Matt_Simpson comments on Cultivating our own gardens - Less Wrong

6 [deleted] 31 May 2010 08:05PM

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Comment author: Matt_Simpson 02 June 2010 05:32:59AM 1 point [-]

I think what you're calling utilitarianism is typically called consequentialism. Utilitarianism usually connotes something like what Mill or Bentham had in mind - determine each individual's utility function, then contruct a global utility function that is the sum/average of the individuals. I say connotes because no matter how you define the term, this seems to be what people think when they hear it, so they bring up the tired old cached objections to Mill's utilitarianism that just don't apply to what we're typically talking about here.