Welcome to The Nonlinear Library, where we use Text-to-Speech software to convert the best writing from the Rationalist and EA communities into audio. This is: Utilitarianism.net Updates, published by Richard Y Chappell on September 17, 2024 on The Effective Altruism Forum.
Lots of exciting news from utilitarianism.net:
(I) We now offer expert-translated versions of the website in Spanish and German (with Portuguese coming soon).
(II) We've just published four new guest essays covering important topics:
1. Moral Psychology and Utilitarianism, by Lucius Caviola & Joshua Greene, explores the psychology behind common anti-utilitarian intuitions, and the normative and practical implications of empirical psychology. As they conclude, "A deeper understanding of moral psychology won't, by itself, prove utilitarianism right or wrong. But it can help us assess utilitarianism in a more informed way."
2. Utilitarianism and Voting, by Zach Barnett, offers a timely examination of the instrumental value of voting well. (Spoiler: it can be very high!)
3. Expected Utility Maximization, by Joe Carlsmith & Vikram Balasubramanian,[1] aims to convey an intuitive sense of why expected utility maximization is rational, even when it recommends options with a low chance of success. (I'll definitely be using this in my teaching.)
4. Welfare Economics and Interpersonal Utility Comparisons, by Yew-Kwang Ng, argues that objections to interpersonal utility comparisons are overblown - luckily for us, as such comparisons are thoroughly indispensable for serious policy analysis.
(III) An official print edition of the core textbook is now available for preorder from Hackett Publishing. (All author royalties go to charity.) The folks at Hackett were absolutely wonderful to work with, and I deeply appreciate their willingness to commercially publish this print edition while leaving us with the full rights to the (always free and open access) web edition.
The print edition includes a Foreword from Peter Singer and Katarzyna de Lazari-Radek, and sports high praise from expert reviewers. Instructors considering the text for their classes can request a free examination copy here (before Nov 1).
Here I'll just share the conclusion, to give you a sense of the book's framing and ambitions:
Conclusion (of the textbook)
In this book, we've (i) laid out the core elements of utilitarian moral theory, (ii) offered arguments in support of the view, (iii) highlighted the key practical implications for how we should live our lives, and (iv) critically explored the most significant objections, and how utilitarians might respond.
Utilitarianism is all about beneficence: making the world a better place for sentient beings, without restriction.
As a consequentialist view, it endorses rules only when those rules serve to better promote overall well-being. Utilitarianism has no patience for rules that exist only to maintain the privilege of those who are better off under the status quo. If a change in the distribution of well-being really would overall be for the better, those who stand to lose out have no veto right against such moral progress. Many find this feature of the view objectionable. We think the opposite.
Still, we recognize the instrumental importance of many moral rules and constraints for promoting overall well-being. The best rules achieve this by encouraging co-operation, maintaining social stability, and preventing atrocities. In principle, it could sometimes be worth breaking even the best rules, on those rare occasions when doing so would truly yield better overall outcomes. But in practice, people are not sufficiently reliable at identifying the exceptions.
So for practical purposes, we wholeheartedly endorse following reliable rules (like most commonsense moral norms) - precisely for their good utilitarian effects.
As a welfarist view, utilitarianism assesses consequences purely in terms of well-being for sentient beings: positive well-being is the sole int...
Lots of exciting news from utilitarianism.net:
(I) We now offer expert-translated versions of the website in Spanish and German (with Portuguese coming soon).
(II) We've just published four new guest essays covering important topics:
1. Moral Psychology and Utilitarianism, by Lucius Caviola & Joshua Greene, explores the psychology behind common anti-utilitarian intuitions, and the normative and practical implications of empirical psychology. As they conclude, "A deeper understanding of moral psychology won't, by itself, prove utilitarianism right or wrong. But it can help us assess utilitarianism in a more informed way."
2. Utilitarianism and Voting, by Zach Barnett, offers a timely examination of the instrumental value of voting well. (Spoiler: it can be very high!)
3. Expected Utility Maximization, by Joe Carlsmith & Vikram Balasubramanian,[1] aims to convey an intuitive sense of why expected utility maximization is rational, even when it recommends options with a low chance of success. (I'll definitely be using this in my teaching.)
4. Welfare Economics and Interpersonal Utility Comparisons, by Yew-Kwang Ng, argues that objections to interpersonal utility comparisons are overblown - luckily for us, as such comparisons are thoroughly indispensable for serious policy analysis.
(III) An official print edition of the core textbook is now available for preorder from Hackett Publishing. (All author royalties go to charity.) The folks at Hackett were absolutely wonderful to work with, and I deeply appreciate their willingness to commercially publish this print edition while leaving us with the full rights to the (always free and open access) web edition.
The print edition includes a Foreword from Peter Singer and Katarzyna de Lazari-Radek, and sports high praise from expert reviewers. Instructors considering the text for their classes can request a free examination copy here (before Nov 1).
Here I'll just share the conclusion, to give you a sense of the book's framing and ambitions:
Conclusion (of the textbook)
In this book, we've (i) laid out the core elements of utilitarian moral theory, (ii) offered arguments in support of the view, (iii) highlighted the key practical implications for how we should live our lives, and (iv) critically explored the most significant objections, and how utilitarians might respond.
Utilitarianism is all about beneficence: making the world a better place for sentient beings, without restriction.
As a consequentialist view, it endorses rules only when those rules serve to better promote overall well-being. Utilitarianism has no patience for rules that exist only to maintain the privilege of those who are better off under the status quo. If a change in the distribution of well-being really would overall be for the better, those who stand to lose out have no veto right against such moral progress. Many find this feature of the view objectionable. We think the opposite.
Still, we recognize the instrumental importance of many moral rules and constraints for promoting overall well-being. The best rules achieve this by encouraging co-operation, maintaining social stability, and preventing atrocities. In principle, it could sometimes be worth breaking even the best rules, on those rare occasions when doing so would truly yield better overall outcomes. But in practice, people are not sufficiently reliable at identifying the exceptions.
So for practical purposes, we wholeheartedly endorse following reliable rules (like most commonsense moral norms) - precisely for their good utilitarian effects.
As a welfarist view, utilitarianism assesses consequences purely in terms of well-being for sentient beings: positive well-being is the sole int...
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