissals of Pascalian arguments. Despite making a number of arguments that negative utilitarianism or negative egoism do not lead to Unknown’s conclusion, I remain especially wary of claims that a consequentialist would produce intuitively acceptable outcomes rather than dismantling the universe looking for the Dark Lords of the Matrix or magic physics to generate great utility.
This seems relevant to the Pascal discussion, as various interlocutors try to argue with Unknown’s claim that negative (egoist) consequentialist reasoning leads conveniently to psychologically comforting Christianity. While I would say that Unknown’s position reflects this bias, it seems similar wishful thinking (that maximizing consequentialism will match the current values of much of OB’s atheist readership) plays a role in many of the dismissals of Pascalian arguments. Despite making a number of arguments that negative utilitarianism or negative egoism do not lead to Unknown’s conclusion, I remain especially wary of claims that a consequentialist would produce intuitively acceptable outcomes rather than dismantling the universe looking for the Dark Lords of the Matrix or magic physics to generate great utility.