Lazari-Radek and Singer argue that, through evolutionary debunking arguments(EDAs), anti-utilitarian intuitions can be debunked, while at the same time the utilitarian belief in universal benevolence, as a fundamental principle of utilitarianism, can ...
Lazari-Radek and Singer argue that, through evolutionary debunking arguments(EDAs), anti-utilitarian intuitions can be debunked, while at the same time the utilitarian belief in universal benevolence, as a fundamental principle of utilitarianism, can attain objectivity. They maintain that no evolutionary explanation succeeds in showing universal benevolence to be merely a product of evolutionary forces that is unrelated to truth. However, the very use of EDAs by LRS to reject anti-utilitarian intuitions turns out to function as a factor that undermines their own core claim. This is because the central claim of the hedonistic theory of well-being embedded within utilitarianism itself can be debunked by evolutionary explanations. If the reason for rejecting anti-utilitarian intuitions is that they are shaped by evolutionary influences that are unrelated to truth, then the belief in hedonism—which can never be free from evolutionary influence—must likewise be rejected.