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Single Idea 24106

[filed under theme 23. Ethics / E. Utilitarianism / 1. Utilitarianism ]

Full Idea

All this chat about 'utility' already presupposes that what is useful to people has been defined: in other words, useful for what! i.e. the people's purposes are already taken for granted.

Gist of Idea

Talk of 'utility' presupposes that what is useful to people has been defined

Source

Friedrich Nietzsche (Unpublished Notebooks 1881-82 [1882], 7[030])

Book Ref

Nietzsche,Friedrich: 'The Joyful Science, and 1881-82 fragments (v 6)', ed/tr. Del Caro,Adrian [Stanford 2023], p.225


A Reaction

When they stopped talking about utility they talked instead about 'benefit', but the same objection applies. This is the problem of paternalism in Utilitarianism, which leads to Preference Utilitarianism, which probably doesn't help.