One reading is that capacity for welfare directly determines (at least in part) moral status. The other reading is that moral status is grounded in various capacities that also just so happen to be relevant for determining capacity for welfare. The first interpretation runs the risk of double-counting. Even before considering moral status, we can say that lives that contain more and more of non-instrumental goods are more valuable than lives that contain fewer and less of those non-instrumental goods. It’s not clear why those lives should gain additional moral value—in virtue of a higher moral status—merely because they were more valuable in the first place. For this reason, I think it makes more sense to think that capacity for welfare does not play a direct role in determining moral status, though many of the features relevant for welfare capacity are also relevant for moral status.
I actually find the opposite conclusion more plausible: capacity for welfare is what directly determines moral status (if unitarianism is false; I think unitarianism is true), and specific features/capacities only matter through capacity for welfare and effects on welfare. If we’re saying that there are features that determine moral status not through their effects on welfare or capacity for welfare, then it sounds like we’re rejecting welfarism. We’re saying welfare matters, but it matters more in beings with feature X, but not because of how X matters for welfare. How can X matter regardless of its connection to welfare? That seems pretty counterintuitive to me, as a welfarist. Or am I misunderstanding?
Maybe it’s something like this?
Through welfare capacity:
Premise 1. Capacity for welfare (partially) determines moral status.
Premise 2. Feature X (partially) determines capacity for welfare.
Conclusion. Feature X (partially) determines moral status through capacity for welfare.
The other approach:
Premise 1′. If a feature X (partially) determines (actual welfare or) capacity for welfare, then it (partially) determines moral status.
Premise 2′. Feature X (partially) determines (actual welfare or) capacity for welfare.
Conclusion’. Feature X (partially) determines moral status because of (but not necessarily through) capacity for welfare.
Premise 1′ seems less intuitive to me than Premise 1. If a feature determines actual welfare, that’s already in our moral calculus without need for moral status. As a welfarist, it seems therefore that a feature can only determine moral status because it determines welfare capacity, unless there’s some other way the feature can be connected to welfare. If this is the case, how else could it plausibly do this except through welfare capacity?
As an example of how capacity for welfare might be distinct from moral status, one might be a hedonist about welfare (and thus think that capacity for welfare is wholly determined by possible range of valenced experience and maybe subjective experience of time) but think that moral status is determined by degree of autonomy or rationality. The precise definition of welfarism is contentious, so I’ll leave it to you to decide if that’s a violation of welfarism.
However, I think even a welfarist should be wary of letting capacity for welfare determine moral status. The moral status of an individual tells us how much that individual’s welfare is worth. If capacity for welfare determines moral status, then it seems like individuals with small capacities for welfare are unjustifiably doubly-penalized: they can only ever obtain a small amount of welfare and, in virtue of that fact, that small amount of welfare counts for less than an equal amount of welfare for an individual with a greater capacity for welfare. That strikes me as the wrong result.
On some interpretations of welfarism, I think the truth of welfarism gives us pretty good reason to endorse unitarianism. I’m also sympathetic to welfarism, but of course there are plenty of people who reject it. Anyone who endorses a retributive principle of justice, for instance, must reject welfarism.
As an example of how capacity for welfare might be distinct from moral status, one might be a hedonist about welfare (and thus think that capacity for welfare is wholly determined by possible range of valenced experience and maybe subjective experience of time) but think that moral status is determined by degree of autonomy or rationality. The precise definition of welfarism is contentious, so I’ll leave it to you to decide if that’s a violation of welfarism.
I don’t see how you could motivate that if we accept welfarism (unless we accept objective list theories, but again, that seems to be through welfare capacity). Why are degree of autonomy and rationality non-instrumentally relevant? Why not the width of the visible electromagnetic spectrum, or whether or not an individual can see at all, or other senses?
That strikes me as the wrong result.
I really don’t know. It’s hard for me to have an intuition either way since both seem wrong to me, anyway. It seems better to me to double penalize an individual for things that are relevant to welfare than to non-instrumentally penalize individuals based on things which are at most instrumentally relevant to welfare.
Using welfare capacity to determine moral status also solves the problem of how to weight different features, including combination effects, in a non-arbitrary way, if we can define welfare capacity non-arbitrarily (although I’m skeptical of this, see my other comment). That being said, the ranking we get out of this for moral status is still only ordinal.
I actually find the opposite conclusion more plausible: capacity for welfare is what directly determines moral status (if unitarianism is false; I think unitarianism is true), and specific features/capacities only matter through capacity for welfare and effects on welfare. If we’re saying that there are features that determine moral status not through their effects on welfare or capacity for welfare, then it sounds like we’re rejecting welfarism. We’re saying welfare matters, but it matters more in beings with feature X, but not because of how X matters for welfare. How can X matter regardless of its connection to welfare? That seems pretty counterintuitive to me, as a welfarist. Or am I misunderstanding?
Maybe it’s something like this?
Through welfare capacity:
Premise 1. Capacity for welfare (partially) determines moral status.
Premise 2. Feature X (partially) determines capacity for welfare.
Conclusion. Feature X (partially) determines moral status through capacity for welfare.
The other approach:
Premise 1′. If a feature X (partially) determines (actual welfare or) capacity for welfare, then it (partially) determines moral status.
Premise 2′. Feature X (partially) determines (actual welfare or) capacity for welfare.
Conclusion’. Feature X (partially) determines moral status because of (but not necessarily through) capacity for welfare.
Premise 1′ seems less intuitive to me than Premise 1. If a feature determines actual welfare, that’s already in our moral calculus without need for moral status. As a welfarist, it seems therefore that a feature can only determine moral status because it determines welfare capacity, unless there’s some other way the feature can be connected to welfare. If this is the case, how else could it plausibly do this except through welfare capacity?
Hi Michael,
As an example of how capacity for welfare might be distinct from moral status, one might be a hedonist about welfare (and thus think that capacity for welfare is wholly determined by possible range of valenced experience and maybe subjective experience of time) but think that moral status is determined by degree of autonomy or rationality. The precise definition of welfarism is contentious, so I’ll leave it to you to decide if that’s a violation of welfarism.
However, I think even a welfarist should be wary of letting capacity for welfare determine moral status. The moral status of an individual tells us how much that individual’s welfare is worth. If capacity for welfare determines moral status, then it seems like individuals with small capacities for welfare are unjustifiably doubly-penalized: they can only ever obtain a small amount of welfare and, in virtue of that fact, that small amount of welfare counts for less than an equal amount of welfare for an individual with a greater capacity for welfare. That strikes me as the wrong result.
On some interpretations of welfarism, I think the truth of welfarism gives us pretty good reason to endorse unitarianism. I’m also sympathetic to welfarism, but of course there are plenty of people who reject it. Anyone who endorses a retributive principle of justice, for instance, must reject welfarism.
I don’t see how you could motivate that if we accept welfarism (unless we accept objective list theories, but again, that seems to be through welfare capacity). Why are degree of autonomy and rationality non-instrumentally relevant? Why not the width of the visible electromagnetic spectrum, or whether or not an individual can see at all, or other senses?
I really don’t know. It’s hard for me to have an intuition either way since both seem wrong to me, anyway. It seems better to me to double penalize an individual for things that are relevant to welfare than to non-instrumentally penalize individuals based on things which are at most instrumentally relevant to welfare.
Using welfare capacity to determine moral status also solves the problem of how to weight different features, including combination effects, in a non-arbitrary way, if we can define welfare capacity non-arbitrarily (although I’m skeptical of this, see my other comment). That being said, the ranking we get out of this for moral status is still only ordinal.