It seems to me that preference utilitarianism neatly reconciles the general intuitive view against torture with a mathematical utilitarian position. If a proportion p of those 3^^^3 people have a moral compunction against people being tortured, and the remainder are indifferent to torture but have a very slight preference against dust specks, then as long as p is not very small, the overall preference would be for dust specks (and if p was very small, then the moral intuitions of humanity in general have completely changed and we shouldn’t be in a position to make any decisions anyway). Is there something I’m missing?
I’m not sure I’m understanding your reasoning here. It seems like you’re simply thinking about people’s preferences for a dust speck in the eye, relative to their preferences for torture, without reference to how many dust specks and how much torture… is that right?
If so, that doesn’t seem to capture the general intuitive view. Intuitively, I strongly prefer losing a finger to losing an arm, but I prefer 1 person losing an arm to a million people losing a finger. (Or, put differently, I prefer a one-in-a-million chance of losing my arm to the certainty of losing a finger.) Quantity seems to matter.
It seems to me that preference utilitarianism neatly reconciles the general intuitive view against torture with a mathematical utilitarian position. If a proportion p of those 3^^^3 people have a moral compunction against people being tortured, and the remainder are indifferent to torture but have a very slight preference against dust specks, then as long as p is not very small, the overall preference would be for dust specks (and if p was very small, then the moral intuitions of humanity in general have completely changed and we shouldn’t be in a position to make any decisions anyway). Is there something I’m missing?
I’m not sure I’m understanding your reasoning here. It seems like you’re simply thinking about people’s preferences for a dust speck in the eye, relative to their preferences for torture, without reference to how many dust specks and how much torture… is that right?
If so, that doesn’t seem to capture the general intuitive view. Intuitively, I strongly prefer losing a finger to losing an arm, but I prefer 1 person losing an arm to a million people losing a finger. (Or, put differently, I prefer a one-in-a-million chance of losing my arm to the certainty of losing a finger.) Quantity seems to matter.