So there's this argument that utilitarianism doesn't work because (per work by behavioral economists) preferences are non-transitive. That is, you can't make a top to bottom list of preferences for each person where the higher position is always a higher preference.
But, like, surely preferences are *pretty* transitive? You can construct weird non-transitive cases. But for most purchase you could construct a list.
@ZachWeinersmith
There's a money-pump argument that goes like this: if you're happy with your intransitive preferences then I will upsell you.
You should pay me €1 to exchange your X for my Y, my Z for your Y, and my X for your Z.
@ZachWeinersmith
The argument tries to show that preferences can be logical or illogical, so some sets of preferences are simply 'wrong'.
My intuition (as the Philosophers like to say) is that anyone who disagrees has spent too long in academia.
Zach Weinersmith
Malin