This post is a reply to Johan Gustafsson’s draft paper “Against Negative Utilitarianism”. Gustafsson acknowledges that for many common objections raised against negative utilitarianism (NU), there are corresponding objections that can be raised against classical utilitarianism (CU) (see e.g. Knutsson, 2021a). Hence, as he writes, “these objections have little force when we assess the relative merits of Classical and Negative Utilitarianism” (Gustafsson, 2022, p. 1).

The aim of Gustafsson’s paper is to present novel counterexamples against NU that have no analogues in the case of CU. My aim in this post is to show that CU does face such analogous counterexamples, and that these counterexamples are worse than those facing NU. I also argue that views that give overriding importance to the reduction of extreme suffering seem uniquely plausible in light of the counterexamples reviewed here. [...] 

The following is a reply to Toby Ord’s “Why I’m Not a Negative Utilitarian” (2013). Ord’s essay seems to have been quite influential, and is often cited as an essay that makes strong points against negative utilitarianism.

While a number of critical replies have already been written, I still think there are many problematic things in Ord’s essay that have not yet been properly criticized. For example, the essay does not only make misleading and problematic claims about negative utilitarianism, but also about the moral and political views of Karl Popper. Thus, I feel a thorough point-by-point reply is called for. Quotes from Ord’s essay are written in a blue font. [...]