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I don't think this is a problem with utilitarianism itself; the problem is utilitarianism as practiced by people who are unable to estimate risk practically. T
by Planktonne 4y ago
I don't think this is a problem with utilitarianism itself; the problem is utilitarianism as practiced by people who are unable to estimate risk practically.
This is not unusual - it's a core symptom of various mental health problems. There's even a fairy tale about this - a family of foolish people who catastrophise so much that they are unable to accomplish anything [1]. People assigning bizarre weights to unlikely probabilities is very human, and problematic regardless of ethics.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clever_Elsie https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clever_Elsie
- NateEag 4y agoI personally think an honest look at human ability to estimate risk shows that as a species we're bad enough at it that utilitarianism is intractable. I may, of course, suffer from the very problem you're describing.