When people talk about utility, they often end up plagued by ambiguity in their definitions. In the context of decision theory, the domain of a utility function has to take into account everything that the agent cares about and that their decisions effect (including events that happen in the future, so it doesn’t make sense to talk about the utility an agent is experiencing at a particular time), and the agent prefers probability distributions over outcomes that have higher expected utility. In the context of classical utilitarianism, utility is basically just a synonym for happiness. How are you trying to use the term here?
Edit: From your clarification, it sounds like you’re actually talking about aggregated group utility, rather than individual utility, and just claiming that the utilities being aggregated should consist of the utility functions of the people who currently exist, not the utility functions of the people who will exist in the outcome being considered. But I’m still confused because your original example only referred to a single person.
I can’t figure out what you’re trying to say.
When people talk about utility, they often end up plagued by ambiguity in their definitions. In the context of decision theory, the domain of a utility function has to take into account everything that the agent cares about and that their decisions effect (including events that happen in the future, so it doesn’t make sense to talk about the utility an agent is experiencing at a particular time), and the agent prefers probability distributions over outcomes that have higher expected utility. In the context of classical utilitarianism, utility is basically just a synonym for happiness. How are you trying to use the term here?
Edit: From your clarification, it sounds like you’re actually talking about aggregated group utility, rather than individual utility, and just claiming that the utilities being aggregated should consist of the utility functions of the people who currently exist, not the utility functions of the people who will exist in the outcome being considered. But I’m still confused because your original example only referred to a single person.