mattnewport comments on The Preference Utilitarian’s Time Inconsistency Problem - Less Wrong
You are viewing a comment permalink. View the original post to see all comments and the full post content.
You are viewing a comment permalink. View the original post to see all comments and the full post content.
Comments (104)
The main Wikipedia entry for Utilitarianism says:
Where 'preference utilitarians' links back to the short page on preference utilitarianism you referenced. That combined with the description of Peter Singer as the most prominent advocate for preference utilitarianism suggests weighted summing or averaging, though I'm not clear whether there is some specific procedure associated with 'preference utilitarianism'.
Merely satisfying your own preferences is a moral philosophy but it's not utilitarianism. Ethical Egoism maybe or just hedonism. What appears to distinguish utilitarian ethics is that they propose a unique utility function that globally defines what is moral/ethical for all agents.