Lol, I’m glad I was a salient example of someone with silly beliefs =P. Just doing my part to push the Overton window.
Strictly speaking, I expect there could be beings that are a lot happier than rats (or any other current living thing), so we should really breed those instead.
No, the negative preference utilitarian version wants to prevent Bob from surviving to have children and numerous future generations (even if their lives are all great overall), so strongly as to overwhelm any horrible thing that happens to Bob, including painfully killing him (or torturing him for thousands of years, if that was instrumentally useful) to prevent his procreation.
This is why we need to implement my own theory, “Negative-Leaning Average Preference Prioritarianism with Time-Discounted Utility for Future Generations and with Extra Points Awarded for Minimizing the Variance of Utilities Among the Present Generation.”
In this particular example, Rawlsianism will also point to making the least well-off better before creating new lives or killing existing ones (though it’s quite possible your stomach wouldn’t be as badly off as the kids with schistosomiasis).
Lol, I’m glad I was a salient example of someone with silly beliefs =P. Just doing my part to push the Overton window.
Strictly speaking, I expect there could be beings that are a lot happier than rats (or any other current living thing), so we should really breed those instead.
When you’re advocating a reductio ad absurdum, I do wonder if that pushes the overton window backwards.
Bob: “Ouch, my stomach hurts.”
Classical total utilitarian: “Don’t worry! Wait while I create more happy people to make up for it.”
Average utilitarian: “Never fear! Let me create more people with only mild stomach aches to improve the average.”
Egalitarian: “I’m sorry to hear that. Here, let me give everyone else awful stomach aches too.”
...
Negative utilitarian: “Here, take this medicine to make your stomach feel better.”
The medicine is a lethal dose of sedatives.
Negative preference utilitarianism avoids that problem.
No, the negative preference utilitarian version wants to prevent Bob from surviving to have children and numerous future generations (even if their lives are all great overall), so strongly as to overwhelm any horrible thing that happens to Bob, including painfully killing him (or torturing him for thousands of years, if that was instrumentally useful) to prevent his procreation.
This is why we need to implement my own theory, “Negative-Leaning Average Preference Prioritarianism with Time-Discounted Utility for Future Generations and with Extra Points Awarded for Minimizing the Variance of Utilities Among the Present Generation.”
We’ll call it NLAPPTDUFGEPAMVUAPG.
As a classical total utilitarian, I think we should both give medicine to make your stomach feel better AND create more happy people.
Or ideally, we should create people who don’t get stomach aches in the first place.
To the extent this example has force, it seems to push towards prioritarianism rather than negative utilitarianism.
In this particular example, Rawlsianism will also point to making the least well-off better before creating new lives or killing existing ones (though it’s quite possible your stomach wouldn’t be as badly off as the kids with schistosomiasis).