For example, if we had a piece of cake, the Utility Monster would get 1000 times more joy out of eating it than any human, so the action that would cause the most total pleasure would always be to give the cake to the monster.
"Oh yeah? Well what if I took your idea to an impossible extreme? Not so smart then, huh?"
alright but if you just included the assumption that all people are capable of the same levels of happiness and pain then the main thing about utilitarianism is that it does encourage people to think about the welfare of others
maybe but that's not a base assumption of the philosophy so much as it is the person doing the value judgement. the situation is more nuanced than utilitarians being cartoon villains
Most of them are either completely useless or actively harmful.
Like the one about the AI that will punish anyone who didn't actively work towards making it. At best it's useless because it will never exist, at worst it's actively harmful because the existence of the thought experiment itself will cause people to make it real.
But this one isn't, this is a valid critique at a very obvious and very real issue with an ethical framework that is at the core of the socio-political structure we currently live under.
"Oh yeah? Well what if I took your idea to an impossible extreme? Not so smart then, huh?"
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That isn't how he already makes them?
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alright but if you just included the assumption that all people are capable of the same levels of happiness and pain then the main thing about utilitarianism is that it does encourage people to think about the welfare of others
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medical care during an emergency is exactly where utilitarianism thrives the most and the focus is on maximising the number of lives saved
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I would argue triage follows the moral logic of utilitarianism
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maybe but that's not a base assumption of the philosophy so much as it is the person doing the value judgement. the situation is more nuanced than utilitarians being cartoon villains
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do you know what a thought experiment is
Most of them are either completely useless or actively harmful.
Like the one about the AI that will punish anyone who didn't actively work towards making it. At best it's useless because it will never exist, at worst it's actively harmful because the existence of the thought experiment itself will cause people to make it real.
But this one isn't, this is a valid critique at a very obvious and very real issue with an ethical framework that is at the core of the socio-political structure we currently live under.
The Torment Nexus is right around the corner, as inspired by the book Please Don't Build the Torment Nexus! :so-true:
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