
Episode 9: Utilitarian Ethics: What Should We Do?
The Partially Examined Life Philosophy Podcast
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Socrates and the Pig
Socirates could be dissatisfied, but because his overall capacity for pain and pleasure is greater than the pig's, he might still have a much higher level of happiness than the pig. But that also assumes that the pig's sense experience, or whatever, is identical to socrates. And so even if you buy the first premise, that, by being aware, you have a greater capacity for pleasure and pain, by being a human being, than a pig, you can still object to it in some way. You just haveno idea how intensely the pig's central experience works compared to yours, because you are ratily ar rational animal, and you're dissociated from your senses, comparatively
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