Hi titotal. A “speck of dust in the eye” is supposed to represent something which decreases welfare very little (considering all effects, including decreasing boredom), thus being very slightly bad, and worth avoiding (all else equal). So one can interpret premise 1 (“mild pain is bad”) as “mildly decreasing welfare is bad”. I believe the arguments in the post work for an arbitrarily small decrease in welfare. Do you agree?
Hi titotal. A “speck of dust in the eye” is supposed to represent something which decreases welfare very little (considering all effects, including decreasing boredom), thus being very slightly bad, and worth avoiding (all else equal). So one can interpret premise 1 (“mild pain is bad”) as “mildly decreasing welfare is bad”. I believe the arguments in the post work for an arbitrarily small decrease in welfare. Do you agree?