Assume that you can compare personal utilities and it turns out that this guy has below-average utility. [..] I suppose that the moral intuitions of most, though not all, people would be against killing him,
I understand why you say this, but I’m not quite sure I agree.
I mean, I certainly agree that most people, if asked that question in those terms, would say “of course not! killing this poor lonely friendless unemployed wretch would be wrong.”
But I’m less sure that most people, if placed in a situation where they express their revealed preferences without framing them explicitly, would make decisions that were consistent with that answer.
And if I actually worked out what “below-average utility” means in terms that make intuitive sense to people… e.g., how much is this fellow actually suffering on a daily basis?… I’m genuinely unsure what most people would say, even if asked explicitly. Especially if our mechanism for comparing personal utilities, unlike the one I proposed above, does not arbitrarily conclude that each individual’s lifetime maximum is equivalent for purposes of comparison, as I expect most people’s intuitions in fact don’t.
That said, I certainly agree with you that most of the people who are in favor of letting the hungry starve, etc., are not using any sort of aggregated utilitarian moral reasoning.
I understand why you say this, but I’m not quite sure I agree.
I mean, I certainly agree that most people, if asked that question in those terms, would say “of course not! killing this poor lonely friendless unemployed wretch would be wrong.”
But I’m less sure that most people, if placed in a situation where they express their revealed preferences without framing them explicitly, would make decisions that were consistent with that answer.
And if I actually worked out what “below-average utility” means in terms that make intuitive sense to people… e.g., how much is this fellow actually suffering on a daily basis?… I’m genuinely unsure what most people would say, even if asked explicitly. Especially if our mechanism for comparing personal utilities, unlike the one I proposed above, does not arbitrarily conclude that each individual’s lifetime maximum is equivalent for purposes of comparison, as I expect most people’s intuitions in fact don’t.
That said, I certainly agree with you that most of the people who are in favor of letting the hungry starve, etc., are not using any sort of aggregated utilitarian moral reasoning.