I was contemplating this phrase a lot so I want to give a more nuanced answer to it.
If I were 600 times as sensitive to pain as you, I guess I would also be 600 times as sensitive to pleasure.
At least in humans it’s well known that there are individuals that are quite happy in almost any circumstance while others take their lives despite living a life others would dream of. So when assessing if an animal lives a good life we should not only consider the circumstances but how they experience it. From an evolutionary standpoint for the highly competitive environments insects typically live in it seems more adaptive to be optimistic by default and take risks. The male praying mantis, for example, actively approaches the female despite the risk of being eaten during mating. That kind of behaviour is hard to explain without assuming some form of optimistic bias—the kind of disposition that makes taking extreme risks feel worthwhile. So I wouldn’t be surprised to learn that most insects are happier than most humans.
So when assessing if an animal lives a good life we should not only consider the circumstances but how they experience it.
What ultimately matters for me is just the subjetive experience of the animals. I only care about the circumstances because they inform the subjective experiences.
So I wouldn’t be surprised to learn that most insects are happier than most humans.
Me neither. However, there are good arguments for wild invertebrates having not only positive, but also negative lives.
I was contemplating this phrase a lot so I want to give a more nuanced answer to it.
If I were 600 times as sensitive to pain as you, I guess I would also be 600 times as sensitive to pleasure.
At least in humans it’s well known that there are individuals that are quite happy in almost any circumstance while others take their lives despite living a life others would dream of. So when assessing if an animal lives a good life we should not only consider the circumstances but how they experience it. From an evolutionary standpoint for the highly competitive environments insects typically live in it seems more adaptive to be optimistic by default and take risks. The male praying mantis, for example, actively approaches the female despite the risk of being eaten during mating. That kind of behaviour is hard to explain without assuming some form of optimistic bias—the kind of disposition that makes taking extreme risks feel worthwhile. So I wouldn’t be surprised to learn that most insects are happier than most humans.
What ultimately matters for me is just the subjetive experience of the animals. I only care about the circumstances because they inform the subjective experiences.
Me neither. However, there are good arguments for wild invertebrates having not only positive, but also negative lives.