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David_Gerard comments on A (small) critique of total utilitarianism - Less Wrong
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As far as I know, TvDS doesn't assume that value is linear in dust specks. As you say, there are different ways to sum multiple sources of something. In particular, there are many ways to sum the experiences of multiple individuals.
For example, the whole problem evaporates if I decide that people's suffering only matters to the extent that I personally know those people. In fact, much less ridiculous problems also evaporate... e.g., in that case I also prefer that thousands of people suffer so that I and my friends can live lives of ease, as long as the suffering hordes are sufficiently far away.
It is not obvious to me that I prefer that second way of thinking, though.
It is arguable (in terms of revealed preferences) that first-worlders typically do prefer that. This requires a slightly non-normative meaning of "prefer", but a very useful one.
Oh, absolutely. I chose the example with that in mind.
I merely assert that "but that leads to thousands of people suffering!" is not a ridiculous moral problem for people (like me) who reveal such preferences to consider, and it's not obvious that a model that causes the problem to evaporate is one that I endorse.