I just want to second the point that some others have made that it seems more accurate to say only that Harsanyi’s result supports utilitarianism (rather than total utilitarianism). Adding the word “total” suggests that the result rules out other version of utilitarianism (e.g. average, critical-level and critical-range utilitarianism), which as you point out is not correct. More generally, I think “utilitarianism” (without the “total”) nicely signals that Harsanyi’s result concerns fixed-population settings.
It is also worth noting that Harsanyi himself accepted average utilitarianism rather than total utilitarianism in variable-population settings (see the letter exchange between him and Yew-Kwang Ng reported in the appendix of Ng, Y. K. (1983). Some broader issues of social choice. In Contributions to Economic Analysis (Vol. 145, pp. 151-173). Elsevier.).
Anyway, thanks for this post!
[Edited comment to remove grammatical error]
Great work – this looks really useful!
Minor comment: A few years ago, I looked into estimates of the ratio of animal lives lost to a kilogram of animal protein. One of the facts that were really striking to me was how much the ratio has changed over time in the US for many animal protein products (e.g., dairy cows produce significantly more milk now than they used to). Given how much the ratio has changed over time, it seems likely that there is also a fair bit of heterogeneity between countries. For the OWID charts that display “Animal lives lost per kilogram of product”, “Animal lives lost per kilogram of product, including indirect deaths”, and “Kilograms of meat produced per animal”, it might therefore be worth adding one more sentence in the description clarifying whether the estimates are for the US, the world, or something else. One could of course find this information by clicking on the source, but it may not occur to everyone that the ratios may differ between countries.
Thanks again for posting this!