Peter Singer

It is really an account of Sidgwick's views and a defense of Sidgwick's views in the context of contemporary philosophy.

A utilitarian doesn't have to believe that we actually can measure it in any precise way.

But it exists.

But it exists, yes.

That's right.

A utilitarian would have to believe that there is some state of happiness that you're in that I cannot directly access or measure and, you know,

that it might be greater or lesser than mine.

But I think that's something that we all have to do anyway.

I'm a little puzzled by this objection.

Suppose that you and a few other people are going out for dinner and you say, well, which restaurant should we go to?

And

You say, I really love Chinese food, especially that spicy Sichuan food.

Let's go to that.

And two other people say, yeah, I enjoy Sichuan.

And then someone else says, I'm sorry, I really hate spicy food.

I just can't take it.

So you have to decide now.

Is your preference and that of the others who enjoyed that Sichuan food going to outweigh that of the other person who will have to order the plain boiled rice and maybe some vegetables with not much flavor in them?

if they go along, right?

And, you know, we do that kind of thing all the time in deciding those kinds of group choices.