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buybuydandavis comments on Population Ethics Shouldn't Be About Maximizing Utility - Less Wrong Discussion

0 Post author: Ghatanathoah 18 March 2013 02:35AM

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Comment author: buybuydandavis 24 March 2013 08:28:42PM 0 points [-]

“according to <insert the speaker's set of values here>, a world with creatures who know what is <insert the speaker's set of values here> is better than one without such creatures, all other things being equal”

The simpler and more accurate ways of expressing that are "Joe prefers A over B", or to more clearly indicate the preference as a moral preference, "A is preferable to B according to Joe's moral values".

Should goes beyond a statement of preference or higher rank according to a set of values, and implies that someone has the moral obligation to make it happen, or more precisely, to take a certain action. According to my values, I'd prefer that I had magical powers, but there's no person I can identify who has the moral obligation to give them to me, not even myself.