I think it makes sense to worry about value fragility and shoehorning, but it’s a cost-benefit thing. The benefits of consistency are large: it lets you prove stuff. And the costs seem small to me, because consistency requires nothing more than having an ordering on possible worlds. For example, if some possible world seems ok to you, you can put it at the top of the ordering. So assuming infinite power, any ok outcome that can be achieved by any other system can be achieved by a consistent system.
And even if you want to abandon consistency and talk about messy human values, OP’s point still stands: unbounded utility functions are useless. They allow “St Petersburg inconsistencies” and disallow “bounded inconsistencies”, but human values probably have both.
consistency requires nothing more than having an ordering on possible worlds. For example, if some possible world seems ok to you, you can put it at the top of the ordering. So assuming infinite power, any ok outcome that can be achieved by any other system can be achieved by a consistent system
This is an interesting point. I will have to think about it, thanks.
And even if you want to abandon consistency and talk about messy human values, OP’s point still stands: unbounded utility functions are useless.
To be clear, I take no position on this point in particular. My disagreements are as noted in my top-level comment—no more nor less. (You might say that I am questioning various aspects of the OP’s “local validity”. The broader point may stand anyway, or it may not; that is to be evaluated once the disagreements are resolved.)
I think it makes sense to worry about value fragility and shoehorning, but it’s a cost-benefit thing. The benefits of consistency are large: it lets you prove stuff. And the costs seem small to me, because consistency requires nothing more than having an ordering on possible worlds. For example, if some possible world seems ok to you, you can put it at the top of the ordering. So assuming infinite power, any ok outcome that can be achieved by any other system can be achieved by a consistent system.
And even if you want to abandon consistency and talk about messy human values, OP’s point still stands: unbounded utility functions are useless. They allow “St Petersburg inconsistencies” and disallow “bounded inconsistencies”, but human values probably have both.
This is an interesting point. I will have to think about it, thanks.
To be clear, I take no position on this point in particular. My disagreements are as noted in my top-level comment—no more nor less. (You might say that I am questioning various aspects of the OP’s “local validity”. The broader point may stand anyway, or it may not; that is to be evaluated once the disagreements are resolved.)