dhasenan comments on Average utilitarianism must be correct? - Less Wrong

2 Post author: PhilGoetz 06 April 2009 05:10PM

You are viewing a comment permalink. View the original post to see all comments and the full post content.

Comments (159)

You are viewing a single comment's thread. Show more comments above.

Comment author: Vulture 15 February 2014 06:15:26PM 1 point [-]

you'd be willing to kill people for the crime of not being sufficiently happy or fulfilled

I support the right to euthanasia for people who truly prefer to be killed, e.g. because they suffer from terminal painful diseases. Do you oppose it?

I believe that what dhasenan was getting at is that without the assumption that a dead person has 0 utility, you would be willing to kill people who are happy (positive utility), but just not as happy as they could be. I'm not sure how exactly this would go mathematically, but the point is that killing a +utility person being a reduction in utility is a vital axiom

Comment author: [deleted] 15 February 2014 09:24:07PM 2 points [-]

It's not that they could be happier. Rather, if the average happiness is greater than my happiness, the average happiness in the population will be increased if I die (assuming the other effects of a person dying are minimal or sufficiently mitigated).