Bartha and DesRoches (Synthese 199(3–4):8701–8740, 2021) and Steel and Bartha (Risk Analysis 43(2):260–268, 2023) argue that we should understand the precautionary principle as the injunction to maximise lexical utilities. They show that the lexical utility model has important pragmatic advantages. Moreover, the model has the theoretical advantage of satisfying all axioms of expected utility theory except continuity. In this paper I raise a trilemma for any attempt at modelling the precautionary principle with lexical utilities: it permits choice cycles or leads to paralysis or implies that the smallest value difference that is possible in a context has extreme axiological implications.

Bartha 和 DesRoches (Synthese 199(3–4):8701–8740, 2021) 以及 Steel 和 Bartha (Risk Analysis 43(2):260–268, 2023) 认为，我们应该将预防原则理解为最大化词汇的禁令。公用事业。他们表明词汇实用新型具有重要的实用优势。此外，该模型具有满足期望效用理论除连续性之外的所有公理的理论优势。在本文中，我对任何用词汇效用建模预防原则的尝试提出了一个三难困境：它允许选择循环或导致瘫痪，或暗示在上下文中可能的最小值差异具有极端的价值论含义。