SOC SCI H1E Lecture Notes - Lecture 3: Utility, Zucchini, Amanuensis
Document Summary
This is the question that utility theory is designed to answer. Not about what our preferences are but what they ought to be, or what we should do regardless of our preferences. Utilitarianism is an ethics based on what we do want. What you should do, what is ethically right to do, is whatever maximize utility across a community. This reflects what the members of the community actually prefer. If i like pain, then hurting me may increase my utility. Bentham uses utility to develop a story about what we should do (but not necessarily what we should want). We shouldn"t necessarily only try to maximize our own utility. We ought to do what will maximize the utility of the community as a whole. Plato will offer us an ethics of what we should want. But what if we are ignorant that this thing will make us happier.
