AJHHHHH Flashcards
What topics did landau cover?
- A framework for thinking about the meaning of life in terms of goodness and value
- was a pluralist about goodness; argued that many things are good
- never told us which things are valuable/ good
What kind of questions does Hurka answer?
Practical questions about what we ought to do
Hurka argues that the effect our decisions have on ___ is extremely relevant
ourselves + others
what does Hurka claim about practical decisions? What implication does this have?
correct practical decisions are good decisions. This implies that in order to figure out what is correct, we must find out what is good and bad
Hurka’s four intrinsic goods:
virtue, knowledge, achievement, pleasure
What did Thomas Hobbes think about the best life you can live?
The best life you can live is where you get the most of what you want.
physical/simple pleasure
pleasure that is the result of stimuli
intellectual pleasure
pleasure that is about something
the case of the masochist
masochists are in a physical sense of pain, but they are experiencing intellectual pleasure about the fact that they are in pain
What are Hurka’s opinion on Hobbes view on what the best life is?
- even if his view on happiness is true, it doesn’t make finding the answers to practical questions any easier. ( what gives you the most of what you want??)
- sometimes getting everything that we want doesn’t translate to living your best life.
practical questions
what we should/ought to do
intrinsically good
good in and of themselves
instrumentally good
a good that is a means to get something that is instrumentally good
what does Hurka think about value?
Hurka is a pluralist about value, meaning he thinks that many things are intrinsically good
How does Hurka think we should find the answers to practical questions?
figure out what is intrinsically good
pleasure and pain are
feelings/ phenomenal experiences
What does Hurka think about pleasure and pain?
you cannot have knowledge of pleasure or pain by testimony
phenomenal experiences
you must experience it to know what it is
How does Hurka distinguish between intellectual and physical pleasures?
1) they feel different
2) masochism
short pleasure + 2 examples
experienced for a limited duration of time; sex (physical), pleasure that your favorite sports team won (intellectual)
long pleasure + 2 examples
experienced for a long duration of time; pleasant mood (physical), life satisfaction (intellectual)
ethical hedonists
think goodness is just pleasure
phycological hedonism
people are purely motivated by pleasure
why does Hurka disagree with ethical hedonism?
many people accept ethical hedonism because they believe in psychological hedonism, which he thinks is false.
The cart before the horse argument against psychological hedonism
p1: if PH is true, then all our desires come from a need for pleasure
p2: not all our desires come from pleasure
p3: PH is not true
ex: say you want to help a homeless man and then experience pleasure, it seems like you wanted to help the homeless man first and then experienced pleasure as a result.
Argument for psychological hedonism from evolution
p1: given that simpler creatures have been evolutionarily selected for; we must accept the simplest view on humans
p2:humans are simpler on psychological hedonism than not
p3: psychological hedonism is true
Hurka argues that P2 is false, it isn’t necessarily true that people are simpler on PH
What is Hurka’s view on the simple view of pleasure?
He is sympathetic to this view, because complex views (the idea that some pleasures are better than others) are hard to deffend
What is the simple view on pleasure
all four types of pleasure are worth pursuing equally
What is Hurka’s view on the simple view of pleasure?
He is sympathetic to this view, because complex views (the idea that some pleasures are better than others) are hard to defend
what are the four ways of making yourself feel good?
give yourself physical pleasures, put yourself in a good mood, make yourself get intellectual pleasures from getting what you want, make yourself enjoy things
What does Hurka think about giving yourself physical pleasures?
they are short lived, have diminishing and often inverse returns.
What does Hurka think about physical pleasure in contrast to other philosophers?
Plato thinks that “physical pleasure” is simply the absence of an unpleasant feeling. Hurka disagrees, he thinks pleasure is a feeling
What does Hurka think about putting yourself in a good mood?
Our moods are generally out of our control, as in studies it has been shown that our moods are largely genetic
What does Hurka think about getting pleasure by getting what you want? (three reasons why)
He thinks getting pleasure by getting what you want isn’t effective
1) The more we get what we want, what we want means less to us
EX: money, money means a lot when it lifts you out of poverty but after that it doesn’t offer much in terms of happiness. This is partly because we care about how much we have in relation to others
- [Harvard study] People would rather make 50k when everyone else makes 25k, then make 100k when everyone else makes 200k
2) Hedonic treadmill. Say you get more money, eventually, you are likely to adapt to your new lifestyle and yearn for more, and the cycle repeats
What does Hurka think about making yourself enjoy things?
enjoyment = feeling happiness about something YOU ARE DOING (intellectual pleasure)
- it is not short lived
- it is ABSOLUTE; meaning it is not relative to anyone else’s happiness
making yourself enjoy things helps you escape the. . . (why?)
paradox of hedonism
- part of enjoying the activity is to attentively focus on the activity
- since you are focusing on the activity, you are not focusing on the pleasure, thus pleasure is just “coming along for the ride”
what part of making yourself enjoy things is so beneficial?
Flow
- loosing yourself in an activity
- MOSTLY HAPPENS IN EXPERTS
- being challenged a little
What are the challenges to Hurka’s view on what the best type of happiness is?
- Hurka argues that the best way to seek pleasure is purely through making yourself enjoy things, when it could be a combination of the four
- Drug addicts/ ADHD
what is pain?
a negative phenomenal state
what are thee four attributes of pain?
physical, intellectual, short, extended
simple view of pleasure and pain
the degree to which pleasure is good is the same at which pain is bad
Argument from choosing pain reduction
Imagine you could lower the suffering of someone in agony by some degree or increase the pleasure of someone in ecstasy by that same degree
p1: if pleasure and pain have the same value, it wouldn’t matter what you would choose
p2: it is more ethical to lower the pain
p3: pleasure and pain don’t have equal value
Asymmetrical view of the value of pleasure and pain
the goodness of pleasure is less than the badness of pain
Disproportionate badness of Pain
imagine you could reduce the pain of someone who is in agony by a little or reduce the pain of someone who is in mild discomfort by a lot
This suggests that extreme pain is more bad than extreme pleasure is good
disproportionate goodness of pleasure
it is better to increase the pleasure of someone who has little pleasure by a small degree than to increase the amount of pleasure by a large degree
egalitarianism
we have more reason to care about the worse off than to care about the already fortunate
time bias
we care more about pleasure that is in the present or distant future, we care less about the pleasures/pains of the past
Parfit’s Hospital case
Say you have to take an extremely painful surgery that cannot be done under anesthesia, so doctors give patients medications that make them forget about the pain. Would you rather have known that you went through 10 hours of agony or have to go through one hour of suffering today
most people would rather have suffered 10 hours in the past, suggesting we have time bias
time bias and pleasure
would you rather learn that you got an extremely pleasant present last year, or get a mildly pleasant present this year. Most people would choose to get a present this year, suggesting we have time bias.
What does Hurka think about time bias for other intrinsic goods besides pleasure?
time bias does not exist for Knowledge, Virtue, or Achievement
time bias and knowledge
imagine, as a variation of Parfit’s hospital case that you’ve woken up, would you rather be a scientist who made an extremely important discovery last year or a scientist who will make a mildly important discovery this year
Most people would choose the extremely important discovery, suggesting that there is no time bias for knowledge
time bias and virtue
as a variation of Parfit’s hospital case, suppose you did something horrible last year, or will go on to do something mildly bad this year.
Most people would prefer to do something mildly bad this year, suggesting time bias doesn’t exist for virtue
Argument from morally vicious pleasures
p1: if ethical hedonism (EH) is true, than a sadistic torturer getting pleasure from torturing the victim makes the situation better
p2: that would make the situation worse
p3: EH is false
Argument from morally virtuous pains
p1: if ethical hedonism (EH) is true, the pain you get from realizing someone has been tortured makes the situation worse
p2: this is not true
p3: EH is false
Argument from Pleasure’s Origin
p1: if ethical hedonism (EH) is true, then if there are two worlds with equal amounts of pleasure, but one world derives their pleasure from selfishness’ and the other deriving pleasure from selflessness, they are both equally good
p2: this is not true
p3: EH is false
Experience Machine
Say you were placed in an experience machine in which you get to live a maximally pleasurable life, and experience any pleasure you’d like
most people would prefer to stay in the real world, because knowledge and accomplishment are valuable
Experience Machine
Say you were placed in an experience machine in which you get to live a maximally pleasurable life, and experience any pleasure you’d like
most people would prefer to stay in the real world, because knowledge and accomplishment are valuable
What is the traditional analysis of knowledge?
to know something :
- the thing must be true,
- you must be justified in believing it
- you must wholeheartedly believe in it
Simple view of knowledge
Simple view of knowledge = all knowledge is created equally
external knowledge
knowing the world outside you - it is raining, light travels at nearly 300m/sec
relational knowledge
knowing where you are in the relationship to the world - we are in long beach, professor Nick is honored to teach us
internal knowledge
knowing about your own internal states - knowing you hate spinach,
value of external knowledge
allows us to explain/understand the world around us; thus knowledge that is GENERAL and hence EXPLANATORY is more valuable
value of relational knowledge
some relational knowledge, like the knowledge that your partner loves you, is more important than others, like knowing that we are in long beach
the value of internal knowledge
- internal knowledge is the least important
- it is often merely instrumental; knowing you are a talented accounted is good bc it will help you get more money
- it is sometime not good to know yourself; if you know that you are bad at cooking, you will be less motivated to try
- it is better to not worry about getting happiness, knowing your own internal states can be a barrier to being happy
paradox of happiness
the best ways to get pleasure is to not worry about getting it
standard view of knowledge
justified true belief theory
- knowing something = your mind matching/corresponding to the world
- you must match the world non-accidently, with justification
achivement
making the world match your mind; forming a goal, achieving it
what does Hurka think are the best types of achievements?
ones that are general:
- they must effect a lot of things
- they must have taken a lot of steps to complete
rebuttal to Hurka’s idea of what achievements are the best
Hurka argues that an achievements that effect a broader amount of things are better.
this isn’t always true; something that benefits 1000 poor people is better than something that benefits 100000 privileged people
Hurka’s test for determining the value of an achivement
consider the effects of trivial ends
fittingness principle
virtue = being in a state that is fitting to an object
vice = being in a state that does not fit its object
ex: being upset someone got lucky is not virtuous because your state “upset” does not fit the object “someone getting lucky”
simple vice
a mismatch between the mental state and object
vice of disproportion
when the extent at which you care does not match the object
- if you are disproportionately scared of a threat (timidness)
- being disproportionately happy about your positive qualities (pride)
Kent’s virtue
the only way to exhibit virtue is to act from a sense of duty
what dies Hurka think about Kent’s view
Acting out of duty isn’t the only way to exhibit virtue, but it is the best
extreme view of virtue
virtue is the supreme intrinsic good
Hurka’s view of the extreme view of virtue
often times the impact is more important than the intent;
Admiring
thinking that someone possesses intrinsically good qualities
Liking
preferring certain qualities over others
Real individual view
you don’t love someone for their qualities, but how they are as an individual beneath those qualities
Historical View
along with their qualities, we love people for their unique qualities; including their historical qualities
A potential problem with the historical qualities view`
say you meet two molecularly identical people at the same time, for you to choose one over the other if the historical view is correct, you must have chosen arbitrarily
also it doesn’t make sense to divorce a long-term partner with this view, because more time you’ve spent with someone, the more reasons you have to love them
dilettante objection
a well rounded life is often mediocre
concentration problem
the more time you spend on something, the less return on your investment you get
innovation problem
specializing makes it harder to discover new things
sum aggregation
the value of a whole life = the sum of the total value it contains
