I thought this was interesting. It's for some research that the U. of Oxford is doing, so it's a few cuts above a Cosmo quiz.
Oxford Utilitarian Scale (http://blog.practicalethics.ox.ac.uk/test/how-utilitarian-are-you-the-oxford-utilitarianism-scale/)
I scored a mere 22, not very utilitarian at all. I do wish the questions (there are only 9) had made it clear whether the decision was a general one or only a personal one. Tho when I think about it, I'm not sure how much difference it would make.
I scored 23. I don't know whether that's good or bad.
I posted the above before noticing this page
http://blog.practicalethics.ox.ac.uk/2018/01/how-utilitarian-are-you-measure-on-the-oxford-utilitarianism-scale/
I feel better about my 23 score now.
Quote from: hermes2015 on January 15, 2018, 04:05:21 AM
I posted the above before noticing this page
http://blog.practicalethics.ox.ac.uk/2018/01/how-utilitarian-are-you-measure-on-the-oxford-utilitarianism-scale/
I feel better about my 23 score now.
Yeah, Pete Singer we are not.
Quote from: BooksCatsEtc on January 15, 2018, 04:55:15 AM
Quote from: hermes2015 on January 15, 2018, 04:05:21 AM
I posted the above before noticing this page
http://blog.practicalethics.ox.ac.uk/2018/01/how-utilitarian-are-you-measure-on-the-oxford-utilitarianism-scale/
I feel better about my 23 score now.
Yeah, Pete Singer we are not.
I scored 34.
Managed 47.
However, if Q1 had been termed, "f the only way to save another person's life during an emergency is to suffer the agony, trauma and disability of sacrificing one's own leg, then one is morally required to make this sacrifice." one might think thrice!
There were several qualified "Somewhat agrees"s in there for me. I think my service training and experience, plus climbing and caving, helped form my variety of utilitarianism. Good partners and parents practice at least limited utilitarianism and, hopefully, those parents pass it on to their kids.
Quote from: Dave on January 15, 2018, 05:11:41 AM
Managed 47.
However, if Q1 had been termed, "f the only way to save another person's life during an emergency is to suffer the agony, trauma and disability of sacrificing one's own leg, then one is morally required to make this sacrifice." one might think thrice!
There were several qualified "Somewhat agrees"s in there for me. I think my service training and experience, plus climbing and caving, helped form my variety of utilitarianism. Good partners and parents practice at least limited utilitarianism and, hopefully, those parents pass it on to their kids.
I need a new hip, Dave. As a 47, what are you going to do about it?
Quote from: hermes2015 on January 15, 2018, 05:29:53 AM
Quote from: Dave on January 15, 2018, 05:11:41 AM
Managed 47.
However, if Q1 had been termed, "f the only way to save another person's life during an emergency is to suffer the agony, trauma and disability of sacrificing one's own leg, then one is morally required to make this sacrifice." one might think thrice!
There were several qualified "Somewhat agrees"s in there for me. I think my service training and experience, plus climbing and caving, helped form my variety of utilitarianism. Good partners and parents practice at least limited utilitarianism and, hopefully, those parents pass it on to their kids.
I need a new hip, Dave. As a 47, what are you going to do about it?
Er, send you a fiver towards the cost of the op?
:grin:
Quote from: Dave on January 15, 2018, 05:36:18 AM
Quote from: hermes2015 on January 15, 2018, 05:29:53 AM
Quote from: Dave on January 15, 2018, 05:11:41 AM
Managed 47.
However, if Q1 had been termed, "f the only way to save another person's life during an emergency is to suffer the agony, trauma and disability of sacrificing one's own leg, then one is morally required to make this sacrifice." one might think thrice!
There were several qualified "Somewhat agrees"s in there for me. I think my service training and experience, plus climbing and caving, helped form my variety of utilitarianism. Good partners and parents practice at least limited utilitarianism and, hopefully, those parents pass it on to their kids.
I need a new hip, Dave. As a 47, what are you going to do about it?
Er, send you a fiver towards the cost of the op?
:grin:
Thanks, but I really want that good hip of yours.
:zombie:
Quote from: hermes2015 on January 15, 2018, 05:39:37 AM
Quote from: Dave on January 15, 2018, 05:36:18 AM
Quote from: hermes2015 on January 15, 2018, 05:29:53 AM
Quote from: Dave on January 15, 2018, 05:11:41 AM
Managed 47.
However, if Q1 had been termed, "f the only way to save another person's life during an emergency is to suffer the agony, trauma and disability of sacrificing one's own leg, then one is morally required to make this sacrifice." one might think thrice!
There were several qualified "Somewhat agrees"s in there for me. I think my service training and experience, plus climbing and caving, helped form my variety of utilitarianism. Good partners and parents practice at least limited utilitarianism and, hopefully, those parents pass it on to their kids.
I need a new hip, Dave. As a 47, what are you going to do about it?
Er, send you a fiver towards the cost of the op?
:grin:
Thanks, but I really want that good hip of yours.
:zombie:
Er, do you? I suppose my burditis might be better than whatever you suffer, but keep any strong painkillers you have if you want a good night's sleep!
Quote(OK, I know, bursitic is a mucular problem, not a skeletal ine...)
Quote from: Dave on January 15, 2018, 05:45:07 AM
Quote from: hermes2015 on January 15, 2018, 05:39:37 AM
Quote from: Dave on January 15, 2018, 05:36:18 AM
Quote from: hermes2015 on January 15, 2018, 05:29:53 AM
Quote from: Dave on January 15, 2018, 05:11:41 AM
Managed 47.
However, if Q1 had been termed, "f the only way to save another person's life during an emergency is to suffer the agony, trauma and disability of sacrificing one's own leg, then one is morally required to make this sacrifice." one might think thrice!
There were several qualified "Somewhat agrees"s in there for me. I think my service training and experience, plus climbing and caving, helped form my variety of utilitarianism. Good partners and parents practice at least limited utilitarianism and, hopefully, those parents pass it on to their kids.
I need a new hip, Dave. As a 47, what are you going to do about it?
Er, send you a fiver towards the cost of the op?
:grin:
Thanks, but I really want that good hip of yours.
:zombie:
Er, do you? I suppose my burditis might be better than whatever you suffer, but keep any strong painkillers you have if you want a good night's sleep!
Quote(OK, I know, bursitic is a mucular problem, not a skeletal ine...)
A strange thing has happened, in that I have not experienced any pain for the last 4 days. Just hope it lasts, because I really do not want to have a replacement. I don't take any painkillers, just one anti-inflammatory every morning. I have always, and still do, slept very well.
Quote from: hermes2015 on January 15, 2018, 06:00:43 AM
Quote from: Dave on January 15, 2018, 05:45:07 AM
Quote from: hermes2015 on January 15, 2018, 05:39:37 AM
Quote from: Dave on January 15, 2018, 05:36:18 AM
Quote from: hermes2015 on January 15, 2018, 05:29:53 AM
Quote from: Dave on January 15, 2018, 05:11:41 AM
Managed 47.
However, if Q1 had been termed, "f the only way to save another person's life during an emergency is to suffer the agony, trauma and disability of sacrificing one's own leg, then one is morally required to make this sacrifice." one might think thrice!
There were several qualified "Somewhat agrees"s in there for me. I think my service training and experience, plus climbing and caving, helped form my variety of utilitarianism. Good partners and parents practice at least limited utilitarianism and, hopefully, those parents pass it on to their kids.
I need a new hip, Dave. As a 47, what are you going to do about it?
Er, send you a fiver towards the cost of the op?
:grin:
Thanks, but I really want that good hip of yours.
:zombie:
Er, do you? I suppose my burditis might be better than whatever you suffer, but keep any strong painkillers you have if you want a good night's sleep!
Quote(OK, I know, bursitic is a mucular problem, not a skeletal ine...)
A strange thing has happened, in that I have not experienced any pain for the last 4 days. Just hope it lasts, because I really do not want to have a replacement. I don't take any painkillers, just one anti-inflammatory every morning. I have always, and still do, slept very well.
Most winter nights are painfull for me. Whichever side I lie on that hip aches after about 20 minutes, so I turn over - then again and end up spinning like a very slow top! Can't sleep on my back because of sleep apnea, nor on my front due to other breathing restrictions. Four hours solid sleep is a good night for me.
This is why you will often find me posting in the small hours.
Two paracetamol before going to bed does not help much. I have to take 75mg aspirin every day and am not allowed any other NSAIDs. Might ask about taking the aspirin at night instead of first thing in the morning.
(https://i.imgur.com/wE3WyaJ.png)
Some of the questions are kind of way too nuanced, to answer that way. I'm pretty sure I'm more utilitarian than that. For instance: Torture is known to provide unreliable information, so torturing a person is a waste and has no utility.
The other problem is that putting things into those kinds of judgments where a person or people decide to sacrifice another person for the good of many has always ended bad because of people suck. So in the long run we would lose utility.
Torture is not a means of extracting information, it is a means of exacting revenge. And yes, people to suck. They suck the high hard one, and they are quite proficient at it.
39.... Those are tricky questions that do not make allowance for circumstances that alter cases. The questions are quite probing and might lead us to examining more extended thought.
Quote from: Icarus on January 15, 2018, 11:31:31 PM
39.... Those are tricky questions that do not make allowance for circumstances that alter cases. The questions are quite probing and might lead us to examining more extended thought.
I rarely find the questions in these surveys satisfactory, as you say, I carus, moet things requiring these sort of decisions are full of influences. It is only when in a situation that one can make a real decision.
Not quite utilitarianism but the forces officer selection boards had some difficult questions, but they were binary, not nuanced. (Designed to probe fast decision making ability and test powers of determination at holding to the decision.)
In the sort of cases here my taking a serious risk with my life, 90% non-survivable ssy, would be different for a fellow old fart than it would be for a kid. Different for just anyone than for an acknowledged leader in cardiac surgery.
I always thought that "the benefit to the most" was part of utilitariansm. This implies a value on people, you save the surgeon over the tramp, the potential of the child over the fully spent life - no matter how famous. If, in your opinion, you yourself have more potential to benefit this world than the potential victim . . .
I do not feel that "good deeds for their own sake" are necessarily part of utilitarianism. Perhaps I practice a kind of "pragmatic utilitarianism"?
Hermes is doing work that might well benefit mankind if one of his customers makes an important discovery. (My voluntary work is a "sacrifice" but hardly in the same potential benefit category.) That he can continue to do so with a dodgy, even painful, hip disqualifies him morally, IMHO, from expecting another to suffer greater disability for his benefit. Should, however, his very life depend on a sacrifice on the part of another the matter is different. If, say, a kidney if involved - the loss of which would place both at a near equal risk (Hermes being also at risk from the factors involved in possible tissue rejection) - then the decision is, relatively, simpler.
In that latter case the sacrifice of another might have potential for both to provide over-all benefit by enabling Hermes' work to carry on and the potential of the other to continue to exist.
But, alttruism? When Hermes' trainee discovers the elixir of life and acknowledges Hermes' part in that discovery does the person who made the kidney sacrifice also have a right to expect a little kudos to come their way, for enabling Hermes to give the discoverer the knowledge he needed? Where does reward, concrete or abstract, figure in this?
[Corrective editing - I notice that there is a short period for such where the "Last edit..." indicator does not appesr]
28
I got a 26, and didn't like the questions at all. But now I have a better understanding of Utilitarianism, thanks to that link from Hermes.
These questions bring to mind old childhood fears about the "end of the world" when the Antichrist's minions would get a hold of me and force me to make terrible choices.
Thanks Mom! Thanks Church!
Quote from: Dragonia on January 16, 2018, 02:08:01 PM
I got a 26, and didn't like the questions at all. But now I have a better understanding of Utilitarianism, thanks to that link from Hermes.
These questions bring to mind old childhood fears about the "end of the world" when the Antichrist's minions would get a hold of me and force me to make terrible choices.
Thanks Mom! Thanks Church!
Yeah, the questions leave a lot out that could change the answers significantly. For instance, many of the questions centered on sacrificing one, or a few people, for the good of the many and it seems to me that the utilitarian-ness of the answer was based on the assumption that you'd consider yourself one of the many being benefited.
But what if you looked at it from the opposite point of view -- as one of the few who might be sacrificed for the presumed good of the many? That was my point of view, which I think would make my answers in favor of sparing the few a good deal more utilitarian than my result suggests.
19. I'm apparently non-utilitarian.