At least in principle, different species may all be conscious, and all have the same range of capacities for hedonic intensity, but have very differently sized experiences. If so, they ought to be weighted accordingly. We should be indifferent between putting two individuals of a given species in the ice bath and putting one individual of a species that is very similar to the first but whose experiences are twice as large.
(Trigger warning: scenario involving non-hearing humans) -If I think about a fish vs a fly, this makes some sense. -If I think about a deaf person vs a hearing person, this starts to make less sense -empirically, I’d wager that there’s no difference. -If I think about a deafblind person vs a hearing-and-sighted person, then my intuition is opposite: I actually care about the deafblind person slightly more, because their tactile phenomenal space has much higher definition than the one of the h.a.s person.
All else being equal, the only thing that matters is the aggregated intensity, no matter the size.
Expanding on this, and less on-topic: -I’ve met a lot of people who had preferences over their size of experience (typically, deaf people who want to stay deaf, hearing people who wanted to be deaf, etc) -Humans with a restricted field of experience seem to experience the rest more intensely. This intensity seems to matter to me. -I also think that someone who is human-like except with respect to additional senses does not necessarily merit more moral consideration -only if such senses lead them to suffer, but in terms of potential hapiness, it does not move me. -I also feel that people with less modalities and a preference over them should be included in an inclusive society, not forced to get the “missing” modalities -much like I’m not interested, at the moment, in additional modalities -such as feeling sexually attracted by animals (it is, after all, something I truly never felt).
I’m confused about how this fares under your perspective, and maybe your answer could help me get back the main distinctions you were trying to do in this article?
Please note that I’m not accusing you of discriminating over modal fields among humans, I’m genuinely curious about the implications of your view. I already wrote a post on something related (my views might have changed on this) and I understand that we disagree, but I’m not sure.
Thanks for sharing this. (Thank you very much as well for letting me start exploring a tricky idea like this without assuming this is all just an excuse for discriminating against those with disabilities!) I definitely agree that a risk of trying to account for differences in “experience size”, even if the consideration is warranted, is that it could lead us to quickly dismiss experiences different from our own as smaller even if they aren’t.
I am no expert on deafness or most of the other topics relevant here, but my understanding is that often, if someone loses a sensory faculty or body part but doesn’t suffer damage to the relevant part of the brain, the brain in some sense rewires to give more attention (i.e., I would guess, more hedonic intensity and/or more “size”) to the remaining sensory faculties. This is why, when bringing up the case of an amputee, I only consider the case of someone whose brain has not had time to make this adjustment. I think it could totally be the case that deaf people, at least post-adjustment (or throughout life, if they have been deaf from birth), have such richer experiences on other dimensions that their welfare capacities tend to be greater overall than non-deaf people.
(Trigger warning: scenario involving non-hearing humans)
-If I think about a fish vs a fly, this makes some sense.
-If I think about a deaf person vs a hearing person, this starts to make less sense -empirically, I’d wager that there’s no difference.
-If I think about a deafblind person vs a hearing-and-sighted person, then my intuition is opposite: I actually care about the deafblind person slightly more, because their tactile phenomenal space has much higher definition than the one of the h.a.s person.
All else being equal, the only thing that matters is the aggregated intensity, no matter the size.
Expanding on this, and less on-topic:
-I’ve met a lot of people who had preferences over their size of experience (typically, deaf people who want to stay deaf, hearing people who wanted to be deaf, etc)
-Humans with a restricted field of experience seem to experience the rest more intensely. This intensity seems to matter to me.
-I also think that someone who is human-like except with respect to additional senses does not necessarily merit more moral consideration -only if such senses lead them to suffer, but in terms of potential hapiness, it does not move me.
-I also feel that people with less modalities and a preference over them should be included in an inclusive society, not forced to get the “missing” modalities -much like I’m not interested, at the moment, in additional modalities -such as feeling sexually attracted by animals (it is, after all, something I truly never felt).
I’m confused about how this fares under your perspective, and maybe your answer could help me get back the main distinctions you were trying to do in this article?
Please note that I’m not accusing you of discriminating over modal fields among humans, I’m genuinely curious about the implications of your view. I already wrote a post on something related (my views might have changed on this) and I understand that we disagree, but I’m not sure.
Thanks for sharing this. (Thank you very much as well for letting me start exploring a tricky idea like this without assuming this is all just an excuse for discriminating against those with disabilities!) I definitely agree that a risk of trying to account for differences in “experience size”, even if the consideration is warranted, is that it could lead us to quickly dismiss experiences different from our own as smaller even if they aren’t.
I am no expert on deafness or most of the other topics relevant here, but my understanding is that often, if someone loses a sensory faculty or body part but doesn’t suffer damage to the relevant part of the brain, the brain in some sense rewires to give more attention (i.e., I would guess, more hedonic intensity and/or more “size”) to the remaining sensory faculties. This is why, when bringing up the case of an amputee, I only consider the case of someone whose brain has not had time to make this adjustment. I think it could totally be the case that deaf people, at least post-adjustment (or throughout life, if they have been deaf from birth), have such richer experiences on other dimensions that their welfare capacities tend to be greater overall than non-deaf people.