No subject

Nathan Saper natedog at well.com
Tue Dec 10 11:45:29 PST 2019


> The reason why I use "the least pain for the greatest number" instead of
> "the greatest happiness for the greatest number" is because the latter
> justifies many not-so-great acts under act utilitarianism.

Killing someone brings the amount of future pain he's gonna suffer to zero.
That implies that - according to your ideas - one is morally justified in
killing anyone and everyone (as painless as possible, but that's not an
important point, as long as it's less than the total amount of pain that
person would suffer for the rest of his life). I'd say that using happiness
is a little better :)

Another problem with utilitarianism is that it requires one to be able to
evaluate - or at least compare - happiness (or pain), something which is
impossible (subjectivism and all). [See Walter Block's utilitarian
demonstration that O.J.Simpson was morally justified to kill his wife.]

Not to mention that your stupidity is giving me a headache...

Mark









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