Hello, I'm new here. I lurked the forum for some time before deciding to register.

I'm Swedish, currently studying at a university.

As for why utilitarianism/consequentialism, there seems to me to be no other way of motivating things, really. I also like the concept of expanding the circle of compassion.

Hi Loki, nice first post, I agree with all of those things! I hope you enjoy lurking or posting into the future!

What are you studying?

RyanCarey wrote:What are you studying?

Economics... and it's a subject which tends to lean heavily (if not exclusively) towards utilitarian thinking, often implicitly so.

I suspect if you ranked subjects according to the proportion of their students/graduates who're utilitarian, economics would be near top - probably well above philosophy.

Arepo wrote:I suspect if you ranked subjects according to the proportion of their students/graduates who're utilitarian, economics would be near top - probably well above philosophy.

Might well be true. After all, the subject is about how to use limited resources most efficiently, and very often it is about maximizing utility, or how each individual tries to maximize his/her utility.

Hi Loki. Nice to see more Swedes here. Which university?