Turns out the latest 80,000 Hours episode has a brief relevant discussion at 30:45. That discussion seems to match my claim in my other comment that classical utilitarianism, if you take its original form at face value, sees only the maximally good action as permitted. But it also matches the idea that other forms of utilitarianism—and possibly the most common versions of utilitarianism nowadays—do not work that way.
(Said Achmiz’s answer is more thorough anyway, though.)
Timely! I noticed that too and was gonna comment but you beat me to it… For my part, I guess I go back and forth between Rob-style “I am going to do the best possible thing for the future, but that thing is to set reasonable goals so I don’t burn out or give up, etc. etc.”, and the quasi-nihilist “None of this morality stuff is coherent, but I care about people having good lives and good futures, and I’m going to act on the basis of that feeling! (And oh by the way I also care about other things too.)” :-P
To be clear, I haven’t thought it through very much, y’know, it’s just the meaning of life, nothing important, I’m kinda busy :-P
Turns out the latest 80,000 Hours episode has a brief relevant discussion at 30:45. That discussion seems to match my claim in my other comment that classical utilitarianism, if you take its original form at face value, sees only the maximally good action as permitted. But it also matches the idea that other forms of utilitarianism—and possibly the most common versions of utilitarianism nowadays—do not work that way.
(Said Achmiz’s answer is more thorough anyway, though.)
Timely! I noticed that too and was gonna comment but you beat me to it… For my part, I guess I go back and forth between Rob-style “I am going to do the best possible thing for the future, but that thing is to set reasonable goals so I don’t burn out or give up, etc. etc.”, and the quasi-nihilist “None of this morality stuff is coherent, but I care about people having good lives and good futures, and I’m going to act on the basis of that feeling! (And oh by the way I also care about other things too.)” :-P
To be clear, I haven’t thought it through very much, y’know, it’s just the meaning of life, nothing important, I’m kinda busy :-P