Utility

Notes

Claim

The concept of utility was born together with the view of Maximizing pleasure and minimizing suffering defines moral action, which means that the amount of pleasure and pain that we are feeling can be quantified and measured. When an action has no utility or a utility of 0, either the pain and pleasure cancel each other out or that it contributes none to it, then we can say we are indifferent to it.

Explanation

The attempt to quantify utility from decisions in a comparable way across people ignores the Subjective experience resists scientific explanation. When we ask people "how happy are you from 1-10", can we truly know that your 10 "feels that same" as my 10? Does it translate to a similar mental state?

Thinking through the lens of utility can turn us into Econs are purely rational agents who maximize utility, we become a human calculator, trying to predict the potential outcome in numeric terms. Instead of "I wish to do this" or "this feels right", we only act if the outcome is larger than 0. It also turns us into Multidimensional identity collapses into single fixed characteristic as if the only thing that's worth quantifying is our pain-pleasure meter, as if our entire human experience can be reduced to a single metric. In a way, it's a case of Focusing on easy metrics blinds us to what matters, where we might end up focusing on an easy metric, ignoring other metrics of morality and wellbeing that might be just as important.

Why it matters

A hedonistic flair to utility exists, although it's not necessarily so. We can allegedly quantify the pleasure someone gets from "doing what's right", from following moral duties rather than basic pleasures, but nevertheless, it would always be analyzed through the prism of pleasure and pain. In that sense it's hedonistic. Similarly, every action only has an Instrumental value treats things as means rather than ends value, depending on the joy it brings to the one who acts.

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Overview

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