The Remarkable Explanatory Power of Utilitarianism (non-standard)

This video is part of the Descriptive Utilitarianism playlist where we argue that Utilitarianism is prominently present in Human behavior. As a matter of fact, Utilitarian tendencies can be found cross-culturally and at all observed time frames of human existence.
Maybe the emergent empirical phenomenon we call human morality could be largely explained under the utilitarian paradigm?

The Utilitarian theory is canonically a normative model of morality. In this video, we analyze its explanatory power by considering it as a Descriptive model. This results in an encompassing historical interpretation of the evolution of our norms and moral beliefs. We then consider some immediate criticisms of this account.

Remarks:
1) The account is simplified in many ways for the sake of the exposition of the main idea: the utility principle is not simply given out but may result from evolutionary processes, The reasons why humans group together is also tied to biology and we do not delve into the utilitarian calculations behind each norm, etc., etc.

2) Of course we were assuming that the humanoids have similar traits to the humans, like apophenia: the tendency to perceive meaningful connections between unrelated things.

3) The information set can also be "increased" with education because it is not enough to discover new things if the rule-makers don't know about the discoveries or (sadly) don't believe them.
Of course, in a democracy, the information set assumes even more relevance.

4) A mad emperor can institute some useless law like building 100 statues in his honor, this would be an example of a law escaping the paradigm but would it really count as a norm if it lasts for a short period and no one agrees with it? Maybe we could rigorously define the term norm in a way that excludes these cases.

5) Personally I like fantasizing that everyone is born with "a connection" to the Utility principle and some factors can strengthen or weaken "the connection" (more on this in the future).

6) We could have also included a fourth arrow in the norm creation process with "biological biases" as a factor but it kinda seems redundant in a sense.

[mustangNZx]

Enjoyed this a lot, seems like a semi-Utilitarian system may have been more present in early civilisations than we thought?

[thetedpill]

Great video. I would be inclined to think that there are many customs that can't be described via utilitarian principles, but there certainly are a few which can be. Things that seem almost superstitious to us have roots in deep oral tradition. For instance, the idea of the silver spoon being placed in a babies mouth, or how silver cups can extend your life. The meme that was transferred associated silver with health and wealth, which had no basis in truth to these people aside from their cultural ties to silver. Only recently with germ theory do we actually understand that silver is an antibacterial agent.

The utility principle applies best to early man, pre-agriculture, I think. In hunter gatherer society, the band/tribe's highest goal and means of flourishing is to survive. I think that there is certainly a case for a darwinistic transfer of the utility principle, and that groups that developed it (or mutated to have it) were much more likely to be selected by nature to pass on their genes. Definitely something very interesting and worth examining.

[bret]

Mon0 its me again. I'd love to hear more of your thoughts on in regards to utilitarianism.