Yeah I think one of the major problems with utilitarianism is that it pushes ethics back onto refining the accuracy of a model. So the result is that the people who naively follow it (as in, people like me who have never actually engaged with the literature) will always be able to justify spending more time refining that model. This is a super common problem with online debate bro types.
But even if it’s not a great mental tool for individuals, when you’re talking about large organizations I’m not sure there’s an alternative other than… just guessing and letting the outcomes arise however they happen to.
The other problem with utilitarianism was very elegantly pointed out by @Chapo_is_Red . “Who the fuck made this button?”
A lot of utilitarian ideas tend to accept some false dichotomy or some condition as absolute. Like “is torture ok if it stops terrorist attacks?” But wait, why are terrorists attacking in the first place? And why are we assuming the torture will work? etc etc.
Also, there are major issues with how exactly you define the good that you’re supposedly maximizing for, as well as the fact that if you follow it to its logical conclusion, you would need to understand the ramifications of an action unto the end of eternity in order to actually judge it
