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.
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.