DaFranker comments on Does utilitarianism "require" extreme self sacrifice? If not why do people commonly say it does? - Less Wrong

7 Post author: Princess_Stargirl 09 December 2014 08:32AM

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Comment author: gjm 09 December 2014 12:30:36PM 7 points [-]

I think someone is still a utilitarian if instead of 2 they believe something like

2') One decision is morally better than another if it yields greater expected total utility.

(In particular, I don't think it's necessary for a moral theory to be based on a notion of moral requirement as opposed to one of moral preference.)

Comment author: SolveIt 09 December 2014 01:49:05PM 2 points [-]

Um, what's the difference?

Comment author: DaFranker 09 December 2014 02:47:23PM 2 points [-]

As ZankerH said, it leaves out the "required to make" part. Also, gjm's particular formulation of 2' makes a statement about comparisons between two given decisions, not a statement about the entire search space of possible decisions.