Morendil comments on Deontology for Consequentialists - Less Wrong

46 Post author: Alicorn 30 January 2010 05:58PM

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Comment author: Jack 02 February 2010 03:01:51AM 0 points [-]

Where do you stand? (If you can explain without a full page essay). I'm something of a utilitarian skeptic as well... I'd like to see if the rest of us have overlapping views.

Comment author: Morendil 02 February 2010 08:43:08AM 2 points [-]

My own ethical position is easy to state: confused. ;)

There should be a post, intended for people about to embark on the topic of ethics and metaethics, providing guidance on even figuring out what your current intuitions are, and where they position you on the map of the standard debates.

My (post-school) readings on the topic have included Singer's Practical Ethics and Rawls' Theory of Justice. I was definitely more impressed and influenced by the latter. If pressed, I would call myself a contractarian. (Being French, I had early encounters with Rousseau, but I don't remember those with any precision.)

I'm skeptical of the way "utility function" is often used, as a lily-gilding equivalent of "what I want". I'm skeptical that interpersonal comparisons of utility have any value, such that "my utility function", assuming there is such a thing, can be meaningfully aggregated with "your utility function". Thus I'm skeptical that utility provides a useful guide to moral decisions.