As far as I can tell, Bykvist seems to be making an argument about where the critical level should be set within a critical-level utilitarian framework rather than providing an explicit argument for that framework. (Indeed, the framework is one that Broome appears to accept already.)
The thing is, if you accept critical-level utilitarianism you’ve already given up the intuition of neutrality, and I’m still wondering whether that’s actually necessary. In particular, I remain somewhat attracted to a modified version of Dasgupta’s “relative betterness” idea, which Broome discusses in Chapter 11 of Weighing Lives. He seems to accept that it performs well against our intuitions (indeed, arguably better his own theory), but ultimately rejects it as being undermotivated. I still wonder whether such motivation can be provided.
(Of course, if it can’t, then Bykvist’s argument is interesting.)
Thanks for the link.
As far as I can tell, Bykvist seems to be making an argument about where the critical level should be set within a critical-level utilitarian framework rather than providing an explicit argument for that framework. (Indeed, the framework is one that Broome appears to accept already.)
The thing is, if you accept critical-level utilitarianism you’ve already given up the intuition of neutrality, and I’m still wondering whether that’s actually necessary. In particular, I remain somewhat attracted to a modified version of Dasgupta’s “relative betterness” idea, which Broome discusses in Chapter 11 of Weighing Lives. He seems to accept that it performs well against our intuitions (indeed, arguably better his own theory), but ultimately rejects it as being undermotivated. I still wonder whether such motivation can be provided.
(Of course, if it can’t, then Bykvist’s argument is interesting.)