Even if you don’t buy that premise, it’s hard for me to see why famous utilitarians like Bentham or Singer would be pleased if people hewed more closely to the VNM axioms. Couldn’t they do so, and still make the world worse by valuing bad things?
Yes, but if I think that optimal moral behavior means using a specific utility function, somebody who isn’t being VNM-rational is incapable of optimal moral behavior.
Is “people should aim for their behavior to satisfy the VNM axioms” all that you meant originally by utilitarianism? From what you’ve written elsewhere in this thread it sounds like you might mean something more, but I could be misunderstanding.
It’s all I originally meant. I gathered from all of the responses that this is not how other people use the term, so I stopped using it that way.
Yes, but if I think that optimal moral behavior means using a specific utility function, somebody who isn’t being VNM-rational is incapable of optimal moral behavior.
It’s all I originally meant. I gathered from all of the responses that this is not how other people use the term, so I stopped using it that way.