Sure it would work. But why? Why on earth would you say that? It’s just a completely random definition of a utility function.
The universe had no concept of ethics. Ethics are purely in the mind.
The purpose of utilitarianism is to try and formalise some of our intuitions about ethics so that we can act consistently. If the formalised utility function didn’t match our intuitions, why bother?
Sure it would work. But why? Why on earth would you say that? It’s just a completely random definition of a utility function.
The universe had no concept of ethics. Ethics are purely in the mind.
The purpose of utilitarianism is to try and formalise some of our intuitions about ethics so that we can act consistently. If the formalised utility function didn’t match our intuitions, why bother?
Fwiw it doesn’t feel random to me. It feels like what I get if I think (briefly, shallowly) about, like...
What are the intuitions that seem to lead to someone advocating average utilitarianism?
Okay, and average utilitarianism as naively described clearly doesn’t match those for the reasons you describe.
This adjustment feels like maybe it gets closer to matching those intuitions?
(But also I think a formalized utility function is never going to match all our intuitions and that’s not necessarily a problem.)