Is there a utilitarian "emblem" used in the community? I've had some trouble determining one, but perhaps I'm missing something. If there isn't one, I'd like to suggest the Sigma, as in summation, for felicific calculus and commensurability.

The sigma is a superb symbol for utilitarianism. It's main rival would seem to be the smiley face.

Ah yes. I'm not sure the face would fit in all contexts though. I'm working on a webpage for the Review, and I wonder if the face would work there or the sigma would be better.

Why not combine them? Σ☺, to represent that we sum happiness.

Sigma-smiley! Kinda catchy, you've gotta admit.

+1

Anyone got the design skills to combine them properly into a single symbol? (tattoed face? )

Wait, Arepo, you're going to tattoo what on to your face?

just kidding guys

maybe those of us who are less hardcore than arepo can get t shirts

what about

Back to the symbol thing, you could also do 4☺.

I don't think the "I want to..." thing works very well. I help other people because they want it, and their happiness outweighs my own.

aye yea i was looking for a dictionary definition but i couldnt find any that were short and worked and were easily understandable (i think once you say the word utility people have no idea whats going on and why would they to be honest)

i like the "4 smiley face" thing i dont think the smiley face on its own will cause anyone to ask what it means, unless you put "utilitarianism" above it. and i think the same with the sigma symbol except that i think a smiley face is more attractive than the sigma.

RyanCarey wrote:Wait, Arepo, you're going to tattoo what on to your face?

just kidding guys

I already have a utilitarianism tattoo, believe it or not.

I can't help but find an unadorned smiley face a bit cheesy, whatever accompanies it (fwiw I think the sigma symbol is much neater). I'm thinking it would look better to merge the symbols, say so the sigma connected the left eye (as we see it) of the face to the mouth, perhaps becoming part of both. (mainly to look neat, but we could claim it's a symbol of the meeting of thought and emotion )

As someone who tends towards negative U, the smiley face doesn't really grab me. Even though it is cute. The other problem is, it's rather anthropocentric/speciesist!

Arepo: How does it look/what does it say? I've been toying with the idea of an "Utilitas"-tattoo myself.

Jesper, you can see a (not very flattering) photo of it near the bottom of my profile pics on Facebook.

It's fairly specific to my views, hence me not suggesting it - the Invisible Pink Unicorn logo in a U rather than a circle, which depending on my mood either simply stands for utilitarianism, or for the universal quantifier, with the unicorn representing scepticism. So the pair signify the universal scepticism which leads me to the view that the only things that matters in the universe are our feelings that things matter.

I agree with the smiley face being anthropocentric. I rather favour a wagging tail 'cause canines are awesome but that'd be also speciesist. I suggest a non-pictographic symbol for 'felicific', like f.

Mike Retriever wrote:I agree with the smiley face being anthropocentric. I rather favour a wagging tail 'cause canines are awesome but that'd be also speciesist. I suggest a non-pictographic symbol for 'felicific', like f.

This looks very nice indeed - my only thought is that I was attracted o the sigma for it's simplicity and reproducibility, and I for one find the italic f hard to draw - though admittedly this is not my skill. Looks great though.

My problem is that it's not obvious what the f stands for. I don't think felicific would be most peoples' first guess. Also, I think it would make more sense for the f to stand for felicity.

spindoctor wrote:The other problem is, it's rather anthropocentric/speciesist!

Mike Retriever wrote:I agree with the smiley face being anthropocentric.

Uh-oh. Looks like the PC police have arrived. Wait—was that smiley face also speciesist? KIDDING. But srsly.

In general if we're picking a combination of symbols, IMO some artistic combination of them will look more distinct than simply placing them next to each other.

If you don't like the f we could write down a + representing all that which is of ethically positive value (which in utilitarian terms is preference / satisfaction / happiness).



Or a weighting scale representing the utilitarian view of taking the choice of which the sum of all preferences / satisfaction / happiness outweighs the sum of all rejections / dissatisfaction / suffering.

I don't like the idea of using a scale, as they symbolize justice.

The problem with the plus is that it's still impossible to tell what it stands for. More happiness? More justice? More virtue? I admit that a happy face mainly just gives the impression of human happiness, and using some kind of animal face would give the impression of just animal happiness, but at least that would give the impression of happiness.

That just gave me another idea: Σ:). This way, the sigma is reminiscent of cat ears, so you could see it as animal happiness, but you could also see it as the sigma being a separate symbol, so it would be human happiness.

Besides the anthropocentrism complaint, the smiley symbol looks a bit too gay for me (double entendre). I'm with Arepo here that I'd probably take the sigma symbol alone rather. But I'll see if I can come up with a nice looking design, using either concepts. I have a special interest in wearing a badge with whatever utilitarian symbol, as I already have badges with symbols of other stuff I adhere to.

Edit: Do you like any of these designs?

if its gonna get very complex though you could just write "utilitarianism" instead.

i dont understand the significance of the sigma, just representing mathematics?

I had one a while back that was a circle containing a smiley face and clock arrows, representing happiness over time. I might not still have the image files for that but it could be readily reproduced if needed.

I like the last one here
viewtopic.php?f=10&p=4136#p3921
which is the one with sigma overlapping smiley and the first one here
viewtopic.php?f=10&t=479#p3883

I thought that the smiley face was copyrighted, but that is not the case:
viewtopic.php?f=10&p=4136#p3921

Also look at the design of the original smiley--it is a bit more lively than the unicode version. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smiley

Another thought would be to add a nonhuman (or nonhumans) to the icon (mammals, birds, fish, insects, etc.). Perhaps a splinter group would add a tree to the icon to be more inclusive of nature.

i dont understand the significance of the sigma, just representing mathematics?

It represents summation, since we maximize the total happiness, which is what you get when you add it all together.

I like the second one on that list of four the best, although the circle around the smiley should be thinner.

I thought that the smiley face was copyrighted, but that is not the case:

According to the Wikipedia page you just linked to:

In 2001 the name of Loufrani's company was changed to SmileyWorld, which has managed to register the symbol in over 100 countries (not including the USA) for 25 classes of goods and services.

I'm not entirely certain what this means. Does that mean that, as long as we're not selling any of those goods and services, it's fine?

hm cool i like that people wont mistake it for something else, and might ask what it means and then you can talk about utilitarianism

so whos getting tattooed first? haha

what about something to do with a neuron? just throwing it out there, it isnt good for the point i just made as in that i imagine instead of people saying "what does that mean?" as i think they would with the stigma + smiley symbol, i think with something neuron related theyd just say "oh, its a neuron"

i think with something neuron related theyd just say "oh, its a neuron"

I'm not sure how many people know what a neuron looks like. Especially if you make any real attempt to simplify it. I can easily Draw Σ☺, or even type it for that matter, but there's no way I can draw a recognizable neuron.

Ruairi wrote:so whos getting tattooed first? haha

Me (see above)

Would thinking about the subtitle under the icon/title of "Utilitarianism" help?
What are some good proposals?
"Utilitarianism: Morality worth spreading" ?

I really don't get on with smilies of any kind for this. They just make me think of a children's product - like any other concept, to make utilitarianism at all appealing, you have to make it a bit sexy, perhaps a bit mysterious. My favourite so far is the sigma scales (it might be reminiscent of justice, but that at least fits with our tagline about reclaiming morality), but it's still not perfect.

I'm being frustratingly negative here, but I don't have any visual talent. I just know these aren't really working for me so far. In any case, if this logo would be used anywhere seriously, it's surely worth paying a professional designer to put it together (unless anyone knows a utilitarian designer who'd do it for free. though you'd have to be sure he meant the same thing by 'utilitarian designer' as we did, or we might end up with something rather plain

I came across this thread while searching to see if anyone had similar thoughts or done similar things to a tattoo I'm planning. Of course the interwebz didn't let me down. I'm contemplating a variation of the sigma idea. I already have a Mobius strip tattoo so I plan on using the Mobius strip as an infinity and putting sigma underneath, starting the series at 0 (i=0) with the summation of utilities (u sub i). Thus representation the summation of the utilities of all sentient beings.

stockbridge100 wrote:I came across this thread while searching to see if anyone had similar thoughts or done similar things to a tattoo I'm planning. Of course the interwebz didn't let me down.

Cool. Welcome to Felicifia.

Between stupid and unsettling.

Whattabout this?



Silhouette only (here the card). Simple, elegant... maybe too old?

DanielLC wrote:That just gave me another idea: Σ:). This way, the sigma is reminiscent of cat ears, so you could see it as animal happiness, but you could also see it as the sigma being a separate symbol, so it would be human happiness.

I actually really like this idea. It's simple, you can type/paste it into any unicode document or signature. Also, I think the average person who hasn't taken calculus probably doesn't know what sigma stands for, so having an alternative friendly meaning of "cat ears" is actually not a bad idea. It's also not already trademarked the way the proper smiley face is.

Making it a smiley emoticon also connects it to the digital culture, which I think makes sense because it sort of represents technology and progress and computations, which Utilitarianism has some loose associations with.

I'm sure you could also find some way to make the colon and the bracket have some kind of symbolic meaning as well. For instance, the colon could mean "ratio", as in the ratio of happiness to suffering, while the right parenthesis can have meanings like for instance having to do with the LISP programming language that is often used for A.I. work, or it could mean something like "upperbound" or "maximum". Parentheses are also often used in stream of consciousness literature, so it could have a very loose association with "consciousness".

Verrian wrote:Whattabout this?

Image

Silhouette only (here the card). Simple, elegant... maybe too old?

Uh, most people don't even know who Jeremy Bentham is, and he represents a very specific form of utilitarianism, so I'm not so high on this idea.

You're right. Too personalistic also.

But the cat-face is... schmaltzy, apart the mathematical sense. What about the I.S.U.S. logo? the mansion. Boring?

What about the I.S.U.S. logo? the mansion. Boring?

Mmm... I'm not really sure what the mansion has to do with Utilitarianism. Does it mean we should all be trying to achieve materialistic pleasures? Or is that supposed to be the Whitehouse?

...I don't know, I think 'twas the Bowood House, where Bentham lived in a time.