Monday, October 21, 2024

Actual result utilitarianism implies a version of total depravity

Assume actual result utilitarianism on which there are facts of the matter about what would transpire given any possible action of mine, and an action is right just in case it has the best consequences.

Here is an interesting conclusion. Do something specific, anything. Maybe wiggle your right thumb a certain way. There are many—perhaps even infinitely many—other things you could have done (e.g., you could have wiggled the thumb slightly differently) instead of that action whose known consequences are no different from the known consequences of what you did. We live in a chaotic world where the butterfly principle very likely holds: even minor events have significant consequences down the road. It is very unlikely that of all the minor variants of what you did, all of which have the same known consequences, the variant you chose has the best overall consequences down the road. Quite likely, the variant action you chose is middle of the road among the variants.

So, typically, whatever we do, we do wrong on actual result utilitarianism.

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