Thanks for the post! I place myself in the evidence camp, though I wouldn’t say it’s a matter of “ambiguity aversion”, and saying its “not [about] maximising expected utility” risks being misunderstood. As you said, there are explicit consequentialists in both camps. (Non-consequentialists can be found in both too.)
Both camps are diverse so I wouldn’t want to try giving a complete characterisation of either, and someone in the rationalist camp would likely do a better job of describing their group’s most common views. My personal impression is that the evidence/empiricism camp is typically not so much against maximising expected utility, but is sceptical of certain sorts of explicit expected value calculations. For example, a majority of those found on the back of envelopes, and an even larger number of those found on the back of napkins. Here are some relevant posts:
Thanks for the post! I place myself in the evidence camp, though I wouldn’t say it’s a matter of “ambiguity aversion”, and saying its “not [about] maximising expected utility” risks being misunderstood. As you said, there are explicit consequentialists in both camps. (Non-consequentialists can be found in both too.)
Both camps are diverse so I wouldn’t want to try giving a complete characterisation of either, and someone in the rationalist camp would likely do a better job of describing their group’s most common views. My personal impression is that the evidence/empiricism camp is typically not so much against maximising expected utility, but is sceptical of certain sorts of explicit expected value calculations. For example, a majority of those found on the back of envelopes, and an even larger number of those found on the back of napkins. Here are some relevant posts:
Why We Can’t Take Expected Value Estimates Literally (Even When They’re Unbiased) - Holden Karnofsky
Sequence Thinking vs. Cluster Thinking—Holden Karnofsky
Quantification as a Lamppost in the Dark—Adam Casey (h/t Sasha Cooper here)
Why I’m Skeptical About Unproven Causes (And You Should Be Too) - Peter Hurford