Is Preference Utilitarianism for Changing Preferences or the Universe?

preference (0.00 / 0)

My impression of how "preference" is used here implies that preferences are built-in and can't be changed.  Still, I think you're on to something, namely that if we can find ways to enjoy helping others, we're in a win-win situation.  We had a brief discussion of these issues on the diary Preference vs Hedonistic Utilitarianism a while back.  That might also help answer your questions.  Finally, I don't have a good answer for how preference utilitarianism handles the question "Is ignorance bliss?".  In general, I tend to go with hedonistic utilitarianism and say that ignorance is bliss.  Hope this helps.

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by: Seth Baum @ Sun May 13, 2007 at 21:53:25 PM CDT

built-in? (0.00 / 0)

What do you mean built-in? Even if you had to genetically modify people to control their preferences, it would be worth it for increasing the utility you can do by over 19 orders of magnitude (more actually, since changing the world is really a far cry from changing the whole planet). In the diary you quoted, there seems to be some confusion of what preference utilitarianism means. I'm talking about the universe following your preferences, not just you. I don't know what the "Is ignorance bliss?" question has to do with it, but my answer is that knowledge will bring bliss in the long run. I'd certainly be less happy if I didn't have a computer, even if I didn't know they could exist.

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by: DanielLC @ Wed May 16, 2007 at 19:52:43 PM CDT

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re built-in (0.00 / 0)

By "built-in" I mean determined by the individual/not subject to external tweaking.  I suspect the empty universe example might not be a good one because people seem to generally not have any preferences for or against the emptiness of the universe.  Either way, I'm not particularly fond of preference utilitarianism.

Re "Is ignorance bliss?": Suppose I prefer that people don't eat meat.  If someone eats meat, but I never know about it, does this violate my preference?  I'm not sure.  This strikes me as another glitch in preference utilitarianism.

A decent discussion is in Torbjörn Tännsjö, "Hedonistic Utilitarianism", ISBN: 0-7486-1042-1, Chapter 6, "Against preferentialism". 

Can you drop me an email?  It'd be nice to chat a bit offline too.

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by: Seth Baum @ Thu May 17, 2007 at 08:53:12 AM CDT

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re... (0.00 / 0)

People are not timeless, unchangeable entities. They are created and destroyed. If they can't be changed, they can at least be replaced. If we can't convince everyone to love the universe as it is, we can genetically modify our reproductive cells so that our children will.

I see what you mean by is ignorance bliss, now. I'm saying if it's bad the universe doesn't follow your desires whether or not you know it. From what it says on Wikipedia, I'd think that's what desire utilitarianism is.

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by: DanielLC @ Thu May 17, 2007 at 18:03:27 PM CDT

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