I was wondering whether others here share this sentiment… I’ve had several conversations of this form:

‘I like/don’t like Fred, because he’s a good/bad guy.’
‘I agree that he’s a good/bad guy, but I [respectively] dislike/like him anyway.’

Basically, my affections seem to work like this –utilitarians get a free pass. For everyone else, it’s pure emotional compatibility – the degree to which I like/dislike them corresponds to how much I enjoy passing the time with them, which is unrelated to (or occasionally even seems inversely correlated with?) their social conscience.

No-one else ever seems to feel this way – whenever I’ve asked people, they describe their affections and sense of other people’s ethics as being closely related. I figure part of the reason is that as a utilitarian, I have a near-infinite potential to be better or worse, and see other people as having the same. Since we all tend to be pretty selfish most of the time, what most people think of as being fundamentally good, I think of as doing slightly better than the mean. I encourage my friends to support utilitarian causes when I think they might be interested, but I don’t particularly find people who are already seen as good tend to be any more interested in behavioral shifts than people who aren’t (quite often the former will have pet causes they’re very attached to and which I think of as low value, whereas the latter. So I don’t feel like I have any ethical reason to prefer the former. Meanwhile, I’m spending time with the people who make me happiest…

Any of this rings true for other utilitarians?

I suspect it's largely the halo effect. You think someone is good because you like being with them.

I see no reason why people I'd want to be around would correlate strongly with people who are good. As such, I wouldn't judge people based on how much I like them. I don't care much for judging people in any case.

So you are saying that you are a utilitarian who holds utilitarianism as a virtue that is (or might be) a standard for judging the worthiness of others. This might be an oxymoron because holding utilitarianism as a virtue would make you a virtue ethicist! Maybe you are trying to tell us that you are a closet deontologist.

Only if you equivocate on judging - which is exactly the issue in question. In the sense that I estimate the chance of me enjoying their company, yes I do 'judge' them. But I don't attach any moral weight to enjoying someone's company (except in the narrow sense that it makes me happier, and thus is good utilitarianism, all things being equal).

If I choose to avoid someone, it's simply because I don't expect to enjoy their presence. I might still think the world is a better place for having them in it.

I have the same experience - I can enjoy/not enjoy passing time with someone out of proportion to how a nice a person I think they are, though thinking this certainly helps.

Hi guys,
I have the same experience. I tend to be somewhat more affectionate to people who think that utilitarianism is true. I think it's similar to the fact that I warm to atheists. Call me cynical, but to be honest I think it's just because they agree with me! It's because I'm subconsciously a bit egotistical! It's the same for people who agree with me about music, comics, academia, or anything else that I hold to be part of my identity.

Liking people who call themselves utilitarian is different from liking people who actually maximise happiness. I probably warm to both groups, but especially the first.

My two cents!

I think it's normal (universal?) to like people who're similar to you in some respect, and most people seem comfortable with the idea. What I find throws people is this idea that my appraisal of someone's ethics (with the specific exception of utilitarians) is so detached from how much I warm to their personality.

rehoot wrote:... Maybe you are trying to tell us that you are a closet deontologist.

Gotcha