Squark comments on Open Thread for February 11 - 17 - Less Wrong

3 Post author: Coscott 11 February 2014 06:08PM

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Comment author: Squark 16 February 2014 08:26:51PM 0 points [-]

By utilitiarian you mean:

  1. Caring about all people equally

  2. Hedonism, i.e. caring about pleasure/pain

  3. Both of the above (=Bentham's classical utilitarianism)?

In any case, what answer do you expect? What would constitute a valid reason? What are the assumptions from which you want to derive this?

Comment author: [deleted] 17 February 2014 05:19:59PM *  0 points [-]

Both of the above (=Bentham's classical utilitarianism)

I mean this.

In any case, what answer do you expect?

I do not expect any specific answer.

What would constitute a valid reason?

For me personally, probably nothing, since, apparently, I neither really care about people (I guess I overintellectuallized my empathy), nor about pleasure and suffering. The question, however, was asked mostly to better understand other people.

What are the assumptions from which you want to derive this?

I don't know any.