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Apples and oranges — Part I: what is wrong with utilitarianism, anyway?
Utilitarianism is a philosophy to guide the choices we make, in which these should be judged on their consequences, against a requirement of maximizing happiness and well-being (or minimizing harm) for all affected individuals. Is this approach realistic and useful, or fundamentally unfit for purpose?
Our days are filled with innumerable decisions. Many are trivial and of little consequence (like what to cook for dinner or which shirt to wear), some are pretty momentous (whether to quit our job or break up with our partner). Different people make different decisions about the same kind of thing all the time — we are a heterogeneous lot. But the same person (you, or I!) tends to make decisions that are more or less consistent over time. How do we do that?
Two decision making modes
We make use of two mechanisms to make choices. One is a process in which all (or at least the most important) aspects — the pluses and the minuses — of the options we have available are evaluated and combined into a single result, allowing us to determine which option gives us the…
