Sam seems to have thought of himself as an act utilitarian, but by neglecting to do the utilitarian calculus correctly or at all, he did massive harm, making it clear that we can’t rely on this decision procedure to avoid such harms.
This seems to me like it’s overstating the strength of evidence, as though FTX is a disproof rather than one data point among many.
It is a disproof for extremely strong claims like “people who endorse act utilitarianism never do unethical things”, but those claims should have had extremely low probability pre-FTX.
This seems to me like it’s overstating the strength of evidence, as though FTX is a disproof rather than one data point among many.
It is a disproof for extremely strong claims like “people who endorse act utilitarianism never do unethical things”, but those claims should have had extremely low probability pre-FTX.