Not just egoism, selfish egoism. Every utility function people choose is a selfish one or they wouldn’t choose it. The claim isn’t, “selfish egoism is a subset of utilitarianism” but “selfish egoism is identically the same as utilitarianism.”
This argues that utilitarianism is selfish egoism, but not the contrary? My reading of your position is that someone who had a utility function not dependent on the wellbeing of any other beings would be a selfish egoist, but it’s difficult for me to understand how that could be utilitarian.
How do you determine which beings ought to be in a utilitarian’s utility function? I think it’s generally the utilitarian decides for themselves and the rest of society beats them over the head until the utilitarian includes them too.
I don’t understand what you don’t understand. I heard a remark once about a philosopher who really tried to steelman other people’s arguments, but so that they made sense according to the philosopher, not in the mental frame of the other person. It led to some pretty wacky arguments on the steelman side. I think here, you should assume when I say, “mathematically equivalent,” that’s what I mean. Like, any math you use in utilitarianism is the same as that of selfish egoism. Or, if you tried to put the two philosophies in mathematical terms, you get the exact same equations. So, it extends to logical beings or irrational beings. The words “selfish egoism” and “utilitarianism” are synonyms.
Perhaps here is where the controversy comes in. The utilitarian comes along and says, “I want to maximize utility!” And everyone thinks, “great! she wants to help everyone out!” The selfish egoist comes along and says, “I am just going to fulfill whatever selfish desires I have!” And everyone thinks, “wow, that’s scary! what stops you from murdering people?”
I think, also, there is a sense in which utilitarians work to maximize the same utility function. This is also true for selfish egoists, but they’re both better and worse at negotiating (they are more prone to negotiate, but utilitarians make mistakes that are biased towards reaching a consensus just because they solve the problem from different directions).
Not just egoism, selfish egoism. Every utility function people choose is a selfish one or they wouldn’t choose it. The claim isn’t, “selfish egoism is a subset of utilitarianism” but “selfish egoism is identically the same as utilitarianism.”
This argues that utilitarianism is selfish egoism, but not the contrary? My reading of your position is that someone who had a utility function not dependent on the wellbeing of any other beings would be a selfish egoist, but it’s difficult for me to understand how that could be utilitarian.
How do you determine which beings ought to be in a utilitarian’s utility function? I think it’s generally the utilitarian decides for themselves and the rest of society beats them over the head until the utilitarian includes them too.
Comment withdrawn.
I don’t understand what you don’t understand. I heard a remark once about a philosopher who really tried to steelman other people’s arguments, but so that they made sense according to the philosopher, not in the mental frame of the other person. It led to some pretty wacky arguments on the steelman side. I think here, you should assume when I say, “mathematically equivalent,” that’s what I mean. Like, any math you use in utilitarianism is the same as that of selfish egoism. Or, if you tried to put the two philosophies in mathematical terms, you get the exact same equations. So, it extends to logical beings or irrational beings. The words “selfish egoism” and “utilitarianism” are synonyms.
Comment withdrawn.
Yes.
Comment withdrawn.
Perhaps here is where the controversy comes in. The utilitarian comes along and says, “I want to maximize utility!” And everyone thinks, “great! she wants to help everyone out!” The selfish egoist comes along and says, “I am just going to fulfill whatever selfish desires I have!” And everyone thinks, “wow, that’s scary! what stops you from murdering people?”
I think, also, there is a sense in which utilitarians work to maximize the same utility function. This is also true for selfish egoists, but they’re both better and worse at negotiating (they are more prone to negotiate, but utilitarians make mistakes that are biased towards reaching a consensus just because they solve the problem from different directions).
Comment withdrawn.
Sorry, I don’t really want to make this a long thing. I have written a little on this elsewhere (1, 2, 3).