I’m surprised by the downvotes. There’s a page on types of utilitarianism, and NU is not mentioned, but “variable value theories, critical level theories and person-affecting views” are at least named, and NU seems better known than variable value and critical level theories. Average utilitarianism also isn’t mentioned.
My impression of variable value theories and critical level theories is that these are mostly academic theories, constructed as responses to the repugnant conclusion and other impossibility results, and pretty ad hoc for this purpose, with little independent motivation and little justification for their exact forms. Exactly where should be the critical level? Exactly what should the variable value function look like? They don’t seem to be brought up much in the literature except in papers actually developing different versions of them or in comparing different theories. Maybe my impression is wrong.
I’m surprised by the downvotes. There’s a page on types of utilitarianism, and NU is not mentioned, but “variable value theories, critical level theories and person-affecting views” are at least named, and NU seems better known than variable value and critical level theories. Average utilitarianism also isn’t mentioned.
My impression of variable value theories and critical level theories is that these are mostly academic theories, constructed as responses to the repugnant conclusion and other impossibility results, and pretty ad hoc for this purpose, with little independent motivation and little justification for their exact forms. Exactly where should be the critical level? Exactly what should the variable value function look like? They don’t seem to be brought up much in the literature except in papers actually developing different versions of them or in comparing different theories. Maybe my impression is wrong.