My understanding of utilitarian theory is that, at the highest meta level, every utilitarian theory is unified by the central goal of maximizing happiness, though the definitions, priorities, and rules may vary.
If this is true, “Utilitarianism fails to maximize happiness” is an illegitimate criticism of the meta-theory. It would be saying, “Maximizing happiness fails to maximize happiness,” which is definitionally impossible.
Since the meta-theory is “Maximize happiness,” you can’t say that the meta-theory fails to maximize happiness, only that specific formulations do, which is absolutely legitimate. The original author appears to be criticizing a specific formulation while he claims to be criticizing the meta-theory. That was my original point, and I did not make it clearly enough.
I used “by definition” precisely because I had just read that article. I’m clearly wrong because apparently the definition of utilons is controversial. I simply think of them as a convenient measurement device for happiness. If you have more utilons, you’re that much happier, and if you have fewer, you’re that much less happy. If buying that new car doesn’t increase your happiness, you derive zero utilons from it.
To my knowledge, that’s a legitimate and often-used definition of utilon. I could be wrong, in which case my definition is wrong, but given the fact that another poster takes issue with your definition, and that the original poster implicitly uses yet another definition, I really don’t think mine can be described as “wrong.” Though, of course, my original assertion that the OP is wrong by definition is wrong.
My understanding of utilitarian theory is that, at the highest meta level, every utilitarian theory is unified by the central goal of maximizing happiness, though the definitions, priorities, and rules may vary.
If this is true, “Utilitarianism fails to maximize happiness” is an illegitimate criticism of the meta-theory. It would be saying, “Maximizing happiness fails to maximize happiness,” which is definitionally impossible.
Since the meta-theory is “Maximize happiness,” you can’t say that the meta-theory fails to maximize happiness, only that specific formulations do, which is absolutely legitimate. The original author appears to be criticizing a specific formulation while he claims to be criticizing the meta-theory. That was my original point, and I did not make it clearly enough.
I used “by definition” precisely because I had just read that article. I’m clearly wrong because apparently the definition of utilons is controversial. I simply think of them as a convenient measurement device for happiness. If you have more utilons, you’re that much happier, and if you have fewer, you’re that much less happy. If buying that new car doesn’t increase your happiness, you derive zero utilons from it.
To my knowledge, that’s a legitimate and often-used definition of utilon. I could be wrong, in which case my definition is wrong, but given the fact that another poster takes issue with your definition, and that the original poster implicitly uses yet another definition, I really don’t think mine can be described as “wrong.” Though, of course, my original assertion that the OP is wrong by definition is wrong.