I’d definitely like to write more on the concept since I truly believe it could be useful, at the very least as a source of hope. It’s all too easy to feel depressed diving into the viewpoint of suffering-focused ethics, but that probably slows motivation that would be more effective otherwise. The possibility of forgetting suffering to soon is a good point to remember, I’ll take a look at the essay linked. Thanks for the response!
Mary Stowers
Karma: 32
I would agree that pleasure is important too, but I think I’d place a higher disvalue on suffering than I place value on pleasure. I definitely don’t think that a world without suffering would necessarily be a state of hedonic neutral, or result in meaninglessness. However, I would also be one to bite the bullet and say that a Melba toast world with general pleasantness but no true joy or wonder would be preferable to a world with widespread extreme suffering (at least on the scale it exists on today) if that was necessary. I’d also say the ideal version of a Type 3 wouldn’t have had to, since I would agree that pleasure doesn’t depend on suffering to exist. I think the strongest drawback would be the one mentioned in the comment below: the risk of forgetting suffering too soon. Empathy isn’t our strong point when it comes to that sort of thing. Thanks for the response!