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FAWS comments on Do the people behind the veil of ignorance vote for "specks"? - Less Wrong Discussion

1 Post author: D227 11 November 2011 01:26AM

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Comment author: FAWS 11 November 2011 10:18:54AM *  0 points [-]

All ways to split up utility between two people are exactly equally good as long as total utility is conserved. If this is not the case we are not talking about utility. If you want to talk about some other measure of well-being tied to a particular person, and discuss how important equal distribution vs sum total of this measure is please use another word, not the word utility. I suggest IWB, indexed well-being.

Comment author: Pfft 12 November 2011 12:17:09AM *  1 point [-]

See my other comment here. Note that using the word utility to mean something like IWB has a long history, e.g.

every writer [...] who maintained the theory of utility, meant by it [...] pleasure itself, together with exemption from pain

Mill, Utilitarianism