Hmm. I’m imagining a monogamous bisexual person who prefers het relationships, but settles for a gay one because they really love their partner and reasonably believe they wouldn’t be able to find a better het relationship if they were back on the market (such that they are not avoiding suffering and also maximising utility by being in this relationship). This person would opt to take the pill that makes them exclusively gay in order to feel more life satisfaction (or even SWB), even though it destroys their preferences.
I assume this person is in your latter bucket of preferring greater life satisfaction per se? If so, I don’t think this situation is as uncommon as you imply—lots of people have hard to satisfy or unsatisfiable preferences that they would rather be rid of in favour of greater life satisfaction; in some sense, this is what it means to be human (Buddhism again).
Ya, I agree that many or even most people would get rid of some of their preferences if they could to be happier or more satisfied or whatever. Many people also have fears, anxieties or insecurities they’d rather not have, and those are kinds of “preferences” or “attitudes”, the way I’m using those terms.
Hmm. I’m imagining a monogamous bisexual person who prefers het relationships, but settles for a gay one because they really love their partner and reasonably believe they wouldn’t be able to find a better het relationship if they were back on the market (such that they are not avoiding suffering and also maximising utility by being in this relationship). This person would opt to take the pill that makes them exclusively gay in order to feel more life satisfaction (or even SWB), even though it destroys their preferences.
I assume this person is in your latter bucket of preferring greater life satisfaction per se? If so, I don’t think this situation is as uncommon as you imply—lots of people have hard to satisfy or unsatisfiable preferences that they would rather be rid of in favour of greater life satisfaction; in some sense, this is what it means to be human (Buddhism again).
Ya, I agree that many or even most people would get rid of some of their preferences if they could to be happier or more satisfied or whatever. Many people also have fears, anxieties or insecurities they’d rather not have, and those are kinds of “preferences” or “attitudes”, the way I’m using those terms.