… but to be able to say that utilitarianism in all its forms was “wrong” would require an external standard.
Utiltiarianism as a meta ethical theory can be wrong without being ethically wrong. Meta ethical theories can be criticised for being contradictory, unworkable, irrelevant, etc.
… but to be able to say that utilitarianism in all its forms was “wrong” would require an external standard. Ethical realism really is wrong.
Utilitarianism can be wrong as a description of actual human values, or of ‘the values humans would self-modify to if they fully understood the consequences of various self-modification paths’.
OK, but that’s an is-ought issue. I didn’t perceive the question as being about factual human values, but about what people should do. It’s an ethical system, after all, not a scientific system.
Well, that’s it, your access to the medicine cabinet is revoked. :-)
You can say that it’s wrong to think you can actually measure and usefully aggregate utility functions. That’s truly a matter of fact.
… but to be able to say that utilitarianism in all its forms was “wrong” would require an external standard. Ethical realism really is wrong.
Utiltiarianism as a meta ethical theory can be wrong without being ethically wrong. Meta ethical theories can be criticised for being contradictory, unworkable, irrelevant, etc.
Utilitarianism can be wrong as a description of actual human values, or of ‘the values humans would self-modify to if they fully understood the consequences of various self-modification paths’.
OK, but that’s an is-ought issue. I didn’t perceive the question as being about factual human values, but about what people should do. It’s an ethical system, after all, not a scientific system.