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That's Utilitarianism of the kind that e.g. Eliezer preaches. Which leads to the question, are all longtermists really utilitarians like that? (The article see
by _0ffh 3y ago
That's Utilitarianism of the kind that e.g. Eliezer preaches.
Which leads to the question, are all longtermists really utilitarians like that? (The article seems to insist, even while acknowledging that at least some explicitly say they're not.)
- imtringued 3y agoThe difference is that normal utilitarians want to have high certainty that what they are doing is a net good while longtermists actually don't care if the outcome will be reached or not, essentially allowing a loophole for negative utility to slip in.
- _0ffh 3y agoThat certainly looks like a problem. Personally, I wouldn't go near anything like that anyway. On one hand it seems prudent to me to consider the likely consequences of your actions, even long term, although such projections should be suitably discounted for their rapidly increasing uncertainty. On the other hand I find the idea that you can quantify utility and do calculations with it to compare societal outcomes philosophically wrong, even naive. Should the outcomes of these calculations then be used to justify overriding the personal life choices of others, for the greater good™, it becomes outright evil. My personal ethics is more of a deontological one.