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> Both the fish and the electricity need to be considered in a long term utilitarian framework.

Says who?

You have an infinite regress problem here. You eventually are going to have to fall back on non objective feelings about how the world should be to justify your actions.

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Right. We're going to fall back on "we should maximize utility because that's better than less utility". But we're not going to have to fall back on how it makes me feel to see dead fish or somesuch.

> "we should maximize utility because that's better than less utility

Depending on how you define "utility" - this is either a meaningless tautology that doesn't say anything at all, or a subjective belief that can be easily challenged by equally subjective alternatives.

Yeah, but the way between the real problem and fundamental non-objective feelings is a pretty long one, and on the way you may discover that differences in those feelings aren't that great, and they all can be satisfied in many ways - which means you can devise a solution that's acceptable to every reasonable person. Sure, it may not always work, but it's worth trying.

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