To be more specific, I think that one second of the most extreme suffering (without subsequent consequences) would be better than, say, a broken leg.
Just want to note, also for other readers, that I say a bit about such sentiments involving “one second of the most extreme suffering” in section 8.12 in my book. One point I make is that our intuitions about a single second of extreme suffering may not be reliable. For example, we probably tend not to assign great significance, intuitively, to any amount of one-second long chunks of experience. This is a reason to think that the intuition that one second of extreme suffering can’t matter that much may not say all that much about extreme suffering in particular.
If that holds, than any extreme suffering can be overcome by mild suffering.
I think this is a little too quick, at least in the way you’ve phrased it. A broken leg hardly results in merely mild suffering, at least by any common definition. And a lexical threshold has, for example, been defended between “mere discomfort” and “genuine pain” (see Klocksiem, 2016), where a broken leg would clearly entail the latter.
There are also other reasons why this argument (i.e. “one second of extreme suffering can be outweighed by mild suffering, hence any amount of extreme suffering can”) isn’t valid.
Note also that even if one thinks that aggregates of milder forms of suffering can be more important than extreme suffering in principle, one may still hold that extreme suffering dominates profusely in practice, given its prevalence.
Now, many people would trade mild tradeoff for other things they hold important.
I just want to flag here that the examples you give seem to be intrapersonal ones, and the permissibility of intrapersonal tradeoffs like these (which is widely endorsed) does not imply the permissibility of similar tradeoffs in the interpersonal case (which more people would reject, and which there are many arguments against, cf. chapter 3).
The following is neither a request nor a complaint, but in relation to the positions you express, I see little in the way of counterarguments to, or engagement with, the arguments I’ve put forth in my book, such as in chapters 3 and 4, for example. In other words, I don’t really see the arguments I present in my book addressed here (to be clear, I’m not claiming you set out to do that), and I’m still keen to see some replies to them.
I find it extremely hard to reason clearly on these matters! 😊
Thanks for sharing your reflections :-)
Just wanted to add a couple of extra references like this:
The Seriousness of Suffering: Supplement
The Horror of Suffering
Preventing Extreme Suffering Has Moral Priority
Just want to note, also for other readers, that I say a bit about such sentiments involving “one second of the most extreme suffering” in section 8.12 in my book. One point I make is that our intuitions about a single second of extreme suffering may not be reliable. For example, we probably tend not to assign great significance, intuitively, to any amount of one-second long chunks of experience. This is a reason to think that the intuition that one second of extreme suffering can’t matter that much may not say all that much about extreme suffering in particular.
I think this is a little too quick, at least in the way you’ve phrased it. A broken leg hardly results in merely mild suffering, at least by any common definition. And a lexical threshold has, for example, been defended between “mere discomfort” and “genuine pain” (see Klocksiem, 2016), where a broken leg would clearly entail the latter.
There are also other reasons why this argument (i.e. “one second of extreme suffering can be outweighed by mild suffering, hence any amount of extreme suffering can”) isn’t valid.
Note also that even if one thinks that aggregates of milder forms of suffering can be more important than extreme suffering in principle, one may still hold that extreme suffering dominates profusely in practice, given its prevalence.
I just want to flag here that the examples you give seem to be intrapersonal ones, and the permissibility of intrapersonal tradeoffs like these (which is widely endorsed) does not imply the permissibility of similar tradeoffs in the interpersonal case (which more people would reject, and which there are many arguments against, cf. chapter 3).
The following is neither a request nor a complaint, but in relation to the positions you express, I see little in the way of counterarguments to, or engagement with, the arguments I’ve put forth in my book, such as in chapters 3 and 4, for example. In other words, I don’t really see the arguments I present in my book addressed here (to be clear, I’m not claiming you set out to do that), and I’m still keen to see some replies to them.