It seems to me that [amount of years that contain worthwhile experiences] is a pretty close approximation to the number utilitarians are trying to make go up.
I’m highly doubtful. I can easily imagine a utilitarian dying to save their child or fighting in a war. If your model of utilitarianism doesn’t allow that or concludes that real people in real circumstances are that badly miscalibrated, that’s a problem with your model.
That’s true, but it can be explained by the belief that losing a war will reduce the amount of positive experiences in their lives, and that they would rather have their child have positive experiences than have them themselves. But it is true that there are probably some values that can’t be reduced to an experience. For instance most people prefer to actually accomplish their goals in life and would not want to have a faked experience of accomplishing that.
I’m highly doubtful. I can easily imagine a utilitarian dying to save their child or fighting in a war. If your model of utilitarianism doesn’t allow that or concludes that real people in real circumstances are that badly miscalibrated, that’s a problem with your model.
That’s true, but it can be explained by the belief that losing a war will reduce the amount of positive experiences in their lives, and that they would rather have their child have positive experiences than have them themselves. But it is true that there are probably some values that can’t be reduced to an experience. For instance most people prefer to actually accomplish their goals in life and would not want to have a faked experience of accomplishing that.