I’m not sure you can really say it’s a ‘misuse’ if it’s how Bentham used it. He is essentially the founder of modern utilitarianism. If any use is a misuse, it is scalar utilitarianism. (I do not think that is a misuse either).
Fair point… I think the way I see it is that Bentham discovered the core concept of utilitarianism and didn’t build quite the right structure around it. My intention is to make ethical/metaethical claims, not historical/semantic ones… does that make sense?
(It’s true I haven’t offered a detailed counterargument to anyone who actually supports the maximizing version; I’m assuming in this discussion that its demandingness disqualifies it)
I’m not sure you can really say it’s a ‘misuse’ if it’s how Bentham used it. He is essentially the founder of modern utilitarianism. If any use is a misuse, it is scalar utilitarianism. (I do not think that is a misuse either).
Fair point… I think the way I see it is that Bentham discovered the core concept of utilitarianism and didn’t build quite the right structure around it. My intention is to make ethical/metaethical claims, not historical/semantic ones… does that make sense?
(It’s true I haven’t offered a detailed counterargument to anyone who actually supports the maximizing version; I’m assuming in this discussion that its demandingness disqualifies it)