Hostname: page-component-76d6cb85b7-2r2wp Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2026-07-19T12:53:41.220Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Negative Utility Monsters

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 May 2021

Richard Yetter Chappell Open the ORCID record for Richard Yetter Chappell [Opens in a new window]
Richard Yetter Chappell*
Affiliation:
University of Miami, FL, USA
*
*Corresponding author. Email: r.chappell@gmail.com
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Many consider Nozick's “utility monster” – a being more efficient than ordinary people at converting resources into wellbeing, with no upper limit – to constitute a damning counterexample to utilitarianism. But our intuitions may be reversed by considering a variation in which the utility monster starts from a baseline status of massive suffering. This suggests a rethinking of the force of the original objection.

Information

Type
Article
Information
Utilitas , Volume 33 , Issue 4 , December 2021 , pp. 417 - 421
Check for updates
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

Greene, Joshua, and Baron, Jonathan. 2001. Intuitions About Declining Marginal Utility. Journal of Behavioral Decision Making 14: 243–55.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nozick, Robert. 1974. Anarchy, State, and Utopia. Basic Books.Google Scholar
Parfit, Derek. 1987. Reasons and Persons. Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Parfit, Derek. 1997. Equality and Priority. Ratio 10 (3): 202–21.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pummer, Theron. n.d. The Priority Monster.Google Scholar