Who Counts?

April 30th, 2012
ea, morality
Who should count in my moral system? Whose joy and suffering matter? All living things? Animals? Mammals? People? Relatives? Me?

Normally people go to their moral intution to answer these questions, but I'm dubious of mine because it tells me things that are unreasonable:

  • Someone physically close to me is more important than someone in another country.
  • Doctors should treat people first-come-first-served instead of treating inexpensive diseases first.
  • Charities should spend all their money on helping people instead of measuring how well what they're doing works.
  • The suffering of a person matters less if they're being emulated on a computer.
  • The suffering of cuter animals and more attractive people matters more.
  • One person with a problem is more important than many.

Cutting chunks off a tree for fun seems wrong. So does going around stomping on ants, raising chickens in massively overcrowded conditions, kicking puppies, and torturing people in video games. But I'm not sure which of these, if any, are actually wrong and not just my moral intutition being overly empathic in what to identify with.

Referenced in:

Comment via: google plus, facebook

Recent posts on blogs I like:

Book Review: Why They Do It

my quest to get my readers not to commit fraud

via Thing of Things March 3, 2025

Breakfast Over February Break

Over February break I made breakfast for me and Nora three days in a row. Normally, my dad makes me, Nora, and Lily breakfast, but my dad and Lily were on a trip and my mom wasn't up yet so I was basically the only one in the house who was awake and cou…

via Anna Wise's Blog Posts March 1, 2025

2024-25 New Year review

This is an annual post reviewing the last year and setting intentions for next year. I look over different life areas (work, health, parenting, effectiveness, travel, etc) and analyze my life tracking data. Overall this was a pretty good year. Highlights …

via Victoria Krakovna January 15, 2025

more     (via openring)