• Dragon Rider (drag)@lemmy.nz
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      11 hours ago

      It understands it just fine. Agency is not a factor in the decision. The choice between action and inaction doesn’t matter. People think it matters because people are driven by shortsighted emotions.

      • FooBarrington@lemmy.world
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        11 minutes ago

        So philosophical debate on this topic is meaningless, because utilitarism is obviously correct?

        Please take off your clothes and lay down here, I have five patients in desperate need of organ transplants.

      • tetris11@lemmy.ml
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        40 minutes ago

        Agency might matter depending on societal context. 5 hot guys might be worse than 1 hot guy in a world with limited resources, for example.

        Everyone knows that 5 of something is usually better than 1. The dilemma comes from finding a situation where that might not be true, and therein exploring some quirks of our own humanity.

        It goes too far when people interpret these quirks as fundamental human traits, but there is genuine merit in testing oneself with fun hypotheticals