shminux comments on Arguments Against Speciesism - LessWrong

28 Post author: Lukas_Gloor 28 July 2013 06:24PM

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Comment author: shminux 28 July 2013 10:59:09PM -1 points [-]

Real numbers do not behave this way. Perhaps they are not a sufficient number system for utilitarian calculations.

My suspicion that what has to give is the assumption of unlimited transitivity in VNM, but I never bothered to flesh out the details.

Comment author: pragmatist 30 July 2013 02:55:41PM *  1 point [-]

Actually, I believe it's the continuity axiom that rules out lexicographic preferences.

Comment author: shminux 30 July 2013 05:56:33PM *  -1 points [-]

I examined this one, too, but the continuity axiom intuitively makes sense for comparables, except possibly in cases of extreme risk aversion. I am leaning more toward abandoning the transitivity chain when the options are too far apart. Something like A > B having some uncertainty increasing with the chain length between A and B or with some other quantifiable value.