I think NunoSempere’s answer is good and looking vNM utility should give you a clearer idea of where people are coming from in these discussions. I would also recommend the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy’s article on expected utility theory.
https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/rationality-normative-utility/
Thank you very much—I’m part way through Christian Tarsney’s paper and definitely am finding it interesting. I’ll also have a go at Hilary Greaves piece. Listening to her on 80,000 hours’ podcast was one thing that contributed to asking this question. She seems (at least there) to accept EV as the obviously right decision criterion, but a podcast probably necessitates simplifying her views!
I think NunoSempere’s answer is good and looking vNM utility should give you a clearer idea of where people are coming from in these discussions. I would also recommend the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy’s article on expected utility theory. https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/rationality-normative-utility/
You make an important and often overlooked point about the Long-Run Arguments for expected utility theory (described in the article above). You might find Christian Tarsney’s paper, Exceeding Expectations, interesting and relevant. https://globalprioritiesinstitute.org/christian-tarsney-exceeding-expectations-stochastic-dominance-as-a-general-decision-theory/
On 3, this is a super hard practical difficulty that doesn’t have a satisfactory answer in many cases. Very relevant is Hilary Greaves’ Cluelessness. https://issuu.com/aristotelian.society/docs/greaves
As NunoSempere suggests, GiveWell is a good place to look for some tricky comparisons. My colleague, Stephen Clare, and I made this (very primitive!) attempt to compare saving human lives with sparing chickens from factory farms, which you might find interesting. https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/ahr8k42ZMTvTmTdwm/how-good-is-the-humane-league-compared-to-the-against
Thank you very much—I’m part way through Christian Tarsney’s paper and definitely am finding it interesting. I’ll also have a go at Hilary Greaves piece. Listening to her on 80,000 hours’ podcast was one thing that contributed to asking this question. She seems (at least there) to accept EV as the obviously right decision criterion, but a podcast probably necessitates simplifying her views!