This is a common misunderstanding of utilitarianism: failure to count side-effects. Properly applied, utilitarianism probably doesn't endorse this murder.
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Measurement ease depends on open questions in philosophy of mind, which is why I called it an application question, but not much turns on that label. We can already measure happiness with some accuracy, & this will improve over time. Every system is vulnerable to individual bias.
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Finally, I really can only get so far defending utilitarianism against an invisible rival system. One of the best arguments for u-ism is the way it absorbs other systems, which you can see in real time if you ask yourself honestly how you're making your judgments.
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