Fascinating question. No matter how small the negative utility in the dust speck, multiplying it with a number such as 3^^^3 will make it way worse than torture. Yet I find the obvious answer to be the dust speck one, for reasons similar to what others have pointed out—the negative utility rounds down to zero.
But that doesn’t really solve the problem, for what if the harm in question was slightly larger? At what point does it cease rounding down? I have no meaningful criteria to give for that one. Obviously there must be a point where it does cease doing so, for it certainly is much better to torture one person for 50 years than 3^^^3 people for 49 years.
It is quite counterintuitive, but I suppose I should choose the torture option. My other alternatives would be to reject utilitarianism (but I have no better substitutes for it) or to modify my ethical system so that it solves this problem, but I currently cannot come up with an unproblematic way of doing so.
Still, I can’t quite bring myself to do so. I choose specks, and admit that my ethical system is not consistent yet. (Not that it would be a surprise—I’ve noticed that all my attempts at building entirely consistent ethical systems tend to cause unwanted results at one point or the other.)
For those who would pick SPECKS, would you pay a single penny to avoid the dust specks?
A single penny to avoid one dust speck, or to avoid 3^^^3 dust specks? No to the first one. To the second one, depends on how often they occured—if I somehow could live for 3^^^3 years, getting one dust speck in my eye per year, then no. If they actually inconvenienced me, then yes—a penny is just a penny.
Fascinating question. No matter how small the negative utility in the dust speck, multiplying it with a number such as 3^^^3 will make it way worse than torture. Yet I find the obvious answer to be the dust speck one, for reasons similar to what others have pointed out—the negative utility rounds down to zero.
But that doesn’t really solve the problem, for what if the harm in question was slightly larger? At what point does it cease rounding down? I have no meaningful criteria to give for that one. Obviously there must be a point where it does cease doing so, for it certainly is much better to torture one person for 50 years than 3^^^3 people for 49 years.
It is quite counterintuitive, but I suppose I should choose the torture option. My other alternatives would be to reject utilitarianism (but I have no better substitutes for it) or to modify my ethical system so that it solves this problem, but I currently cannot come up with an unproblematic way of doing so.
Still, I can’t quite bring myself to do so. I choose specks, and admit that my ethical system is not consistent yet. (Not that it would be a surprise—I’ve noticed that all my attempts at building entirely consistent ethical systems tend to cause unwanted results at one point or the other.)
For those who would pick SPECKS, would you pay a single penny to avoid the dust specks?
A single penny to avoid one dust speck, or to avoid 3^^^3 dust specks? No to the first one. To the second one, depends on how often they occured—if I somehow could live for 3^^^3 years, getting one dust speck in my eye per year, then no. If they actually inconvenienced me, then yes—a penny is just a penny.