HUM-478 Emotion and Value 1 Flashcards
According to Chalmers, …………………………. reality and
non-virtual reality are equally real. In fact, our world could very well
be a ………………………….. .
The world we’re living in could be a virtual world. I’m not saying it is. But
it’s a possibility that we can’t rule out.”
Campbell Brown’s “Two Kinds of Holism”: This discussion paper presents two
ways of being a value holist: ….
(i) rejecting value additivism like Moore or (ii) rejecting
value invariabilism like Dancy. It favors (i). [The ice cream, chips, and gravy paper]
Ruth Chang’s “Parity: An Intuitive Case”: This article presents an intuitive case
of parity—namely, a value relation ensuring comparability, yet distinct from…
being better than, worse than, nor having the same value as. [The 4G rollercoaster paper]
According to G. E. Moore in the Principia Ethica,
“what has not been recognised is that it is the ultimate and
fundamental truth of moral philosophy.”
- (…) these complex wholes themselves [i.e., organic unities], and
not any constituent or characteristic of them - (…) that personal affections and aesthetic enjoyments
Organic unities as the (plural) good
example?
An example: the contemplation of beauty.
The Principle of Organic Unities:
“The value of a whole must not be
assumed to be the same as the sum of the values of its parts.
Non-additivity[Organic Unities:]:
For at least some whole, the value of the whole does
not equal the sum of the values of all its parts
Organic unities (i.e., counterexamples to additivity)?
Examples?
An organic unity
is any whole such that its value is not the sum of the values of all its
parts (See Moore 1903, §22).
Examples: human relationships
An example of an organic unity from lectures
The Autumn Sonata
Non-additivity: The difference between the positive
value of the whole Sonata and the sum of the values of
its parts is obviously incompatible with equality between
both. (Invariance under shuffling of the parts provides another way to test
for additivity.)
A problematic consequence of value additivity
The Repugnant Conclusion: “For any possible and large
population, say of eight billion, all with a very high quality of
life, there must be some much larger imaginable population
whose existence, if other things are equal, would be better,
and be what we ought to bring about, even though its
members have lives that are barely worth living.”
is intimately related to what?
The Mere Addition Paradox.
Hedonism as mistake
Arising from the assumption of value additivity.
(i) Pleasure may be involved as a part in all the greatest goods,
which explains the hedonist mistake.
(ii) But pleasure has little value compared to the complex things of
which it is a part, such as human relationships and the
contemplation of the beautiful (Those are typically Moorean
examples.).
Nozick’s conception of organic unity as…
unity in diversity
“A good theory is one that tightly unifies (in explanatory fashion)
diverse and apparently disparate data or phenomena, via its
tightly unifying relationships. Scientists sometimes use the
terminology of aesthetics here, speaking of a “beautiful” or
“elegant” theory.”
“Similarly, we can understand why some speak of knowledge
itself as valuable, for knowledge involves a person in a unified
relationship, tracking, with a fact. The deeper the truth, the
more it unifies, and the more valuable is knowledge of it. A
unified field theory, one unified explanatory theory, would be
most valuable.”
What is a fact?
An obtaining state of affairs.
All facts involve the actual instantiation of a property* by a thing
(physical or other).
(iii) State of affairs: Lincoln’s pen having been used to
sign the Emancipation Proclamation.
(iv) Fact: Lincoln’s pen was used to sign the
Emancipation Proclamation.
States of affairs that actually obtain/occur are facts.
Why should we care about facts?
Implications for the intrinsic vs. extrinsic distinction.
The question of what has value (value bearers) and the question of
what value is (the nature of value) are related.
Here is one way how:
Intrinsic vs. extrinsic: does the distinction between intrinsic
value and extrinsic value collapse if all value bearers are facts?
What does “good thusly” mean?
Response: thusly is a shorthand for “in a certain way”
1. This blue sweater is knitted.
2. This blue sweater is hand-knitted.
Julien Deonna and Fabrice Teroni’s “Homing in on the Emotions”:
This introductory chapter efficiently delineates emotions, in particular
within affective phenomena. Which dimensions considered does it include?
aboutness
(intentionality),
what-it-feels-likeness (phenomenology),
emotion assessment (standards of correctness, epistemological standards, moral standards).
Julien Deonna and Fabrice Teroni’s “The Diversity and Unity of Emotions”:
In this second chapter, Deonna and Teroni consider the question of the unity of
the category of emotion.
what are key elements of consideration?
the diversity of emotions (e.g., positive/
negative, conscious/unconscious) and one contrast that allegedly threatens
their unity: basic vs. nonbasic emotions.
what L. A. Paul’s “The Paradox of Empathy” paper considers?
the risk of
mental corruption inherent to being open-minded and having empathy.
What are three kinds of value holism?
“Mooreanism” (organic unities) (Invariabilism+Non-additivity)
Axiological Particularism
(Variabilism + Additivity)
Conditionalism or Contextualism
(Variabilism + Non-additivity)
A problematic consequence of value additivity
In B there are twice as many people living as in A, and these people are
all worse off than everyone in A. But the lives of those in B, compared
with those in A, are more than half as much worth living (Parfit)
Why care about how value aggregates?
Answer 4 reasons
Reason 1 – Parfit’s
Repugnant Conclusion
Reason 2 – Hedonism
as a value aggregation
mistake
Reason 3 – Scientific
theories as organic
unities
Reason 4 – Many other
things as organic unities
A doubt coming from
mereology and set
theory
The whole as nothing over and above its parts.
Incomparability 1: two things a and b are incomparable if
and only if
it is neither the case that a is better than b, nor that b is
better than a, nor that a and b are of equal value.
Incomparability 2: Two items are incomparable if it is…
false
that any basic value relation holds between them with
respect to a covering consideration, ‘V
