utilitarianism isn’t extreme altruism. It’s just a way of trying to quantify morality. It doesn’t decide what you care about. I’m pretty tired of people reacting to the concept of Utilitarianism with “Oh shit does that mean I need to give away all my money and live subsistence style to be a good person!?” A selfish utilitarian is just as possible as an extremely altruistic one or as one who’s moderately altruistic. Effective altruism is about your ALTRUISM being EFFECTIVE. Not that you NEED to be an effective altruist. When you decide to give to a charity based on their efficiency and percentage that goes to the overhead, you are making an effective altruism decision. This is the case regardless of if your life is dedicated to altruism or if you’re just giving 100 bucks because it’s christmas.
utilitarianism isn’t extreme altruism. It’s just a way of trying to quantify morality. It doesn’t decide what you care about. I’m pretty tired of people reacting to the concept of Utilitarianism with “Oh shit does that mean I need to give away all my money and live subsistence style to be a good person!?” A selfish utilitarian is just as possible as an extremely altruistic one or as one who’s moderately altruistic.
There’s enough ambiguity here that I’m not totally sure, but it sounds like you’re describing consequential ethics, not utilitarianism as such. Utilitarianisms vary in details, but they all imply that people’s utility is fungible, including that of their adherents; that a change in (happiness, fulfillment, preference satisfaction) is just as significant whether it applies to you or to, say, a bricklayer’s son living in a malarial part of Burkina Faso.
It’s certainly possible to claim utilitarian ethics and still prioritize your own utility in practice. But that’s inconsistent—aside from a few quibbles regarding asymmetric information—with being a good person by that standard, if the standard means anything at all.
I’ve always thought a utilitarianism as an effort to quantify “good” and a framework for making moral decisions rather than an imperative. EG, the term Utility Function is a subset of utilitarian theory but does not presuppose utilitarian base motivations. Someone’s utility function consists of their desire to maximize welfare as well as their desires to hope and honor and whatnot.
It’s become increasingly clear that very few people think about it this way.
utilitarianism isn’t extreme altruism. It’s just a way of trying to quantify morality. It doesn’t decide what you care about. I’m pretty tired of people reacting to the concept of Utilitarianism with “Oh shit does that mean I need to give away all my money and live subsistence style to be a good person!?” A selfish utilitarian is just as possible as an extremely altruistic one or as one who’s moderately altruistic. Effective altruism is about your ALTRUISM being EFFECTIVE. Not that you NEED to be an effective altruist. When you decide to give to a charity based on their efficiency and percentage that goes to the overhead, you are making an effective altruism decision. This is the case regardless of if your life is dedicated to altruism or if you’re just giving 100 bucks because it’s christmas.
Not on the traditional usage of the term, it isn’t—and more to the point, not as the term is being used both in the grandparent and the OP.
You’re confusing utilitarianism with plain old instrumental rationality.
There’s enough ambiguity here that I’m not totally sure, but it sounds like you’re describing consequential ethics, not utilitarianism as such. Utilitarianisms vary in details, but they all imply that people’s utility is fungible, including that of their adherents; that a change in (happiness, fulfillment, preference satisfaction) is just as significant whether it applies to you or to, say, a bricklayer’s son living in a malarial part of Burkina Faso.
It’s certainly possible to claim utilitarian ethics and still prioritize your own utility in practice. But that’s inconsistent—aside from a few quibbles regarding asymmetric information—with being a good person by that standard, if the standard means anything at all.
I’ve always thought a utilitarianism as an effort to quantify “good” and a framework for making moral decisions rather than an imperative. EG, the term Utility Function is a subset of utilitarian theory but does not presuppose utilitarian base motivations. Someone’s utility function consists of their desire to maximize welfare as well as their desires to hope and honor and whatnot.
It’s become increasingly clear that very few people think about it this way.
Yep, see the SEP on Utilitarianism and the LW wiki on utility functions.