tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23915842124369415722024-03-12T16:23:14.886-07:00Philosophical ReflectionsMichael Hauskellerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00129104411381847911noreply@blogger.comBlogger111125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2391584212436941572.post-86335453950302817262017-08-13T02:31:00.000-07:002017-08-13T02:31:35.767-07:00Kai Nielsen on Death and the Meaning of Life<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">In
his 1978 paper “Death and the Meaning of Life”<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=2391584212436941572#_ftn1" name="_ftnref1" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn1;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">[1]</span></span></span></span></a>
Kai Nielsen argues that our lives can be meaningful even if a) death really is
the end of us (i.e. total annihilation with no after-life or eventual resurrection)
and b) there is no God, and that they can be <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">just as</i> meaningful as if there were a God or our death were not
final. In other words, neither death nor the non-existence of God does in any
way undermine or diminish our ability to live a meaningful life.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Nielsen
admits that he finds it regrettable that he has to die because he would rather
go on living forever. However, our having to die is, in his book, not
particularly dreadful either. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Regretting</i>
the fact that we have to die is one thing, but <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">dreading</i> it quite another. Regret is a reasonable reaction to our
mortality, while dread and despair are not. The inevitability of our death does,
after all, not devalue anything we do now. So instead of uselessly lamenting our
mortality and needlessly letting our future death overshadow and effectively ruin
our life, we had better face death stoically when it comes and in the meantime make
the most of the life we have got. “Death should only be dreadful if one’s life
has been a waste.” (154)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Nielsen
objects to the (especially among Christians) common view that if we do not in
some way survive our body’s death and if there is no God to make sure that “such
a life will have a certain character”, “life will be pointless and morality
without significance.” (155) Morality, he argues, is real even if there is no
God or eternal life. Some things are wrong, plain and simple, we <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">know</i> them to be wrong, and they will be
equally wrong in a godless world. “Torturing human beings is vile; exploiting
and degrading human beings is through-and-through evil; cruelty to human beings
and animals is, morally speaking, unacceptable; and treating one’s promises
lightly or being careless about the truth is wrong.” (155) We do not,
therefore, need God or immortality “to make sense of our lives as moral beings”
(157). Nor do we need God or immortality to have a purpose in life. Without God
there may not be a purpose to life or <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">of</i>
life, but that does not mean that we cannot have any purpose or purposes <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">in</i> life. Perhaps there is “no plan for
the universe or providential ordering of things in accordance with which we
must live our lives”, but there will still be things that matter to us: “things
worth achieving, doing or having, (…) things that bring joy, understanding,
exhilaration or contentment to ourselves or to others” (157). That we cannot
have those things forever does not in any way diminish their worth.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">God,
of course, promises a final redemption and salvation that we all crave but this
world hardly ever grants us. The existence of God justifies our hope in the
possibility of a better world, and it may well be thought that without God
there is no such hope. Nielsen, however, asks us (not give up such hopes but) to
pin them instead on our ability to make rational decisions that will eventually
benefit the whole of humanity by bringing forth “a truly human society without
exploitation and degradation in which all human beings will flourish” (158). </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><u><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Commentary</span></u></i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">I
have no beef with Nielsen’s overall position. Like him, I happen to believe
that death (i.e. the death of the individual) is real and final and that there
is no God to save us. I am, however, slightly confused by the details of his
argument. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">First
of all, Nielsen seems to be combining a subjectivist account of meaning with an
objectivist account of morality. Life is not pointless, he argues, because
there are a lot of things we enjoy and value, even though there is no “providential
ordering of things according to which we must live our lives”. I take this to
mean that life is valuable to us insofar as there are things in it that we
value. Life is valuable because there are things we value, but not because the
things that we value are <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">objectively</i>
valuable. Because if they <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">were</i>
objectively valuable, then clearly there <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">would</i>
exist some sort of “providential ordering of things according to which we must
live our lives”, which Nielsen expressly denies. What he seems to be saying is,
therefore, that it is of no consequence that the things we value are <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">not</i> objectively valuable. On the other
hand, however, he does seem to endorse an objectivist account of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">morality</i> when he insists that certain
actions are wrong no matter what God (or anyone else for that matter) thinks
about them. According to Nielsen, we do not simply believe they are wrong: we <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">know</i> they are, and while we can believe
something that is not true, we cannot know something that is not true. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">It
seems strange, if not downright contradictory, to claim that meaning is
(entirely) subjective, but morality objective, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">especially</i> since Nielsen fails to distinguish clearly between morality
and meaning. He seems to assume that a pointless life is a life in which certain
things are not really morally wrong, so he insists that even in a godless world
those things would continue to be really morally wrong. But can we not admit
that certain things are really morally wrong and still feel that life is, all
things considered, pretty pointless? Can we not, without contradicting
ourselves, hold that certain things are indeed wrong and still think that there
is, ultimately, no point in not doing what is really wrong (or anything else,
for that matter)? Can we not concede the (experiential?) reality of morality,
but still wonder if there is any point in living a moral life?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">And
what about the connection between the absence of God and death that for Nielsen
is apparently so obvious that he does not even bother to explain how exactly
they are connected? Nielsen starts his reflections with the presumed evil of
death and denies that death is bad enough to justify despair. In his account,
death is rather a minor inconvenience, unpleasant perhaps, but of no great
consequence. We can just acknowledge its existence and then get on with our
lives. Fair enough, I can accept that. What I don’t quite understand is what
God has got to do with that. Despite the paper’s opening section and title, the
bulk of it is concerned with God’s existence and how we don’t need God for
morality or to find purpose in life. Yet we can imagine a world that is both
free of God <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">and</i> of death (or at least
a pre-programmed necessity to die), as well as a world where God (or some kind
of God) exists and we <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">still</i> have to
die. There is no logical connection between God and immortality, or death and
godlessness, and it would seem wise to treat these as two separate issues. It
seems clear to me that showing that we do not need God to live a meaningful
life is different from showing that we can live a meaningful life even though
we have to die (just as showing that we don’t need God for morality to be real
is different from showing that we don’t need God to live a meaningful life). </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Finally,
religious hope is very different from the secular hope that Nielsen suggests we
replace it with. Nielsen assumes that the hope that our belief in God’s
existence allows us to entertain has the same <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">object</i> as the hope that is based on trust in humanity’s ability to
get their act together and build a better world in this life rather than the
next. However, there is a significant difference between those two scenarios. Part
of the hope raised by our belief in God’s existence is that we <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">ourselves</i> will experience that future
better world. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">We</i> will be there to
enjoy it. In contrast, when we hope that humanity will one day be able to build
a perfect world for themselves, we know we will not have any part in it. Instead,
we will still be dead. </span></div>
<div style="mso-element: footnote-list;">
<br clear="all" />
<hr align="left" size="1" width="33%" />
<div id="ftn1" style="mso-element: footnote;">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText">
<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=2391584212436941572#_ftnref1" name="_ftn1" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn1;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">[1]</span></span></span></span></span></a><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"> Republished in: <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Meaning of Life</i>, ed. E.D. Klemke,
New York/ Oxford: Oxford University Press 2000, 153-159.</span></div>
</div>
</div>
Michael Hauskellerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00129104411381847911noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2391584212436941572.post-16261455405412695262017-07-16T01:49:00.000-07:002017-07-16T01:49:35.578-07:00Aaron Smuts on the Good Cause Account of the Meaning of Life
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%; margin: 0px;">According
to Aaron Smuts<a href="file:///C:/Users/Michael%20Hauskeller/Documents/Michaels%20Dateien/Aaron%20Smuts%20on%20the%20Good%20Cause%20Account%20of%20Meaning.odt#_ftn1" name="_ftnref1" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn1;" title=""><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">[1]</span></span></span></span></a>,
the “correct (!) view of the meaning of life” (537) is that life is meaningful
to the extent that the one who lives it “promotes the good” (536). They don’t
need to do it intentionally or even be aware of it. Nor does it matter whether
their existence actually makes a difference (in the sense that, if they had not
existed, some of the good occasioned by them would not have occurred). The only
thing that matters for meaning in life is “that one is causally responsible for
the good”. A life can be more or less meaningful. The more good one is
responsible for, knowingly or unknowingly, intentionally or inadvertently, the
more meaningful one’s life is. If you are responsible for bad things, then
those bad things reduce the meaningfulness of your life. If you are responsible
for more evil than good, then your life is less than meaningful: it has
negative or anti-meaning. Smuts calls this the “good cause account of the
meaning of life”.</span></div>
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<div style="line-height: 150%; margin: 0px 0px 13px; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%; margin: 0px;">The
good cause account of the meaning of life, or “GCA”, stipulates that subjective
fulfilment of any kind is simply irrelevant for the meaningfulness of one’s
life. It is possible to be mistaken about whether or not one’s own life is
meaningful. My life can be very meaningful even if I feel consistently
miserable and believe that my life is in fact utterly meaningless. My life can
also be completely devoid of meaning (and even have negative meaning, i.e. be
worse than just meaningless) even if I am fulfilled and think and feel that my
life is very meaningful indeed. In both cases I may just be wrong about the
actual meaningfulness of my life. There is <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">nothing</i>
subjective about the meaning of life. Meaninglessness and its absence are <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">objective</i> features of my life. Smuts
thus flatly rejects both the subjectivist account of the meaning of life
defended by the early Richard Taylor (who argues that the life of a happy
Sisyphus would be meaningful), and the mixed account defended by Susan Wolf
(who argues that subjective attraction and objective attractiveness must come
together for a life to be meaningful).</span></div>
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<div style="line-height: 150%; margin: 0px 0px 13px; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%; margin: 0px;">According
to Smuts, there are various ways in which a life can be good. Subjective
fulfilment is one, meaningfulness is another. A “happy life devoted to trivial
amusements” (538) is not a meaningful life. Most people desire more than just
to be happy. Smuts cites Achilles who decides to fight against the Trojans
despite knowing that this would kill him because he did not want his name to be
forgotten. “He chose a short meaningful life over a long life high in
individual welfare.” (540) Nozick’s experience machine also demonstrates not
only that a meaningful life is more important to most of us than subjective
well-being, but also that meaningfulness goes beyond and is in fact independent
of subjective well-being. A life in the experience machine, even if totally
wonderful, would obviously be meaningless because whatever you did while
connected to the machine would have no real-life consequences. If you cured
cancer in the machine, you wouldn’t really have cured cancer. Nobody would be
any better off because of your imagined actions and achievements: “no good
would result from a machine cure.” (543) A subjectivist account of the meaning
of life is also absurd because it would not allow us to normatively distinguish
between subjectively equally fulfilling lives, such as the life of a cancer
researcher and the life of someone who is “devoted to consuming vast quantities
of excrement.” (544) Clearly, Smuts suggests, the life of the cancer researcher
is more meaningful than that of a “grinning excrement eater”. If the excrement
eater thinks otherwise, he is wrong, just as George Bailey in Frank Capra’s
film <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">It’s a Wonderful Life</i> (which
Smuts uses as the key witness for the correctness of his account) was wrong to
think that his life was meaningless. It wasn’t, because he did a lot of good
without realizing it. In the end George does of course realize exactly that and
thereby discovers that his life has in fact been meaningful all along, but even
if he had not made that discovery (and instead committed suicide as he had
planned), his life would still have been meaningful. That is why a mixed
account of meaning (such as Wolf’s fitting fulfilment view) is just as wrong as
a pure subjectivist account. They are both refuted by the fact that George
Bailey was mistaken about the value of his life, which shows that we <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">can</i> be mistaken about it, and therefore
that subjective fulfilment is not a reliable indicator of meaningfulness.</span></div>
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<div style="line-height: 150%; margin: 0px 0px 13px; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%; margin: 0px;">A
life’s meaningfulness, for Smuts, is the same as that life’s <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">significance</i>. When we are dissatisfied
with our lives we are dissatisfied <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">because</i>
of its (apparent) insignificance. Its insignificance does not <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">consist</i> in our dissatisfaction with it.
To say that a life is insignificant means that it does not produce anything of
value. It is, in other words, not good for anyone or anything. It does not
matter whether what I do is intrinsically or only instrumentally valuable
(i.e., whether it is good in itself or good for other things), the one is as
good as the other. Smuts borrows an example from Viktor Frankl to illustrate
his point: “imagine an ape that is punctured repeatedly in order to manufacture
a life saving serum. The ape cannot hope to understand the significance of its
life. There is nothing we can say to make it understand. But its life is indeed
meaningful. Hundreds of people are saved as a result.” (551)</span></div>
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<div style="line-height: 150%; margin: 0px 0px 13px; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%; margin: 0px;">Curiously,
Smuts wants to see the question whether life is meaningful distinguished from
the question whether life is worth living. For him, a life can be meaningful,
but at the same time not worth living (for instance because it lacks subjective
fulfilment). “Meaning is important, but it is not all that matters.” (552) That
unfortunate ape’s life is meaningful, but (most likely) not worth living.</span></div>
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<div style="line-height: 150%; margin: 0px 0px 13px; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%; margin: 0px;">A
meaningful life is a life that causes more good than evil. On this view, even
somebody who wants to do evil, but is not very good at it, so that due to their
incompetence they actually do a lot of good, lives a meaningful life (although perhaps
not as meaningful as that of someone who does the same amount of good
intentionally, because the moral value of his actions adds to the total amount
of goodness produced). Conversely, if somebody has the best intentions, but
fails and causes harm, their life is meaningless.</span></div>
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<div style="line-height: 150%; margin: 0px 0px 13px; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%; margin: 0px;">Smuts
is aware that his good cause account of meaning in life requires a strong
meta-ethical commitment to value realism, but he does not see that as a problem
because the alternative would be nihilism (which Smuts understands as the claim
that there is nothing that is <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">objectively</i>
valuable), and nihilism is simply too absurd to merit a refutation. In his
view, it can safely be ignored because there is “no compelling reason to take
nihilism seriously.” (559) </span></div>
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<div style="line-height: 150%; margin: 0px 0px 13px; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
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<div style="line-height: 150%; margin: 0px 0px 13px; text-align: justify;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><u><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%; margin: 0px;">Commentary</span></u></i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%; margin: 0px;">:</span></div>
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<div style="line-height: 150%; margin: 0px 0px 13px; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%; margin: 0px;">It
seems to me that we have very good reason to take nihilism seriously and very
little reason to take Smuts’s objectivist account of meaning seriously. For one
thing, I find it difficult to understand what it means to say that an outcome
is “objectively valuable”, or “objectively good”, unless it means a) that it
really is <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">good for something</i> or b)
that it benefits others in the sense that, somewhere along the line, it is <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">subjectively</i> good for them. The first
option is unlikely to be intended here because it lacks a moral dimension.
Hitler’s promotion of gas chambers in Nazi Germany was certainly good for
something, in that it made it easier to exterminate a great number of people.
The gas chambers were good for this, objectively. I am pretty confident that
Smuts would not want us to think that Hitler promoted the good, so that we can
probably safely exclude a purely instrumental understanding of objective
goodness from consideration. The only other option, however, leads us back to
subjective fulfilment. It is difficult to see how an action can be objectively
good (in a moral sense) that makes nobody’s life (subjectively) any better,
ever. Objective good, then, if it means anything, needs to be anchored in
subjective good. Curing cancer would then be ‘objectively’ good because doing
so increases (other) people’s subjective well-being. It is good because it is
good <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">for someone</i>. But here is the
problem: if I can do something objectively good by making you happy, then it is
hard to see why <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">my</i> being happy is not
objectively good too. And if my life becomes meaningful by my doing something
that makes you happy, why then should it not become meaningful by my doing
something that makes <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">me</i> happy? </span></div>
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<div style="line-height: 150%; margin: 0px 0px 13px; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%; margin: 0px;">For
Smuts, who wants meaning to be understood as significance and nothing else, ‘good’
translates to ‘useful’. The good cause account of the meaning of life is a
utilitarian account. My life is meaningful if it is useful. Obviously it can be
useful in many different ways. The question is why we should identify a life’s
meaningfulness with its utility. It seems to me that Smuts is clearly begging
the question here. He does not <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">show</i>
that meaningful means useful; he simply <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">decrees</i>
it. However, this is not how we usually understand the term meaningfulness when
we raise the question whether or not a life is meaningful. I can live a very
‘useful’ life and be fully aware of it, and still be plagued by the worry that
none of it ‘means’ anything, that ultimately it does not matter, that there is
no point. This suggests that we don’t think of meaning purely in terms of
usefulness. When I ask whether my life has any meaning, then I am not, or at
least not necessarily, asking whether it is useful. It is, however, very
unlikely that I will ever ask that question when I am happy with my life, when
I am fulfilled. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">You</i> may ask that
question about my happy life, but <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">I</i>
will not ask it. If I am really happy with my life, I don’t question its
meaning, which strongly suggests that there is, despite what Smuts claims, a
connection between subjective well-being and meaningfulness. </span></div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: 150%; margin: 0px 0px 13px; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%; margin: 0px;">Also,
even though we can conceptually distinguish between happiness and
meaningfulness, in practice we would be hard pressed to find a realistic
example of the distinction. There is a reason why we have to resort to extreme
examples like the grinning excrement eater to make it appear convincing that
there is a difference between someone who is happy or otherwise “subjectively
fulfilled” and someone whose life is meaningful. The “grinning excrement eater”
is of course repulsive and creepy, especially if we imagine him happy and
fulfilled. It is easy to reject such a life as meaningless despite its
stipulated happiness. But in real life we are very unlikely to encounter
someone who is actually fulfilled by that. Eating shit is not the kind of thing
that is apt to fulfil creatures such as us. (It is also rather unhealthy.) That
may well be the reason (that and the repulsive nature of the activity
described) why we are so reluctant to see such a life as meaningful. A dung
beetle on the other hand whose life is indeed “devoted to consuming vast
quantities of excrement” may very well have a meaningful (dung beetle) life.
Human beings, however, are different from dung beetles. They are unlikely to be
fulfilled by the same things. It would also be very unusual for a human to be
fulfilled by binge-watching daytime television, which is another stock example
often used in support of the anti-fulfilment view of meaning. Yes, such a life
strikes us as meaningless, but do we really think, as the example assumes, that
somebody who wastes his life away watching some crap on TV all day long can be
truly happy and have a sense of deep fulfilment? The happy binge watcher is
just as unrealistic as the happy excrement eater. But what about somebody who
finds fulfilment in watching the leaves change their colour in autumn and the
snow fall in winter? What about somebody who collects smells or sounds (or
stamps)? They do not seem to be doing anything useful, but can we confidently
say that their life is meaningless? Smuts assures us that we can for the simple
reason that meaningfulness <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">is</i>
usefulness, but is it?</span></div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: 150%; margin: 0px 0px 13px; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%; margin: 0px;">What
Smuts is really telling us is not what makes a life meaningful. Instead, he is
trying to convince us to adopt utility as our guiding principle when we consider
how to live our lives. He is telling us that what our lives should be and what
we in fact want our lives to be is not happy, but useful. This is also why
Smuts severs the traditional semantic link between a meaningful life and a life
worth living. It is unconvincing to declare that subjective well-being has no
bearing on the question whether a life is worth living. By distinguishing the
meaningful life from a life worth living, Smuts tries to make his objectivist
interpretation of meaning more palatable. I don’t think it works, though. One
of the prime examples Smuts uses to illustrate his view of what constitutes an
objectively meaningful life (which is not necessarily a life worth living) is
Frankl’s ape, tortured in the name of science and progress.<a href="file:///C:/Users/Michael%20Hauskeller/Documents/Michaels%20Dateien/Aaron%20Smuts%20on%20the%20Good%20Cause%20Account%20of%20Meaning.odt#_ftn2" name="_ftnref2" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn2;" title=""><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">[2]</span></span></span></span></a>
Under the circumstances, this ape’s life may actually be the more meaningful
the less worth living it is. After all, the less we are concerned with his
well-being, the more we can learn from him that might eventually benefit
humanity. His is a miserable, but very useful and hence meaningful life.
Ironically, Smuts takes credit for providing an account of meaning in life that
does not exclude animals from the possibility of living meaningful lives. His
account is proudly anti-speciesist. Except it isn’t, not really, not where it
counts. Another example he uses is the collie Lassie (of 1950s television
fame), who, according to Smuts, had a very meaningful life even if, being an
animal, she must have lacked the kind of subjective fulfilment that only
persons are capable of (558). I suppose that is because she did a lot of good,
always ready to come to the rescue of various hapless humans. At least Lassie
did not have to suffer to be of use to us. Of course, this implies that animals
that are of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">no</i> use to us cannot
possibly live a meaningful life. Their existence is meaningless. So it seems
that by enlisting their services, we do them a huge favour (even if their lives
become less worth living as a result). We make their lives count. Seriously? I
don’t buy it.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: 150%; margin: 0px 0px 13px; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%; margin: 0px;">Finally
(for now), Smuts’s case studies do not really support his account. Achilles is
said to have chosen a meaningful life by joining the battle against the
Trojans, but it is difficult to see what good resulted from that decision.
Slaughtering lots of innocent people and razing a thriving city to the ground
does not strike me as a particularly valuable outcome. Achilles was concerned
about his reputation as a great warrior, not as a good person. Perhaps in order
for his life to be meaningful in his own eyes he needed to make sure that he
would be remembered as a great warrior, but this is very different from what
Smuts tells us meaning is all about. So either Achilles’s life was not
meaningful after all, or Smuts got it wrong (or both).</span></div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: 150%; margin: 0px 0px 13px; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%; margin: 0px;">Then
there is George Bailey, the main protagonist in Capra’s <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">It’s a Wonderful Life</i> and Smuts’s key piece of evidence. According
to Smuts, George’s life is meaningful, even if he is not aware of it, because
he has done a lot of good (like for instance saving his little brother Harry’s
life when they were both kids, or as a teenager saving his employer from a
fatal error that would have ruined his life). George, however, sees his life as
“a failure”. He had so many plans, seeing the world and going to College, which
he couldn’t do because his father died, then joining the war and becoming a
hero like Harry, which he couldn’t do because he was deaf on one ear (from when
he saved Harry), and finally making his dead father’s building and loan
association work, which he couldn’t do because of his uncle Billy’s negligence
and the evil banker Potter’s malevolence. By showing him how things would be if
he had not existed (namely much worse than they are now), the angel Clarence
convinces him that George’s life has not been a failure at all. Yet although
Smuts is right that George’s realization that he has actually done a lot of
good <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">contributes</i> to his revised
assessment of his life’s worth, I don’t think this is <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">all</i> there is to it. Rather, what George realizes is that his life
has been good in many ways all along, despite his disappointments and the
frustrations of some of his ambitions. He realizes that much of what he thought
was important in life isn’t really important at all. What is important is
community and friendship, being there for others, but also letting others be
there for you, caring and being cared for. “No man is a failure who has
friends”, the angel Clarence reminds George. It is the film’s central message.
George has learned to appreciate life, and what is more, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">his</i> life, as a shared gift. It is indeed a meaningful life, but it
is not meaningful because of what he has done, or not <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">merely</i> because of what he has done. He used to be unhappy with his
achievements and role in life. He had imagined it to be different, wanted it to
be different. Now he knows that what he has got is in fact a wonderful life,
and it is meaningful not because of this life’s positive utility, but for one
thing because of all the good that surrounds him and that he partakes in, and
for another because he is now, finally, fully aware of it.</span></div>
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<div id="ftn1" style="mso-element: footnote;">
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<a href="file:///C:/Users/Michael%20Hauskeller/Documents/Michaels%20Dateien/Aaron%20Smuts%20on%20the%20Good%20Cause%20Account%20of%20Meaning.odt#_ftnref1" name="_ftn1" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn1;" title=""><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">[1]</span></span></span></span></a><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> “The Good Cause Account of the
Meaning of Life”, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Southern Journal of
Philosophy</i> 51/4 (2013): 536-562.</span></span></div>
</div>
<div id="ftn2" style="mso-element: footnote;">
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<a href="file:///C:/Users/Michael%20Hauskeller/Documents/Michaels%20Dateien/Aaron%20Smuts%20on%20the%20Good%20Cause%20Account%20of%20Meaning.odt#_ftnref2" name="_ftn2" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn2;" title=""><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0px;">[2]</span></span></span></span></a><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> William James voiced a similar
idea in “Is Life Worth Living?”: “Consider a poor dog whom they are vivisecting
in a laboratory. He lies strapped on a board and shrieking at his executioners,
and to his own dark consciousness is literally in a sort of hell. He cannot see
a single redeeming ray in the whole business; and yet all these
diabolical-seeming events are usually controlled by human intentions with
which, if his poor benighted mind could only be made to catch a glimpse of
them, all that is heroic in him would religiously acquiesce. Healing truth,
relief to future sufferings of beast and man are to be bought by them. It is
genuinely a process of redemption. Lying on his back on the board there he is
performing a function incalculably higher than any prosperous canine life
admits of; and yet, of the whole performance, this function is the one portion
that must remain absolutely beyond his ken.”</span></span></div>
</div>
</div>
<b></b><i></i><u></u><sub></sub><sup></sup><strike></strike>Michael Hauskellerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00129104411381847911noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2391584212436941572.post-90333175039718783232017-07-11T01:12:00.000-07:002017-07-11T01:12:24.282-07:00John Danaher on Technological Unemployment and the Meaning of LifeThere are a lot of things that we no longer have to do ourselves. Machines now do them for us. Of course right now there is still plenty for us to do, but if the trend continues and the machines we build get more and more intelligent, sophisticated, and powerful, which is likely, then there is a real possibility that it will become less and less necessary for us to do any work ourselves. Automated labour, performed by machines, will then eventually replace all or most manual labour, performed by us. If and when that happens, then we will have reached an age of technological unemployment.<br />
Would that be a good thing? Should we welcome the prospect, or should we dread it?<br />In an article soon to appear in the journal Science and Engineering Ethics (“Will life be worth living in a world without work? Technological Unemployment and the Meaning of Life”), John Danaher raises the question whether widespread technological unemployment would “threaten or undermine human flourishing and meaning”. He comes to the conclusion that, although there is indeed reason to believe that technological unemployment may pose a threat to our ability to live a meaningful life, this threat can be contained “if we prioritise and develop the right kinds of technology and we relate to these technologies in the right way” (2). This “right” way of relating to technology is an increased integration (of humans) with technology.<br /><br />
On the face of it, technological unemployment is an enticing prospect. In practical terms it would mean that we would no longer have to work to earn a living. We would have everything we need and want without having to spend time on activities that we do not really want to do, because machines would take care of everything. As it stands, many people are unhappy with the kind of work they do. If they could only afford it, they would quit their jobs in a heartbeat. And even if we are lucky enough to do something for a living that we like to do and would do even if we didn’t get paid for it, to get rid of the need to work and sell our labour and skills in some way is surely a good thing. We would then be completely free to choose what to do and what not to do. We would, as Danaher puts it, “be free to pursue our own conception of the good life” (2). In short, technological unemployment would give us back “authorial control” (13) over our lives.<br /><br />
Of course we often derive other than merely economic rewards from the work we do. Typically it is through our work that we achieve “excellence, social contribution, community and social status” (15), and we would not want to do without all that. However, there are other tried and tested ways to reap those rewards, for instance through charitable activities or hobbies. In an age of technological unemployment we could just extend those. Still, technological unemployment is not without its risks. Danaher thinks that we need to take seriously the worry that technological advance may very well undermine human flourishing and our ability to live a meaningful life. Even if we think of meaningfulness in purely subjective terms – as subjective fulfilment and desire satisfaction –, technological unemployment is a reason for concern, for without the pressures and incentives of work we may well end up not doing anything much and living “a life of listless and unsatisfied boredom” (18). Yet according to Danaher this danger can be avoided if we employ “the right kinds of social/technological support for leisure activities” (19). Social networking and gamification apps, for instance, may provide all the pressure and rewards needed for subjective fulfilment. <br /><br />
However, Danaher does not think that a purely subjectivist understanding of meaning is very plausible. He shares the intuition that even if Sisyphus was happy, his life was hardly meaningful. For this reason, Danaher leans towards an objectivist theory of meaning, according to which life is meaningful “to the extent that the individual living it brings about certain objectively good or valuable states of affairs” (16) Technological unemployment would then be problematic because the advanced technology that would liberate us from the need to work would also make it pretty pointless for us to keep doing the things that bring about said valuable states of affairs because the machines we have built are likely to be so much better at it than we are. Think of science and human knowledge generation in general: “Science is increasingly a ‘big data’ enterprise, reliant on algorithmic and other forms of automated assistance, to process large datasets and make useful inferences from those datasets. Humans are becoming increasingly irrelevant to the process of discovery.” (22) Moral problems, too, may be solved more reliably by machines (who may, for instance, calculate the fairest distribution of certain resources, or efficiently organize organ donation).<br /><br />
So what would then be left for us to do? “In the end, the only domain in which humans might be able to meaningfully contribute to objective outcomes would be in the realm of private, ludic or aesthetic activities, e.g. in producing works of art, or pursuing games, hobbies and sports.” (25) The reason for this is that in these aesthetic domains “it is less clear that automating technologies help to produce better outcomes.” Yet even though we may create or connect to something objectively valuable and thus find meaning in the creation of beauty, we would have lost our role in the creation of truth and goodness, so that on the whole this kind of ludic life “certainly looks like a more impoverished form of existence” (25). <br /><br />
But once again, this outcome seems by no means inevitable. In Danaher’s analysis, what undermines meaning in life is in fact the severance of the link “between what we do and what happens in the world”. (26) In an age of technological unemployment machines will have taken over and replaced us as the producers of value. They create all the good stuff and make the world a better place, while we are reduced to mere observers and passive beneficiaries, and it “is this externalisation that looks like the major threat to continued meaning and fulfilment.” (26) Accordingly, if we want to prevent a loss of meaning, all we have to do is avoid increased externalisation and, instead, pursue increased integration. Integration means that, instead of merely using technology, we merge with technology and become cyborgs through “increased use of brain-computer interfaces, nanotechnology and various other neuroprosthetic devices” (26). The idea is to directly integrate technology into biological systems. This may not be easy and naturally should be pursued with caution, but be pursued it should.<br /><br />
Intriguingly, Danaher also considers the possibility that “actions in a purely virtual world might suffice for meaning” (28), in which case cutting ourselves off from the real world would not be a problem. If it turns out that “virtual reality is our best hope” to preserve our chance to live a meaningful life, then we should go for it.<br /><br /><br />
<i>Commentary:</i><br /><br />
Perhaps Danaher is right and we really are about to enter an age of increasing technological unemployment. But I don’t think that would necessarily be a problem, even if we do not become cyborgs. The reason why unemployment is often so devastating to those who experience it is that it usually comes with a loss of a decent income, a loss of social recognition, and an abundance of free time that they have never learned to (or, being now unemployed, have not got the means to) put to good use. If you have little to live on, people look down on you with pity or contempt, and you have no idea how to fill the long hours of the day, then you may be excused for losing an appetite for living. However, per hypothesis, technological unemployment is different: it is assumed that we will not suffer a loss of income or a loss of social recognition (we will, after all, all be in the same situation). We will simply not have to work. Admittedly, we may find that we have too much time on our hands, but surely that is mostly a matter of developing the right mind set. I don’t think there is any evidence that, in our own pre-technological unemployment age, those belonging to the so-called leisure class find their lives any less meaningful than those who actually have to work to make a living. If you are wealthy, you are unlikely to be desperately looking for a job, just to have something to do. If you never had to work, then you won’t miss it. You will know what to do with your time and will not feel what those who have lost their job often feel: the loss of a sense of purpose. You may not live a particularly meaningful life (if meaning be understood as requiring some sort of connection and active pursuit of what is really, “objectively” valuable in life), but then again, those who are in work may not do so either. The point is that the wealthy do not seem to be any more likely to live a meaningless life than anybody else. <br /><br />
Or think of retirement. People retire from work. Some look forward to it, others dread it, but most find a way to deal with it. It may, of course, take a while to get used to the change, especially if you have never known a life without work. Since our whole life is usually organized around work, we tend to define ourselves through it. When we retire, we need to learn to define ourselves differently, change our priorities, develop a different mind-set. Not easy perhaps, but far from impossible. If or when the age of technological unemployment hits us, it will be as if humanity as a whole went into retirement. But that won’t happen overnight. Most likely, we will slowly and gradually slide into it and thus learn to live with the changing circumstances as we go along. <br /><br />
However, the reason why Danaher expects a crisis of meaning from technological unemployment is not really the fact that we will no longer have to work and that we may then not know what do with ourselves. For Danaher, this is not about having or not having the right mind-set. It is about the alleged absence or destruction of real opportunities to do something meaningful with our lives. The problem is not merely that we may then no longer know what to do with so much time on our hands: the problem is that there might really be nothing left for us to do. Machines will be taking care of the true and the good, so even if we still had an interest in things that may conceivably make the world a better place in some way, we would have no way to pursue this interest since it’s all been taken care of already. But is that really so? Machines may certainly one day be more efficient at solving certain problems, such as how to cure cancer, or how to organize the distribution of donated organs (which, by the way, is not a moral problem, as Danaher suggests, but a purely organizational one). And maybe it makes us feel good about ourselves and our lives if we manage to do stuff like curing cancer or developing a brand new and more efficient system of distributing organs. But surely meaning in life does not depend on our success in finding solutions to humanity’s most pressing problems. If it did, few of us would live a meaningful life. Surely it is possible for us to live a meaningful life without making substantial contributions to the continued production of “objectively good or valuable states of affairs”, whatever that means. And even if we do want to insist that in order to have a meaningful life we need to contribute in some way to the ‘true’, the ‘good’, and the ‘beautiful’, or at least partake in it, there is surely more to the true and the good than whatever a machine can provide or achieve (just as there is more to the beautiful). The acquisition of knowledge and understanding that we value, the kind that may make our life meaningful, does not consist in mere calculation and the correct and efficient processing of information. And if I merge with a machine that does that kind of thing so much better than I would ever be able to (namely in my unenhanced, pre-cyborgian state), so that I become myself a super-duper calculating and information-processing machine, then the truth that my operations will generate is unlikely to be the kind of truth that (or the orientation towards which) makes our lives meaningful. I agree with Danaher that if we could “get computers to create music and visual art” (25), this is unlikely to add to the aesthetic value in the world. But it seems to me that, equally, if we could get computers to identify morally good outcomes, this would not add to the moral value in the world, nor would computers that are able to reveal some hitherto unknown facts to us be adding to (if that’s the right word to use) epistemic value of the world. <br /><br />
Furthermore, Danaher’s argument in favour of an integrationist approach to technology rests on the assumption that what most threatens to undermine meaning in life is the disruption of the link “between what we do and what can be achieved” (26). In other words, in order to get meaning out of a supposedly objectively good outcome, I need to be the one whose actions have effected that outcome. If you find a way to cure cancer, then I may congratulate you on your success and enjoy the benefits of it, but it is only you whose life becomes more meaningful as a consequence. Meanwhile, my own life remains unchanged. And if you write a wonderful book or compose a marvellous symphony, then this may make your life more meaningful, but it certainly does not make mine more meaningful. We are, after all, separate entities. In an age of technological unemployment the machines would do all the interesting things, all that is potentially meaning-generating for the agent, i.e. the one who does them, while we humans would be reduced to mere onlookers – like children at a funfair who cannot afford any of the rides and who can only watch in frustration how others do all the fun stuff. Yet I don’t think that this is how it works, or at least not how it should work, and certainly not how it has to work. If you write that wonderful book, this can make not only your life, but also my life more meaningful, simply because I am now, thanks to your achievement, able to read it. Meaning is not the prerogative of agents. Merely observing and experiencing the world and what is going on in it can be immensely rewarding too. I can find meaning in reading your book, studying your painting, and listening to your music. I can find meaning wandering through a landscape that I have not designed, and swimming in a sea that I have not created. If that is correct, then I don’t see any good reason why we should not be able to find meaning in the achievements of the machines we have built. <br /><br />
With the right mind-set, human-machine integration is not needed. Continued separation will do just fine.<br />Michael Hauskellerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00129104411381847911noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2391584212436941572.post-24829176527923024902017-05-04T23:52:00.000-07:002017-05-04T23:52:18.427-07:00Fyodor Dostoyevsky on Donald Trump<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6ki5Feo1TtaiXNS0SXoLwsmP7DcMaAz2RGWvAld4_Kt_eEd8-dGz0ikwAZkH4rzPr664xd06ro8Dmki3XL60ghDPgCaNNQdVLkcAhTc1k3V-kdKH0GxNOZmhHOrJBIMHrGEFlvQp6ej8/s1600/Donald+Trump.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6ki5Feo1TtaiXNS0SXoLwsmP7DcMaAz2RGWvAld4_Kt_eEd8-dGz0ikwAZkH4rzPr664xd06ro8Dmki3XL60ghDPgCaNNQdVLkcAhTc1k3V-kdKH0GxNOZmhHOrJBIMHrGEFlvQp6ej8/s1600/Donald+Trump.jpg" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">I cannot help myself:
Donald Trump is so much on my mind right now that I find traces of him
everywhere, in a vain attempt to get my head around the whole Trump phenomenon
and generally to figure out what the hell is going on in the world right now.
Currently I am reading a lot of Dostoyevski, and I just stumbled across the
following passage in his (quite fabulous, I must say) <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Notes from Underground</i>, which strikes me as providing an
explanation that is as good as any other that I’ve heard so far:</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Man
really is stupid, phenomenally stupid. That is, he’s by no means stupid, but
rather he’s so ungrateful that it would be hard to find the likes of him. I,
for example, would not be the least bit surprised if suddenly, out of the blue,
amid the universal future reasonableness, some gentleman of ignoble, or,
better, of retrograde and jeering physiognomy, should emerge, set his arms
akimbo, and say to us all: “Well, gentlemen, why don’t we reduce all this
reasonableness to dust with one good kick, for the whole purpose of sending all
these logarithms to the devil and living once more according to our own stupid
will!” That would<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>still be nothing, but
what is offensive is that he’d be sure to find followers: that’s how man is arranged.</span></i></div>
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<br /></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiChSTcOBAoiBTTTStWFo0b5h9LpUYdRlb-_zSeKbsX1WlXn_v0CpW17wbgkPYWO6wu0uCfBgzvBm6H-hYlCgEhKt9JR52Gj0s7vfR87rvHrCNU1Dq3iJJlwDKCTcQWrei3jItmsdDhSxE/s1600/Dostoyevsky.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiChSTcOBAoiBTTTStWFo0b5h9LpUYdRlb-_zSeKbsX1WlXn_v0CpW17wbgkPYWO6wu0uCfBgzvBm6H-hYlCgEhKt9JR52Gj0s7vfR87rvHrCNU1Dq3iJJlwDKCTcQWrei3jItmsdDhSxE/s1600/Dostoyevsky.jpg" /></a><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">In other words, there
is no rational explanation. People simply got fed up with being reasonable and
with being expected to behave reasonably. They saw an opportunity and seized
it. Man’s ‘wanting’, as the underground man would say, has shaken off its
fetters once again. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Source: <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Notes from Underground</i>, translated by
Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky, Everyman’s Library, p. 24-5.</span></div>
Michael Hauskellerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00129104411381847911noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2391584212436941572.post-68790485569463678592017-05-02T06:32:00.002-07:002017-05-02T06:32:29.545-07:00William Lane Craig on the Absurdity of Life without God<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Is
life meaningless without God? That is what the Christian philosopher and
theologian William Lane Craig claims with great confidence in a chapter of his
book <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Reasonable Faith</i>, published in
1994:<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=2391584212436941572#_ftn1" name="_ftnref1" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn1;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">[1]</span></span></span></span></a>
“if there is no God, then man’s life becomes absurd.” (40) The main reason for
this appears to be, at least initially, the fact that we all have to die. If
there is no God, then death is real, both for us and for everything else,
including the universe itself, and “the prospect of death and the threat of
non-being is a terrible horror.” (41)<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=2391584212436941572#_ftn2" name="_ftnref2" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn2;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">[2]</span></span></span></span></a>
Without God there is no immortality for us, and without immortality “the life
we have is without ultimate significance, value, or purpose.” (42) </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Life
has no ultimate <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">significance</i> because
all the significance it can ever have is merely relative. What we do is <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">relatively</i> significant if it impacts on
other events. But if the changes we bring about do not change the final destiny
of the universe (because whatever we do, things will cease to exist someday),
then they have no <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">ultimate</i>
significance. Whatever we accomplish in life, it is then “utterly meaningless”:
“This is the horror of modern man: because he ends in nothing, he is nothing.” (42)
Immortality, however, is not enough. Without God, an immortal life would still
be meaningless because we “could still ask of life, ‘So what?’” (43). </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">In
addition to having no ultimate significance, life has no ultimate <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">value</i> either since we will die (i.e. be
punished by death) no matter what, whether we are good or bad. This means that
good deeds remain unrewarded and bad deeds unpunished (or, if we see death as
punishment, then they are not punished <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">more</i>
than good deeds, which is, presumably, what justice would require). Moreover, there
are no objective standards of right and wrong. Hitler’s values are just as good
as those of a saint. Good and evil do not exist.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Finally,
if God does not exist, our life has no ultimate <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">purpose</i> either. “If there is no God, then our life is not
qualitatively different from that of a dog.” (45) We are just like all the
other animals, freaks of nature, a “blind product of matter plus time plus chance”,
soon to return into nothingness. There is no reason why we are here. Only if
God exists, is there any hope for us. Without him, there is only despair. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">For
all those reasons, Craig concludes, atheism is a <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">practical</i> impossibility. We cannot live consistently and happily
without believing in the existence of God. We can perhaps <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">think</i> atheism, but we cannot <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">live</i>
as atheists. In order to do so we need to delude ourselves. We need to live a
lie, pretending that the universe acquires meaning when we give it one and
things matter for some reason or other. That, however, is not the case. “Without
God, there is no objective meaning in life.” (47) And since there is no
absolute (objective) right or wrong, the consistent atheist would have to
acknowledge that “all things are permitted” (49). In fact, however, the vast
majority of atheists do not act as if they really believed that. They act as if
there are things that are <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">not</i>
permitted, which makes no sense if there are no objective values. What they
should do, if they were consistent, is care only for themselves. They should do
whatever it takes to survive, because that is what natural selection “dictates”
(51). If there is no God, but only nature, then the atheist has no reason to be
moral, and every reason to be immoral. For in nature, “whatever is, is right. But
who can live with such a view?” (51) Indeed, why would we <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">want</i> to live with such a view? Clearly, it is better to believe
that there is a God (and not just any God, but “the God of the Bible”), because
if we don’t, our lives are “absurd”, i.e., worthless and pointless. Therefore, “a
rational person ought to choose biblical Christianity” (54).</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">COMMENTARY:
</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Craig
insists that life without God is meaningless, but he does not really explain
why we should expect the existence of God to make a difference. Why does the
existence of God rid our life of absurdity? Or is it actually our <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">belief</i> in the existence of God that does
that? “It seems to me positively irrational to prefer death, futility, and
destruction to life, meaningfulness, and happiness. As Pascal said, we have
nothing to lose and infinity to gain.” (54) The reference to Pascal suggests it
is the belief that matters. This would change things. If the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">existence</i> of God gives our lives
significance, value and purpose, then it doesn’t really seem to matter whether
or not we believe in God. Even if we don’t believe in God, our lives are meaningful.
If, on the other hand, it is our <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">belief</i>
in the existence of God that makes our life meaningful, then it doesn’t seem to
matter whether or not God actually exists. Even if he does not, our lives would
still be meaningful if we believed he did. Craig would probably want to argue
that for our lives to be meaningful it must <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">both</i>
be true that God exist <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">and</i> that we believe
in his existence, but he does not give us a reason why this should be so. (Will
God perhaps punish us if we don’t believe in him, by withholding eternal life
from us?) As it stands, his position is certainly ambiguous. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">But
let us assume that it is God’s existence that matters most for the possibility
of living a meaningful life, and ask why we should think that. Only if God
exists, is there any hope, Craig says, but hope for what exactly? It cannot be
immortality as such because Craig has stated clearly (and quite plausibly) that
an immortal life without God would be just as meaningless as a mortal life
without God. So it is not really death that is the problem, and not really
immortality that is the solution. Immortality may still be necessary for a
meaningful life, but it is not sufficient. But if it is not because of the immortality
that God’s existence promises to us that God’s existence can be expected to make
our lives meaningful, what else can it be?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">If
there is no God, Craig claims, then there are no objective values, and if there
are no objective values, then “all things are permitted”. So does God’s
existence make our life meaningful because only then what appears good to us
really <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">is</i> good and what appears evil
to us really <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">is</i> evil, so that not
everything is permitted? There are at least two problems with this
interpretation. First of all, it is unclear how exactly God makes values
objective. We may want to say that God has a privileged perspective, so while <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">we</i> may occasionally be unsure about what
is right and wrong, good and evil, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">he</i>
knows exactly what is good and what is not. However, in that case we seem to be
presupposing that there already <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">is</i> an
objective good and evil (because if there were not, how could God <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">know</i> about it?). Therefore we don’t
really need God for there to <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">be</i> good
and evil. The only thing we might need him for is to <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">tell</i> us what is <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">really</i>
good and evil. But not knowing for sure what is really good and what is really evil
does not seem to make our lives absurd, at least not to the same degree that
the non-<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">existence</i> of good and evil
would, and certainly not in the sense that Craig uses the term. The alternative
is that God literally <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">makes</i> things
good and evil: he decides that, say, looking after a sick friend is good and
torturing a puppy to death is evil, and the one is good and the other bad <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">only</i> because he has made that decision.
Had he made a different decision, then it might not be. Had he decided that
looking after a sick friend is evil and torturing puppies to death is good,
then that would be what is good and evil objectively. This is of course exactly
what Craig believes,<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=2391584212436941572#_ftn3" name="_ftnref3" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn3;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">[3]</span></span></span></span></a>
but this view strikes me as a lot more absurd than the view that some things
are really bad and that for this very reason God does not want us to do them. In
any case, either things, or rather actions, are good or bad in themselves
independent of whether we regard them as good or bad, or they are not. If they
are, then God is not needed to make them so. And if they are not, then God
regarding or <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">postulating</i> them as good
does not make them good in themselves. They would still be only subjectively
good, namely for, or from the perspective of, the divine subject. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">The
second problem with the argument that without God there are no objective values
and that without objective values “all things are permitted” is that even
though it might be true that from the point of the universe all things are
permitted, meaning that the universe does not care what we do and do not do and
whether we are “good” or “bad”, from <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">our
own</i> point of view there are clearly many things that are not permitted. And
it seems to me that our own perspective is, and should be, more important to us
than the point of view of the universe, even if there is a God and the point of
view of the universe is in fact God’s point of view. Craig is obviously wrong
(and blatantly inconsistent) when he suggests that natural selection “dictates”
that we only care for ourselves. In nature, he claims, “whatever is, is right.”
This is of course not the case. Natural selection does not dictate anything,
and if there are no objective values, then whatever is, is neither right nor
wrong. It simply is. Yet among the things that are, are also our values, our
views on what is right and wrong, what should and what should not be done. The
atheist, therefore, is in no way rationally compelled to be a selfish bastard. Perhaps
in theory nothing is (absolutely) forbidden, but in practice there are certain
things we approve of and others that we disapprove of, certain things that we
forbid ourselves, and each other. And that is all we will ever have. Even if
there is a God who could tell us how things really are (that, for instance,
torturing puppies is actually not so bad at all), we could still think that what
God tells us is good is a heinous thing to do, even if the only basis we have
for our judgement is the fact that we are repulsed by it. Why would it matter so
much to us what God thinks and wants? Because he is more powerful and
(presumably) holds our fate in his hands? <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">To
sum up: if our lives are meaningless because our values lack objectivity or
absolute validity, then it is not clear how God’s existence would change that. Nor
is it clear why we should, in a naturalistic, godless universe, have to live as
if nothing mattered, given that certain things clearly <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">do</i> matter to us. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">The
situation is similar with respect to purpose. We clearly do have purposes, so
in that sense our lives have purpose (though perhaps not <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">a</i> purpose). Are they good for anything else? Perhaps not. But why
do they have to? There is no reason for our existence, Craig says. Maybe not. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Probably</i> not. But again, why does there
have to be such a reason? We may be better off without it. Certainly, we may
need a reason to go on living (and fortunately most of us have such reasons
most of the time), but we don’t really need a reason for being there in the
first place. And more importantly, why should our being part of some greater,
divine purpose make our lives more meaningful (in the only sense that matters:
of being more worth living)? It seems to me if there were a God and God had
assigned some role to me, so that my existence had in that sense a purpose (i.e.,
it would help realize <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">God’s</i> purpose),
then I would still have to think about it and then either accept or not accept my
role in the divine plan. If I did not like the role I was supposed to play,
then playing it would not make my life any more meaningful. But if I have to
accept a role in order for it to give my life not just <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">a</i> purpose, but a <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">meaningful</i>
purpose, then why can I not just create a role for myself that I am happy with
and play that role as best I can? Why is God’s purpose better than my purpose?
Why would my existence be more purposeful if it aligned with God’s purpose
rather than my own? </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Finally,
it seems strange and rather implausible to say that because we <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">end</i> in nothing, we <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">are</i> nothing. Why should only the eternal, the never-ending, count
as something? This (essentially Platonic) assumption is especially weird since
all the somethings we have ever encountered and are ever likely to encounter
are finite. As far as we know, everything that exists one day started to exist
and will one day cease to exist. This is what being something means: being
something in time and therefore for a time. What is absurd is to expect and
desire more than that.</span></div>
<div style="mso-element: footnote-list;">
<br clear="all" />
<hr align="left" size="1" width="33%" />
<div id="ftn1" style="mso-element: footnote;">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText">
<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=2391584212436941572#_ftnref1" name="_ftn1" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn1;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">[1]</span></span></span></span></span></a><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"> William Lane Craig, “The
Absurdity of Life Without God”, in: William Lane Craig, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Reasonable Faith: Christian Truth and Apologies</i>, Wheaton, Ill.:
Good News Publishers/ Crossway Books 1994, 57-75. Reprinted in: <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Meaning of Life</i>, ed. E.D. Klemke,
New York/ Oxford: Oxford University Press 2000, 40-56. My citations are from
this edition.</span></div>
</div>
<div id="ftn2" style="mso-element: footnote;">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText">
<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=2391584212436941572#_ftnref2" name="_ftn2" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn2;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">[2]</span></span></span></span></span></a><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"> It is not quite clear to me why the
death of the universe is relevant for Craig. If the prospect of my own personal
death makes life meaningless/ absurd <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">already</i>,
then why does Craig make so much of the ultimate fate of the universe?</span> <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Also, Craig thinks that death
only becomes horrible when we contemplate our own death. The death of others is
not such a big deal. (41) But it seems to me that often the death of others
(most frequently the death of our loved ones) is more horrible to imagine than
our own death. I can live with the fact that I have to die. That <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">they</i> have to die I find much harder to
accept.</span></div>
</div>
<div id="ftn3" style="mso-element: footnote;">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText">
<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=2391584212436941572#_ftnref3" name="_ftn3" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn3;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">[3]</span></span></span></span></span></a><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"> Craig supports the divine command
theory, which holds that certain actions are right simply and solely because
God commands us to act that way, rather than that he commands us to act that
way because it is the right thing to do. Morality thus depends entirely on what
God wants. It follows that without God there is no morality, no objective right
and wrong.</span></div>
</div>
</div>
Michael Hauskellerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00129104411381847911noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2391584212436941572.post-8538147545758465842017-04-24T23:29:00.000-07:002017-04-24T23:29:46.438-07:00Joshua W. Seachris on Cosmic Futility and the importance of narrative endings<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Does
it matter how the universe ends? Should we be worried by the naturalistic,
scientifically grounded expectation that in a few billion years our solar
system comes to an end and all traces that will then still be left of our
existence (if there are any) will disappear forever? Should it affect the way
we look at our life <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">now</i>? Does it make
what we do now any less <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">meaningful</i>? Our
intuitions are divided on this one: on the one hand it seems preposterous to
believe that something that is going to happen so far in the future can have
any bearing on the meaning of our present lives. Why should it? We will, after
all, long be gone by then. On the other, to think that whatever we do, whatever
we achieve, whatever we change, whatever good we may bring about, in the long
run none of it will have made any difference, may well make us wonder why we
bother doing it in the first place. It seems pointless. Futile. And we don’t
want our actions to be futile. Ideally, we want them to make a lasting impact. Otherwise,
what is the point of living?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">In
his 2011 paper “Death, Futility, and the Proleptic Power of Narrative Ending”<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=2391584212436941572#_ftn1" name="_ftnref1" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn1;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">[1]</span></span></span></span></a>,
Joshua W. Seachris calls this second intuition the staying-power intuition
(SPI), which he defines as “the idea that, ceteris paribus, worthwhile,
significant and meaningful things <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">last</i>.”
(461)<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=2391584212436941572#_ftn2" name="_ftnref2" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn2;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">[2]</span></span></span></span></a>
Actions that have no lasting consequences are futile. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Deep</i> or <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">cosmic</i> futility
is the futility that results from the presumed fact that, because of the way
the world works, there is ultimately <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">nothing</i>
that has any lasting consequences. But why do we have this intuition in the
first place: that only what lasts is meaningful? Seachris argues that the
naturalistic assumption that we are making when we consider the meaning of our
lives threatened or undermined by the way we think the world is going to end
can and should be understood as a <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">narrative</i>
or “meta-narrative”. In narratives, it always matters how they end. When we
assess a story – emotionally, morally, aesthetically – the ending is
particularly relevant. It not only matters to us <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">what</i> happens at the end, but also that it happens at the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">end</i>. A bad ending is bad, just as a bad
beginning is bad, but a bad ending is much worse than a bad beginning,
precisely because it is a bad <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">ending</i>.
It is the “narrative ending <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">qua</i>
ending”, which “is salient in our broadly normative assessments of narratives
as a whole”. (462) A lot of sad things can happen in the course of a narrative,
but they don’t necessarily make the story as a whole a sad one. Yet a sad ending
always makes for a sad story, and a happy ending for a happy story. “The ending
relevantly frames the entire story.” (464) Cosmic futility is a threat because
we look at life as a whole from a narrative perspective. If we didn’t – if we didn’t
care so much about how things end -, we would not feel that our lives can be
rendered worthless by what happens or does not happen in the far future of the
world, seemingly nullifying all the good things that are actually happening in
the present, all our accomplishments and achievements. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Of
course whatever happens in the future, none of it can affect what has already happened.
What we have accomplished, we have accomplished. If we have changed the world
for the better, we have changed it for the better, at least for a while. Nothing
is going to change that. Happy moments will still be happy moments even they
don’t last, and they will forever remain happy moments. The past is what it is.
It cannot be changed by the future. However, what we <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">know</i> or <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">believe</i> about the
future can change how we <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">understand</i>
and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">evaluate</i> what is happening in the
present. If you knew that your marriage was going to end in an acrimonious
divorce, then whatever joy you might still experience would most likely be
tainted and devaluated by your knowledge of the impending bad ending. Similarly,
if we know or believe that humanity will one day disappear from the world
without leaving a trace, then that is likely to make a difference to us now. Because
endings matter. If they did not, cosmic futility would not be an issue. This is
why the theist has an advantage over the naturalist. A theistic meta-narrative
promises a happy ending. It promises an ending that gives lasting significance
to our lives, and that promise may make a considerable difference to how we
view our lives now.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">The
fact that for the theist life never really <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">ends</i>
at all (because the theistic meta-narrative promises immortality), poses no
serious obstacle to a narrative assessment. A narrative ending need not be a <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">termination</i>. It can also be <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">closure</i>. Ending as closure does not
require that <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">everything</i> come to an
end, but only that “a conflict or a series of conflicts that have arisen over
the course of the narrative” (468) be resolved. The ending is contextual rather
than absolute. The living-happily-ever-after formula stands for such an ending,
which is all that is needed for the narrative appraisal of a life. This is
because the life that we are worried about is <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">this</i> life, “with all its pain, suffering, and hardship” (468),
which would be concluded and happily resolved in an after-life of eternal
bliss. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">COMMENTARY:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">A
few thoughts, the first relating to the nature of futility: it seems to me that
for our actions to be futile it is not sufficient that they have no lasting
consequences. It all depends on whether we <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">want</i>
them to be lasting and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">how</i> lasting we
want them to be. Generally speaking, futile is an action whose intended <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">goal</i> is not accomplished. Accordingly,
we cannot judge whether an action is futile or not if we don’t know what goal
it was intended to accomplish. If what I intend to accomplish by doing
something is completely unrelated to the eventual fate of the universe, then
what I am doing is not rendered futile by said fate. If I study hard to become
a decent philosopher, then my labours have not been futile if I manage to
become a decent philosopher as a result, not even if the whole solar system
will perish in a few billion years, because that has got nothing to do with it.
Seachris seems to agree with this understanding, suggesting that in order for
an action to be futile, one must aim at some desired end that then proves
impossible to attain (471). It follows that “in the case of the futility that
is sometimes thought to characterize life in a naturalistic universe, the
futility is largely a function of the discrepancy between our deepest desires
and the nature of the naturalistic world which seems to ultimately prevent
theses desires from being realized.” (472) However, this seems to presuppose
that we do have a deep desire that what we do now will have an impact far
beyond our own life span and even beyond the life span of our solar system. Is
that really so? I may have some desire to be remembered after my death, mostly
by my loved ones, and perhaps by others, for a while at least. But do I have a
deep desire to still have an impact on things a <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">few billion years from now</i>? I cannot detect this desire in me, and
it would seem a very odd desire to have.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Even
if my desires are more far-reaching, more world-changing in their ambition, I
doubt that we would seriously expect or even hope to make an everlasting impact.
Let us say that I can make the world a better place in some way, and I also
desire to do so, but that at the same time I am aware that it is not going to
last. The world will only be better for a while. Would my plan, in that case,
not be worth pursuing at all? Or would I at least <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">feel</i> that it would not be worth pursuing? No doubt, it would
certainly be better if the world <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">remained</i>
a better place, and the longer it remained a better place the better it would be,
but from that it doesn’t follow that being a better place only for a while is
not better than never to have been a better place at all. I don’t see why the
impossibility to make any state of affairs last should make it pointless to help
this state of affairs come about.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Still,
we <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">do</i> want things to last, or more
precisely we want the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">good</i> things to
last, as long as it is possible for them to last without ceasing to be good. And
yes, endings do matter to us. Seachris connects our desire for good things to
last with our preference for good endings over bad endings and our preference
for good endings over good beginnings (or middles), and sees the former founded
in the latter. I am wondering, however, granted that there is indeed a
connection between these two intuitions, can we really be sure which comes
first? Do we want things to last because endings matter (as Seachris suggests),
or do endings matter to us because we want things (or at any rate the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">good</i> things) to last? Consider: if an
ending is good, then the good is going to last because it is that with which
everything has ended. If it is indeed an ending, then we don’t have to fear
that things will turn bad again. If, on the other hand, the ending is bad, then
the good has not lasted and there is no chance that things will change: there
is no hope that the good is ever going to come back because the story has
ended. As long as the story has not ended, there is always a chance for things
to change. So if we want the good things to last, then it is easy to see why
endings often matter so much to us. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Normally,
however, endings matter to us only to the extent that they are an integral part
of particular desires. To convince us that endings matter, Seachris uses the example
of a romantic relationship. Clearly if I knew now that my relationship was
going to end badly it would change the way I feel about it. It would lose part
of its meaning and would appear pretty pointless, but only if I expected and
wanted it to last. That is normally the case when we fall in love with someone.
If I love I cannot help feeling or at least hoping that my love will last. If
it does not, then my love wasn’t really what I thought it was. If my marriage
ends in divorce my marriage has failed because it in my mind was <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">meant</i> to last, not forever, but perhaps “until
death do us part”. There are hopes and expectations connected to being involved
in a romantic relationship with someone, especially if it ends in marriage,
which is yet another beginning: a beginning of something that can, once again,
end well or badly. The end of a love affair, and perhaps even more so the
dissolution of a marriage is a sad ending to an (for those involved) exciting
story, but the eventual disappearance of all life from the face of the Earth is
not really a sad or bad end at all, certainly not for us, if only because we
never expected, nor had any reason to expect, that it would last forever.</span></div>
<div style="mso-element: footnote-list;">
<br clear="all" />
<hr align="left" size="1" width="33%" />
<div id="ftn1" style="mso-element: footnote;">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText">
<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=2391584212436941572#_ftnref1" name="_ftn1" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn1;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">[1]</span></span></span></span></span></a><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"> First published in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Religious Studies</i> 47 (2011): 141-163.
Reprinted in: <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Exploring the Meaning of
Life. An Anthology and Guide,</i> Chichester: John Wiley 2013, 461-480.</span></div>
</div>
<div id="ftn2" style="mso-element: footnote;">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText">
<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=2391584212436941572#_ftnref2" name="_ftn2" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn2;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">[2]</span></span></span></span></span></a><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"> Seachris points out that there
is also a second rival intuition, the “scarcity intuition”, according to which what
we do is meaningful precisely because things will <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">not</i> last. </span></div>
<div class="MsoFootnoteText">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoFootnoteText">
<br /></div>
</div>
</div>
Michael Hauskellerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00129104411381847911noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2391584212436941572.post-20443983872435435182017-04-01T06:08:00.000-07:002017-04-01T06:08:13.615-07:00George Pitcher on the Misfortunes of the Dead<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Can
the dead be harmed - not by their death, but by what happens <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">after</i> their death? It wouldn’t appear so
since they are dead and therefore no longer around to be harmed. You cannot
harm someone who does not exist. And yet, we may feel that some things that
happen after our death are in some unspecified way bad for us. If I had spent my
life writing a book that would have been hailed by generations to come as a philosophical
masterwork if it hadn’t been destroyed shortly after my death and before anyone
could read it, it does not seem to be entirely unreasonable to think that I
have been harmed by being denied the posthumous fame that I so richly deserved.
But how is that possible if I no longer exist when the supposedly harmful
incident occurs? Or is it not possible? Should we say that there is <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">nothing</i> that can harm us after our
death?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">In
his article “The Misfortunes of the Dead”, published in 1984, George Pitcher
defends the idea that we can indeed be harmed after our death.<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=2391584212436941572#_ftn1" name="_ftnref1" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn1;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">[1]</span></span></span></span></a>
This is possible, he argues, because the one who is harmed is not the dead
person or “post-mortem person”, but the formerly <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">living</i> person or “ante-mortem person”.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Pitcher
first seeks to establish that the dead can be <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">wronged</i>, which appears to be less controversial than that they can
be harmed. If I promise to you that I will do a certain thing after your death
and then, once you have died, don’t do it, then I have clearly broken my
promise to you, and by breaking the promise that I gave you I have wronged you.
I would also wrong you if I, say, falsely accused you of a crime after you’re
dead. Examples such as these make it “abundantly clear” that the dead can
indeed be wronged: “they can be the victims of injustice, slander, betrayal,
and so on.” (183) However, it is not, strictly speaking, the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">dead</i> that are thus being wronged, but
the once living. It is <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">you</i>, the
person that now exists, that I would wrong if I broke my promise to you after
your death, the ante-mortem person (who <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">does</i>
or did exist), not the post-mortem person (who does <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">not</i> exist and never did). “All wrongs committed against the dead
are committed against their ante-mortem selves.” (184)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Yet
just as we can <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">wrong</i> someone after
their death, we can also <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">harm</i> them. Pitcher
defines harm as a violation of someone’s interests. An event or state of
affairs is thought to be harmful (or a “misfortune”) to someone “when it is
contrary to one or more of his more important desires and interests.” (184) Since
we do have, or at least can have, interests and desires regarding what happens
after our death, what happens after our death can clearly be contrary to our
interests and, accordingly, harmful to us. If I now wish to be buried rather
than cremated - if this, for whatever reason, is really important to me -, then
I would suffer a harm if, after my death, my wishes were ignored. The fact that
I wouldn’t <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">know</i> about it is
irrelevant. It is quite obvious (Pitcher argues, as did Thomas Nagel and Joel
Feinberg before him) that we can be harmed without being aware of it. If, for
instance, I take a strong interest in my son’s existence and well-being, then
his death would harm me as soon as it occurs even if I only learn about it much
later, or not at all. Pitcher finds this example so persuasive that he feels
justified in confidently declaring that “it is just false that in order to be
harmed, the victim must be aware of the harm.” (186) </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Pitcher
then invites us to consider the following case: Bishop Berkeley had a son called
William who died at the age of 14. Let us now suppose that William died of a genetic
disposition that made his early death inevitable. In other words, he was always
going to die young. If Berkeley had known this, he would have been miserable. Since
he loved his son and consequently did not want him to die young, the fact that
William was <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">going</i> to die young was
contrary to his interests and therefore harmful to him. However, it would also
have been harmful to him if he had <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">not</i>
known this. What harmed him was, after all, not his <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">knowledge</i> of the fact that his son was going to die young, but the
fact that he <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">was</i> going to die young. Now
imagine that Berkeley had died before his son. In that case he would not have
witnessed William’s death, and would forever remain unaware of both the fact
that William <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">did</i> die young and the
fact that he was always <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">going</i> to die
young. Even then, though, Berkeley would, while still alive, have suffered the
misfortune of having a son who was going to die young. In this way, Pitcher
concludes, “the shadow of harm that an event casts can reach back across the
chasm even of a person’s death and darken his ante-mortem life.” (187) </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Even
though this metaphor seems to suggest some kind of backward causation, Pitcher
denies that this is the case. Believing in backward causation would be just as “absurd”
as believing that “instantaneous causation at a distance” (186) would be
required for me to be harmed when, unbeknownst to me, something just happened
that very much goes against my interests (such as the death of my son, which
Pitcher claims harms me the moment it happens, and not the moment I learn about
it). The reason why we can accept that I can be harmed by what happens after my
death without having to assume backward causation is that what harms me is not
exactly the future event itself, but rather the fact that this event is going
to take place in the future. In other words, what is going to happen in the
future may <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">happen</i> in the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">future</i>, but it is already <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">going</i> to happen <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">now</i>. “On my view, the sense in which an ante-mortem person is
harmed by an unfortunate event after his death is this: the occurrence of the
event makes it true that during the time before the person’s death, he was
harmed – harmed in that the unfortunate event was going to happen.” (187) </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">And
in case there is any doubt about what “making true” means in this context,
Pitcher adds the following clarification: “If the world should be blasted to
smithereens during the next presidency after Ronald Reagan’s, this would make
it true (…) that even now, during Reagan’s term, he is the penultimate
president of the United States.” (188)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">COMMENTARY:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">It
seems to me that the plausibility of Pitcher’s argument depends on whether or
not he manages to safeguard his account against the rather unpalatable implication
of backward causation. I don’t think he succeeds in doing that. Why, according
to Pitcher, does my being harmed by some event occurring after my death not
involve backward causation? Because that event was already going to happen
during my life time, and it is the going-to-happen of the event (which is
co-existent with the ante-mortem me) that harms me. But consider the example
with which Pitcher concludes his paper: Reagan being the penultimate president
of the USA. Let’s update the example and use the current president, Donald
Trump, and his predecessor Barack Obama. If Trump should turn out be the last
American president, it will be true that Obama was the penultimate president. That
much is certain. However, what Pitcher is suggesting is that in that case it
would already be true <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">now</i> that Obama
was the penultimate president of the USA. But it cannot be true now, because if
it were, then it would not be <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">possible</i>
for there to be another president after Trump. It would mean that everything
that is going to happen in future is going to happen <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">necessarily</i>. We would have to commit to a logical determinism (first
discussed by Aristotle) that denies the openness and relative indeterminacy of the
future. If it still remains to be seen how things develop, if there is still a
chance that Trump may end up not being the last American president, then even
if he <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">will</i> be, it is not the case
that this is what he already is <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">now</i>. That
a particular event is going to happen in the future does not imply in any way
that that event’s going-to-happen must be already taking place in the present. Whatever
happens in the future, in the present it is still only a maybe. Accordingly, even
if my great book gets destroyed after my death, then it is still not true now
that it is going to be destroyed. So I can only be harmed by that event if the
future can causally affect the past, which is backward causation. The problem
with backward causation is that it makes no sense: what hasn’t happened yet
cannot influence and change what has already happened. If it could, then what
has already happened may turn out to not have happened. What I do today, I will
have done tomorrow, and if what I do today can be undone by what I do tomorrow,
then I won’t have done it, which contradicts the fact that I already <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">have</i> done it. As I said, it makes no
sense.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">But
isn’t it <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">now</i> against my interests
that I <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">will</i> be forgotten after my
death? Yes, in the sense that I don’t wish to be forgotten. But harm, even for
Pitcher, despite his definition, means more than just the thwarting of someone’s
interests. Pitcher claims that my life <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">would
have been better</i> if my aforementioned masterwork had not been destroyed after
my death (thus making sure that I will quickly be forgotten rather than be
remembered “as the greatest philosopher who ever lived”). The claim is that it
is better for me (i.e., the ante-mortem me) to be remembered as a great
philosopher than not to be remembered at all. Yet since the remembering will or
will not take place in the future, after my death, how is that not backward
causation? Certainly, I would now, while I’m still alive, prefer to be
remembered, but it won’t matter to me once I’m dead. So how can my life be <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">made</i> better or worse by what happens
after my death? Apart from the backward causation problem, this would mean that
my life would never be complete. I may now and right up to my death have every
reason to believe that my masterwork will secure me a place in the
philosophical pantheon. If that makes my life good, then my life is good now.
But then, after my death, the book is destroyed, so my life now has taken a
turn for the worse. What appeared to be a good life is now revealed to have
been, in fact, a bad life. Now imagine 200 years later someone discovers and
publishes a copy of my book that nobody (me included) knew existed (my wife
made it, secretly). I become famous. So now my life was a good one after all. Unfortunately,
however, even fame does not last forever, so one thousand years in the future I
will once again be forgotten, and once again my life will have been wasted
(provided I care deeply about still being remembered in a thousand years’ time).
And so on and so forth. The point is that if we take Pitcher’s claim seriously,
then there is no end to it. If we can be harmed by future events, then something
that happens in a million years may still inflict harm on me if my desires
reach that far and make my life a bad one. I find this implication very
counter-intuitive.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Note
that in this respect <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">wronging</i> someone
is very different from <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">harming</i>
someone. I can wrong you just as I can remember you, talk about you, praise
you, vilify you, or do right by you, and I can do all of these things without
affecting you in any way, and without requiring you to be there or even to still
exist. And I can, in theory, still do these things a million years from now. There
is no problem here. But I cannot kick you if you are not there, and I cannot
kiss you either. If wronging someone is, in terms of the postulated <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">relation</i>, like remembering them, then harming
someone is like kicking or kissing them. They need to be there in order for me
to be able to do it. They need to be affected by it. I cannot kick or kiss
someone who is dead, and neither can I harm them. (I can of course do these
things to their <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">bodies</i>, but that is
not the same.) It seems to me that this difference also applies in cases where
I am supposedly harmed by something that I am in no way aware of. Let’s say my wife
is cheating on me. Does she harm me? No, not if I never find out. This does not
make it okay, though, because she most certainly wrongs me. The reason I can be
wronged, but not harmed, by her actions is that wronging someone is as much a
relation to the (or a) moral law as it is a relation to that other person. I am
wronging you because I am doing what is wrong (say, breaking my promise),
whether you are aware of it or not. But I cannot harm you if what I do doesn’t
do anything <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">to</i> you. Harm and wrong are
separate issues. They can even diverge. You may actually benefit me by stealing
from me. It would still be wrong to do so. If my wife cheats on me she wrongs
me, but need not harm me. In fact, some of our most common moral dilemmas
concern the difficult choice we have to make between harming someone and
wronging them (or more precisely between ‘doing right by them and harming them’
or ‘protecting them from harm and wronging them’). My wife for instance may
want to spare me the misfortune that would result from telling me about it and
decide, for that reason, not to tell me. In this she might of course wrong me
even more by lying to me on top of the cheating. But at least she wouldn’t harm
me. Similarly, if I go against your wishes after your death, I may very well do
you a serious wrong, but I won’t do you any harm. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">In
conclusion: it seems to me that nothing that happens after my death can make my
life better or worse than it is (or, for that matter - to finally make the
connection to the issue I am currently most interested in, namely meaning in
life -, more meaningful or less meaningful). Once my life is over it is
everything it can ever be. My life is what it is, whatever happens after I’m
gone: good or bad, meaningful or meaningless. </span></div>
<div style="mso-element: footnote-list;">
<br clear="all" />
<hr align="left" size="1" width="33%" />
<div id="ftn1" style="mso-element: footnote;">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText">
<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=2391584212436941572#_ftnref1" name="_ftn1" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn1;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">[1]</span></span></span></span></span></a><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"> George Pitcher, “The Misfortunes
of the Dead”, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">American Philosophical
Quarterly</i> 21/2 (1984): 183-188.</span></div>
</div>
</div>
Michael Hauskellerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00129104411381847911noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2391584212436941572.post-23634855153715910002017-03-25T04:55:00.004-07:002017-03-25T04:55:44.201-07:00Richard Taylor on Time, Creativity, and Life's Meaning<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Sometimes
we change our view of things. Perhaps we had doubts all along, or something
happened that made us reconsider, or we have simply thought some more about the
issue, so that eventually we reach a different conclusion. Philosophers are no
exception. They change their views, too, sometimes dramatically. One example is
Richard Taylor, who, in his 1970 paper “The Meaning of Life”<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=2391584212436941572#_ftn1" name="_ftnref1" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn1;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">[1]</span></span></span></span></a>
argued that all that is required for a meaningful life (and “the nearest we may
hope to get to heaven”) is that there is something in it that we pursue energetically,
an “inner compulsion” to do whatever it is we do. If this inner compulsion is
what makes life meaningful, then it is conceivable that even the endlessly
repetitive life of a blind worm in a cave and the endlessly repetitive life of
a Sisyphus who desires nothing more than rolling rocks up hills are meaningful.
However, in a second paper on the topic, “Time and Life’s Meaning”, published
17 years later,<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=2391584212436941572#_ftn2" name="_ftnref2" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn2;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">[2]</span></span></span></span></a>
Taylor renounces the claims he made previously and now argues that even the
life of a happy, passionately rock-rolling Sisyphus is far from meaningful
because it lacks one crucial ingredient: creativity.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Taylor’s
new argument starts with a reflection on the reality of time. Contrary to the
countless philosophers, from Plato to McTaggart, who have claimed that time
cannot possibly be real, Taylor very sensibly insists that it <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">feels</i> far too real to be an illusion. On
the other hand, however, the reality of time is very much dependent on <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">us</i>. If there were no creatures like us, Taylor
suggests, time would not be (fully) real. Imagine a world entirely devoid of
life. Such a world would have no “history or meaning” (297). Time may exist in
some abstract way, but it is completely irrelevant because it “makes no
difference” what happens when. In that sense, time, in such a world, is not
real yet. Now add living beings to this world (but still holding back on <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">rational</i> beings). According to Taylor, time
has now been introduced to the world, but still only in a very rudimentary
sense. Importantly, a world containing living but not rational beings would
still be a world without history because nothing genuinely new ever happens in it.
“The sun that rises one day illuminates nothing that was not there the day
before, or a thousand or million days before. It is simply the same world, age
after age. (…) Every sparrow is just like every other, does exactly the same
things in the same way without innovation, then to be imitated by every sparrow
to follow. The robin or squirrel you see today does nothing different from
those you saw as a child, and could be interchanged with them without discernible
difference.” (298)<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=2391584212436941572#_ftn3" name="_ftnref3" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn3;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">[3]</span></span></span></span></a>
Animals live their lives in “unchanging cycles”, “to be repeated over and over,
forever.” </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Clearly,
Taylor is still concerned with repetition and futility, the not-getting-anywhere
that in his previous paper he ended up defending as posing no obstacle to a
meaningful life. Not so anymore. According to the new Taylor, the repetitive
world, the world that goes nowhere, is not only a world without history, but
also, precisely for this reason, a world without meaning. This is because in a
world without history “nothing is ever created.” (299) As a perfect
illustration of such a meaningless world, Taylor once again invokes the myth of
Sisyphus. Existence is here “reduced to utter meaninglessness”. And in stark
contrast to his earlier position, Taylor now claims that what Sisyphus is doing
would <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">still</i> be meaningless “even if
we imagined Sisyphus to rejoice in it – if we imagined, for example, that he
had a compulsive and insatiable desire to roll stones, and considered himself
blessed to be able to do this forever.” (299)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Only
if we imagine Sisyphus actually <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">creating</i>
something (out of all the rocks he rolls up that hill), and doing so <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">consciously</i> and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">purposefully</i>, something “beautiful and lasting”, something “important”
(for instance a “great temple”), only then could we see his life as meaningful
because his labour would “no longer be wasted and pointless.” (299) <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Fully</i> meaningful, however, it would only
be if Sisyphus did not <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">have</i> to do
what he is doing, but had freely <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">chosen</i>
to do it. Whatever he is creating “must be something of his own, the product of
his own creative mind, of his own conception, something which, but for his own
creative thought and imagination, would never have existed at all.”<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=2391584212436941572#_ftn4" name="_ftnref4" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn4;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">[4]</span></span></span></span></a>
(300) This is a kind of creative activity that cannot be found in nature: it
requires rational beings “who can think, imagine, plan, and execute things of
worth”. Everything that may strike us as an example of immense creativity in
the non-human world, like “the complex beauty of the spider’s web” or “the
ingenious construction of the honeycomb”, is in fact just another example of “endless
repetitions”, a “capacity of fabrication”, which discloses “not the least hint
of creative power” (301). Genuine creativity brings forth things that are
genuinely new. Only humans have that kind of creativity, though not everyone
has it in the same degree. It can also be exercised in various different areas
of life, not only in art, but also in, e.g., chess-playing, gardening, or
woodworking, and even in the “raising of a beautiful family” (302). However,
Taylor admits that “creative power is no common possession” (not to speak of
creative genius, which is very rare). In fact, the “work of the vast majority
of persons does not deviate much from what others have already done and from
what can be found everywhere.” (302) Taylor blames this on a certain widespread
unwillingness to actually <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">use</i> one’s
creative powers. Most people simply don’t <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">care</i>
enough about being the creators that they could be. Or they are afraid of
standing out. It is in fact often <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">religion</i>
that discourages us from using our creative powers, despite the fact that God
is conceived as the creator (so that developing our creativity is actually tantamount
to developing our divine potential). Creative power has an “indescribable worth”,
which is why it gives human existence its significance and meaning: “That a
world should exist is not finally important, nor does it mean much, by itself,
that people should inhabit it. But that some of these should, in varying
degrees, be capable of creating worlds of their own and history – thereby creating
time in its historical sense – is what gives our lives whatever meaning they
have.” (303)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">COMMENTARY:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Taylor
argues that without us, or without rational beings, time would not be (fully)
real because there would not be any history. I can go along with this, but only
because I associate “history” with memory. Things (people, countries,
technologies) have a history to the extent that we remember the changes that
those things have undergone, thus connecting the past to the present. Memory
makes history. Taylor, however, does not even mention memory. Instead, he
focuses on the notion of the “new”. A world without history is a world in which
nothing new happens. Such a world is declared to be meaningless not because the
past is not remembered, but because the past is supposed to be pretty much
(that is, in all relevant respects) identical to the present, as the future
will be identical to the present. The sun illuminates always the same
spectacle. It’s the same world over and over again. But is it really? I guess the
answer depends on what we choose to mean by “new”. It seems obvious to me that
in many ways there is undeniably newness even in a world without life. Continents
form and fall apart, seas dry out, flat surfaces fold into mountains. And there
are even more changes, more new things happening, in a world populated by
living, though not rational beings. If the sun had eyes to see what is going on
here on Earth, what it would see today would be very different from what it
would have seen 70 million years ago when the dinosaurs still roamed about. Species
come and go; old ones disappear, new ones enter the stage. And those new
species could not have been predicted. None of those changes could have. So in
what sense exactly is all that has happened in the world since its creation
before the arrival of human beings devoid of newness? Perhaps in the sense that
even though <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">this</i> particular kind of
animal never existed before, animals have, and this one is just more of the
same? But couldn’t we say the same about human productions, even highly
artistic and original ones? Sure, a new nocturne of Chopin’s (one of Taylor’s
examples of true newness) is different from the previous ones, but it would
still be a nocturne, and still be a musical composition. And even though Chopin
might be different from other composers, he is still a composer who basically
does what other composers also do, namely compose stuff. How do we distinguish
the genuinely or relevantly new from the ordinary and not really new? I for one
am struggling to clearly understand the difference.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Neither
am I convinced by the claim that every sparrow is the same as every other,
doing exactly what all other sparrows do and have done since the beginning of
time (or the beginning of sparrows). To a casual observer this may indeed appear
to be the case, but I’m pretty sure that if you looked more closely you would
find that even sparrows are individuals and do not generally behave exactly
like any other sparrow. (And for each one of them, what they do is very new to
them. As if it were in fact the first time that it’s being done. That’s
actually the advantage of having no history: an abundance of newness.) Of
course, they all do what sparrows do. They live a sparrow’s life, and the
general features of that life are fixed. But the same is true for us. We are
alike in many ways, and behave alike in many ways. Everything we do is confined
by the human life form. We do what humans do and never go beyond that. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">In
“The Meaning of Life”, Taylor radically democratized the meaning of life. He
was willing to grant meaning to every sentient being that took a lively
interest in something, and be it only eating and reproducing. Perhaps that took
things a bit too far. In “Time and Life’s Meaning”, however, Taylor goes too
far again by claiming more or less the exact opposite of what he claimed before.
He now basically declares that a truly or fully meaningful life can only be had
by the creative geniuses of this world, so in other words by very few. In order
to live a meaningful life we need to find something that only we can do. We
need to be truly special. Do we really, though, I wonder. Do we have to do
something that nobody else has done before and nobody could do the way we do
it? Why? Why must a meaningful existence manifest itself as the exceptional
rather than the ordinary? Why do I have to be different from others for my life
to have meaning? I suspect the answer has something to do with a notion of irreplaceability.
If we are not different, if we do not bring something into the world that nobody
else could bring into it, then nothing really depends on us being here. With or
without us, the world continues unchanged. But what is wrong with that?</span></div>
<div style="mso-element: footnote-list;">
<br clear="all" />
<hr align="left" size="1" width="33%" />
<div id="ftn1" style="mso-element: footnote;">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText">
<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=2391584212436941572#_ftnref1" name="_ftn1" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn1;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">[1]</span></span></span></span></span></a><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"> Cf. my summary of, and commentary
on, Taylor’s “The Meaning of Life”: <a href="https://www.academia.edu/31806748/Richard_Taylor_on_the_Meaning_of_Life">https://www.academia.edu/31806748/Richard_Taylor_on_the_Meaning_of_Life</a></span></div>
</div>
<div id="ftn2" style="mso-element: footnote;">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText">
<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=2391584212436941572#_ftnref2" name="_ftn2" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn2;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">[2]</span></span></span></span></span></a><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"> Richard Taylor, “Time and Life’s
Meaning”, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Review of Metaphysics</i>
40/4 (1987): 675-686. Reprinted in: <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Exploring
the Meaning of Life. An Anthology and Guide</i>, ed. Joshua W. Seachris,
Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell 2013, 296-303. I am using and citing the reprinted
version.</span></div>
</div>
<div id="ftn3" style="mso-element: footnote;">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText">
<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=2391584212436941572#_ftnref3" name="_ftn3" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn3;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">[3]</span></span></span></span></span></a><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"> I’m pretty sure Taylor has this
idea from Schopenhauer, whom he, as the editor of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Will to Live: Selected Writings of Arthur Schopenhauer</i> (1967),
knew well enough. Schopenhauer claims that the cat I now see sitting on the
fence is literally the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">same</i> cat that was
basking in the sun a hundred years ago. But that is of course because
Schopenhauer did not believe in the reality of time. As an objective
manifestation of the Will, the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">species</i>
cat exists, but the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">individual</i> cat does
not because it is just the way the species appears through the lens of time.</span></div>
</div>
<div id="ftn4" style="mso-element: footnote;">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText">
<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=2391584212436941572#_ftnref4" name="_ftn4" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn4;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">[4]</span></span></span></span></span></a><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"> Such a thoroughly re-imagined
Sisyphus would of course no longer be a Sisyphus, except in name.</span></div>
</div>
</div>
Michael Hauskellerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00129104411381847911noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2391584212436941572.post-58158396982602534322017-03-18T02:33:00.000-07:002017-03-18T02:33:09.907-07:00Guy Kahane on why and when it matters to believe that nothing matters<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Guy
Kahane recently (2016) published a paper called “If Nothing Matters”,<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=2391584212436941572#_ftn1" name="_ftnref1" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn1;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">[1]</span></span></span></span></a>
which attempts to settle the question whether it matters whether or not
anything matters. Kahane’s answer: it doesn’t matter if there is anything that
matters, but what <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">does</i> matter is
whether or not we <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">believe</i> that
something matters. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">The
paper starts with a brief description of Richard Hare’s argument in “’Nothing
Matters’”, which I have discussed in a previous post. To recall, Hare argued that things only matter if they matter to <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">someone</i>, so that as long as something
matters to you, you cannot truthfully say that nothing matters. To do so would
be a contradiction. Since for most of us most of the time something matters, it
is generally not true that nothing matters. Though I’m not usually a fan of
Hare’s, I find this argument rather elegant and quite persuasive in its
simplicity. Kahane, however, rejects it offhand - curiously without making any
serious attempt to actually refute it. Apparently he thinks that Hare’s
argument is so obviously misguided that it doesn’t really need a rebuttal. Hare
got it wrong, he simply declares, because “there really are things, like
suffering, that objectively matter”. (p. 2) This is, then, what people mean
when they say that nothing matters: that nothing matters <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">objectively</i>. Things may still matter <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">subjectively</i> (i.e., <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">we</i>
find something worth doing) but if they don’t matter objectively (i.e., it
really <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">is</i> worth doing), then they
don’t <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">really</i> matter at all. That
nothing matters objectively Kahane takes to mean that the universe is “devoid
of value” and that, accordingly, even the grandest achievements are actually
worthless (p. 1). The view that nothing matters can therefore be understood as a
form of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">evaluative nihilism</i> (i.e.,
the view that nothing is worth anything).</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Kahane
contends that this nihilist view is quite common among today’s metaethicists
(which supposedly was not the case in the 1950s when Hare wrote his paper).
Unlike Hare’s Swiss student who clearly believed that whether or not things
matter is a matter of great consequence, today’s nihilist metaethicists do not
seem to care very much one way or another. They conclude that nothing matters,
but are quite happy to carry on as before and to expect everyone else to do the
same. They appear to think that it doesn’t matter whether or not things matter.
The lack of objective value in the universe does not seem to bother them, let
alone plunge them into despair (as it seems to have happened with Hare’s
student). That is because they do not see any reason for it. Now, given their
commitment to evaluative nihilism, this actually seems quite consistent. After
all, if <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">nothing</i> matters, then <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">this</i> – the fact that nothing matters -
doesn’t matter either. Or in other words: it cannot possibly be bad that
nothing is really good or bad. Kahane agrees with this: if we “take evaluative
nihilism seriously enough, then anxiety about it makes little sense.” (p. 5).
Generally speaking, then, nothing follows from evaluative nihilism. What
matters <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">to us</i> will continue to matter
to us, whether or not it <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">objectively</i>
matters. Perhaps, if nihilism is true, we have no good reason to pursue
whatever it is that we are pursuing in life, but the point is that we have no
good reason <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">not</i> to pursue it either.
Things are just the same as ever. Nihilism has, as Kahane says, “no normative
implications. It cannot make the world bad or worse, or give anyone reasons to
do or feel anything – or, for that matter, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">not</i>
to do or feel something. (…) The truth of nihilism, the total absence of all
value, makes no normative difference.” (8)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">However,
what <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">might</i> make a difference,
according to Kahane, is whether or not we <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">believe</i>
in nihilism. This is not because believing in nihilism would <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">logically</i> commit us to stop valuing
things. As we have seen, it does no such thing. It may, however, still have
some <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">causal</i> impact on our attitudes.
“What matters is how a person’s <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">psychology</i>
would respond to a belief in nihilism.” (p. 9-10) So how would it respond?
Kahane thinks it is very likely that belief in the truth of nihilism will result
in the loss of our substantive evaluative beliefs. In other words, if I truly
believe that nothing really matters, then I will also believe that <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">this</i> (whatever ‘this’ is) does not
really matter. To hold that even though nothing matters such and such does in
fact matter is as inconsistent as not believing in witches and at the same time
insisting that so-and-so is a witch. Consequently, if we believe that nothing
matters, we will most likely also believe that, for instance, suffering does
not matter, i.e. that it is not <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">really</i>
bad (even though it may continue to appear bad to me). But usually our
subjective concerns are not independent of our evaluative beliefs. If I think
that such and such is really bad, then I am likely to be concerned about it.
Conversely, if I <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">don’t</i> think that
such and such is really bad, then I am much less likely to be concerned about
it. Accordingly, if I don’t think that suffering is really bad (that it matters
whether or not people suffer), then I am less likely to be concerned about
people’s suffering. We will stop caring, or not care that much anymore. (Note
that this effect would ensue even if nihilism was <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">false</i>. This is very important for Kahane’s argument: it is the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">belief</i> in nihilism that causes our
subjective concerns to change and diminish.) Admittedly, some basic animal
drives and motivations (like our aversion to pain, hunger, or cold) might
survive the nihilist onslaught, but everything else including our “moral
principles and ideals, and even (…) our long-term prudential goals” (17) would
most likely not.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Assuming
that we have followed Kahane so far and are willing to accept his claim that
belief in the truth of nihilism is likely to undermine our subjective concerns,
we might be inclined to think that such an outcome is not exactly desirable.
People should care, and if believing in nihilism makes people care less about
things (including justice and fairness, and our interests in general), then
surely we have every reason to dissuade people from such a belief. It would be
bad for them, and most likely bad for us, too. Kahane, however, disagrees, on
the grounds that if nihilism is in fact true, then nothing matters, and if
nothing matters, it doesn’t matter whether or not nihilism affects subjective
concerns and what those concerns are. If evaluative nihilism is true, then
whatever the actual effects of a belief in nihilism may be, it is all the same
because none of it matters. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">And
now Kahane’s argument is getting really interesting. It takes the form of a
variation of Pascal’s famous wager. After denying that the likely psychological
effects of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">correctly</i> believing in
nihilism would give us any reason to avoid and discourage such a belief, Kahane
goes on to argue that those effects <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">would</i>,
however, matter if nihilism were <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">false</i>,
i.e, if things actually did matter. Because then we would “no longer recognize
the values and reasons out there” (p. 19), and this would be very bad indeed.
Such an outcome would be “<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">very</i>
harmful”, “disastrous” in fact, because it would lead to “many bad consequences,
both prudential and moral, and might be bad in itself”. That is why, while we
have no reason to fear nihilism, we have plenty of reason to fear “<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">mistaken belief</i> in nihilism” (p. 19). </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">To
sum up: if nihilism is true, then we have nothing to worry about whether or not
we believe that it is true, and if nihilism is <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">not</i> true, then we still have nothing to worry about as long as we
don’t <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">believe</i> it’s true. But if we
believe nihilism is true while in fact it is <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">not</i> true, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">then</i> we are in
big trouble. Since not believing in nihilism will not harm us either way, it
follows that we have good “pragmatic reasons to believe (or to try to make
ourselves believe) that nihilism is false” (p. 19) and indeed to avoid and
suppress “anything that might lead us to believe in nihilism” (p. 21) Let us
call this <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Kahane’s Wager</i>. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">COMMENTARY:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Kahane’s
argument is intriguing, but it seems to me that it suffers from a fatal flaw. Right
from the start, it is simply assumed that it makes good sense to say that
something matters objectively. But what exactly are we saying here? I find this
far from clear. Kahane mentions suffering as an example of something that
(quite obviously) matters objectively. Let us see whether we can figure out
what that means. Clearly, my suffering matters to me. Whether or not I suffer
and how much I suffer makes a huge difference to me. I cannot be (or at any
rate, I am not) indifferent to my own suffering. Other people presumably feel
the same about their suffering. In addition, most people are also concerned
about other people’s suffering, though in varying degrees and generally not in
the same degree that they are concerned about their own. But it often does
matter to them. People, as a rule, are not entirely indifferent to the
suffering of other people (or, for that matter, animals). So (my and possibly
your) suffering matters to me, and (your and possibly my) suffering matters to
you. But that would still only be <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">subjective</i>
mattering, wouldn’t it? There is, after all, someone to <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">whom</i> it matters. If it matters to someone, it matters subjectively.
Admittedly, it might <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">also</i> matter
objectively, but in that case it cannot simply matter objectively because and
insofar as it matters to someone, because then what matters objectively would
be indistinguishable from what matters subjectively. If there is a difference
between subjective and objective mattering, then there must be some way to
distinguish the two. It must be, in other words, (at least theoretically)
possible for there to be objective mattering without subjective mattering. So
what we seem to be saying when we insist that suffering matters <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">objectively</i> is something like this: that
my suffering would still matter even if it did not matter to me or to you, or
to anyone at all. Suffering would still matter even if there were <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">nobody</i> to whom it mattered. But once
again, what does that <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">mean</i>? Perhaps
we are tempted to say that it means that even if it does not matter to anyone,
it <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">should</i> matter to us. But that does
not really get us anywhere. If someone asks us <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">why</i> suffering should matter to us if it does not already do so, all
we could say is that it <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">should</i> matter
to us because it <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">does</i> matter, namely
objectively. We should attach importance to it because it <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">is</i> important (though for and to no one in particular). A
prescriptive interpretation of supposedly objective values thus merely begs the
question. We have just deflected from the problem instead of solving it. So,
one more time, what does it mean that suffering matters objectively? Frankly, I
don’t have the slightest idea, and what is more, I doubt that anyone really
understands this claim, not even Kahane himself. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Let
us now turn to the argument itself or that crucial portion of it that I have
called Kahane’s Wager, which relies heavily on the notion of objective
mattering (that is, things being objectively valuable). More precisely, the
argument relies on a distinction between two levels of reality: the subjective
and the objective. These two levels of reality are thought to be ontologically
independent of each other. It is possible that things matter to me subjectively
even though they do <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">not</i> matter
objectively. It is also possible that things do not matter to me subjectively
while they <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">do</i> matter objectively. It
is even possible that they matter both subjectively and objectively, but that I
am completely mistaken about <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">how</i> they
matter. I may for instance think that suffering is bad, while in fact
(objectively) suffering is good. (Kahane explicitly allows for this
possibility, but thinks – for, as far as I can see, no compelling reason - that
such a value reversal is rather unlikely.) This separation explains why, as
Kahane puts it, “the truth of nihilism makes no normative difference.” Whatever
matters or does not matter objectively, it has no effect whatsoever on what
matters subjectively. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Now,
Kahane’s Wager is modeled on Pascal’s wager. Pascal’s wager works because it
is assumed that it may make a huge difference whether or not we believe in God.
There is a lot at stake here, a lot to be gained and lost. Eternal rewards and eternal
punishments are both possible. If I believe in God and there is no God, I don’t
lose much, but if there is, then the rewards are immense. If I don’t believe in
God and there is no God, then I don’t really gain anything, but if there is, I
may have to face eternal damnation. So I’d better play it safe, do the rational
thing, and believe. For Kahane’s Wager to work, we likewise need to assume that
the consequences of believing in nihilism are potentially disastrous, while we
don’t really stand to lose anything if we do not believe in it: if it is not true,
then our subjective concerns are justified, and there is nothing bad about that,
and if it is, then nothing matters anyway, so that wouldn’t be bad either. But
if we <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">do</i> believe in nihilism even
though it is <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">not</i> true (which would be
the equivalent of not believing in God even though God exists), then this would
result in great harm. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">The
problem with this argument is that it is hard to see in what way exactly
mistaken belief in nihilism would be harmful. Remember that nihilism itself is supposed
to be not only <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">not</i> harmful: it does
not make the slightest difference for how we experience the world. If things
did matter objectively and suddenly stopped mattering objectively, or did not
matter and then suddenly started to matter, in neither case would we be able to
tell the difference. The world as we know it would remain unchanged. (This
alone should be sufficient to reject the notion of objective value: following
William James’s excellent pragmatist principle that there can <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">be</i> no difference anywhere that doesn’t <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">make</i> a difference elsewhere,<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=2391584212436941572#_ftn3" name="_ftnref3" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn3;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">[2]</span></span></span></span></a>
the claim that certain things matter objectively is simply meaningless.) </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Now,
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">believing</i> that nihilism is true may
certainly have consequences: people may get depressed and commit suicide, they
may start hurting other people, and do all kinds of other things that we may
feel are bad. Obviously, however, if belief in nihilism really does have such
consequences, it has them whether or not nihilism is true. Yet Kahane argues
that those consequences would only matter (i.e., be bad) if nihilism were not
true. Exactly the same consequences would not matter at all if nihilism were
true. Therefore, belief in nihilism cannot be thought to be harmful because it
has those consequences. It must be harmful for other reasons. But the only
difference between correctly believing in nihilism and falsely believing in nihilism
seems to be that in the first case our subjective concerns would correspond to objective
values (“the value around us”), while in the second case they would not. Everything
else would be exactly the same. But then again, a lack of correspondence
between subjective concerns and objective value cannot be what makes things bad
either, because if nihilism were true and we believed it wasn’t, there would
also be a lack of correspondence between subjective concerns and objective
value, but that, according to Kahane, would <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">not</i>
be bad. So then the only possible reason for thinking that it would be bad if
we falsely believed in nihilism, but not bad if we correctly believed in it, is
that in the first case the consequences of believing in nihilism would be <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">really</i> (i.e., objectively) bad whereas
in the second case they would not be really bad, but only appear to be so. That
is, they would only be subjectively bad. But if I mistakenly believe in
nihilism, then of course those consequences would not be subjectively bad at
all. Since I now believe that nothing matters, whatever results from my belief
does not matter to me either, and if we all believed in it, then it would
matter to no one. It follows that the consequences of our mistakenly believing
in nihilism would be <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">only</i> objectively
bad, which leads us right back to our original problem: to understand what we
can possibly <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">mean</i> when we say that
something matters objectively or does not matter objectively. </span></div>
<div style="mso-element: footnote-list;">
<br clear="all" />
<hr align="left" size="1" width="33%" />
<div id="ftn1" style="mso-element: footnote;">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText">
<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=2391584212436941572#_ftnref1" name="_ftn1" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn1;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">[1]</span></span></span></span></a><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"> Published in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Nous</i> (2016), online first: </span><a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/nous.12146/pdf"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/nous.12146/pdf</span></a></div>
</div>
<div id="ftn2" style="mso-element: footnote;">
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<a href="https://www.academia.edu/31880183/Richard_M._Hare_on_what_it_means_to_say_that_something_matters_or_does_not_matter"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"></span></a></div>
</div>
<div id="ftn3" style="mso-element: footnote;">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText">
<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=2391584212436941572#_ftnref3" name="_ftn3" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn3;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">[2]</span></span></span></span></span></a><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"> William James, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Pragmatism. A New Name for Some Old Ways of
Thinking</i>, New York/ Bombay/ Calcutta: Longmans, Green, and Co 1907, p. 50.</span></div>
</div>
</div>
Michael Hauskellerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00129104411381847911noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2391584212436941572.post-65794602702289060862017-03-15T10:14:00.000-07:002017-03-16T01:05:25.867-07:00Richard M. Hare on what it means to say that something matters<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">What
exactly do we mean when we say that “nothing matters”? Richard Hare attempts to
answer this question in an early (1957) essay.<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=2391584212436941572#_ftn1" name="_ftnref1" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn1;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">[1]</span></span></span></span></a>
The way he answers it is intended to convince us that the view that “nothing
matters” (or in other words existential nihilism) is an untenable, for most of
us even nonsensical position, and quite obviously so. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Hare
starts his essay by relating the story of a young Swiss student staying with
the Hares, who after reading Camus’ <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">L’Etranger</i>
suddenly became convinced that “nothing matters”. Hare then proceeded to talk
him out of it in Socratic fashion. Here is how: when we say that something
matters what we do is express <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">concern</i>
about that something. Concern, however, is always <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">somebody’s</i> concern. Therefore, when I say that something matters I
express <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">my</i> concern for it. I am
saying that it matters to <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">me</i>. Accordingly,
when you say the same, then you express <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">your</i>
concern for that thing. You are saying that it matters to <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">you</i>. Neither of us is then really saying anything about the thing
in question. We are only saying something about ourselves. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Now
most of us are in fact concerned about many things. And so, apparently, was
Hare’s Swiss student, which means that things <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">did</i> matter to him, which means that they did <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">matter</i>, period. For the statement “nothing matters” to be true it
would have to be true that the one who makes the statement is not concerned
about anything at all. So if <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">I</i> am the
one who says that nothing matters, then this is true if and only if nothing matters
to <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">me</i>, and if <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">you</i> are the one who says it, then it is true if and only if nothing
matters to <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">you</i>. Yet if it were true
that nothing mattered to me, why would I then bother to make that statement in
the first place? It seems I would at least have to care enough about something
to find it worth pointing out to the world that nothing matters, in which case
I would have immediately contradicted myself.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">The
reason we may not be immediately aware of this contradiction is that we tend to
misunderstand the function of the word “matters”. Its function is to express (somebody’s)
concern. It does not tell us anything about the nature of things. Contrary to
what we seem to think when we declare that nothing matters (or seriously wonder
whether it might be true that nothing matters), mattering is not something that
things do. My wife may both chatter and matter, but while the chattering is
something that my wife actually does,<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=2391584212436941572#_ftn2" name="_ftnref2" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn2;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">[2]</span></span></span></span></a>
the mattering is not. In that sense it is quite true that (strictly speaking) no
thing matters, from which we can easily, but mistakenly, derive the conclusion
that nothing matters: we take a deep and hard look at things, fail to observe
any mattering activity in them, and then conclude that nothing matters. However,
we have looked in the wrong place. We should have looked at ourselves. If we
had done that we would most likely have found that some things do matter,
namely to us and therefore in the only way something <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">can</i> matter.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">This
is not to say that there are no people out there who are not very much
concerned about anything. But they are an exception, and even if nothing or
nothing much matters to <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">them</i>, this
has absolutely no bearing on the question what matters, or should matter, to <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">us</i>. Instead of wondering whether things
matter, Hare suggests in conclusion, we’d better ask ourselves <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">what</i> matters to us, what matters <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">most</i> to us, and what <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">should</i> matter to us and how <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">much</i> it should matter. These are all
important life questions. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Whether</i>
things matter is not. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">COMMENTARY:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">The
obvious question to ask here is of course whether Hare is right to say that
what we mean (and all we <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">can</i> mean) when
we say that something matters is that it matters to <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">us</i>. Is the function of saying “it matters” really the expression of
one’s own personal concern, and nothing else? Is there really no difference
between “this is important” and “I find this important”? Personally, I am
inclined to agree with Hare, mostly because I don’t see how things can matter
if they don’t matter to someone, and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">how</i>
they can matter other than by mattering to someone. On the other hand, it seems
to me that when we say something like “nothing matters” we do not really mean
to say that nothing matters to <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">us</i>. That
is why we would, when we say this, not feel contradicted if somebody pointed
out to us that some things do in fact matter to us. We already knew that, and
never meant to deny it. So it seems it is something <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">else</i> that we wished to express by saying that ‘nothing matters’. But
the question is, what <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">do</i> we mean if
we don’t mean that nothing matters to <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">us</i>?
I find this question very difficult to answer. Consider the following fictional
dialogue between A and B:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-element: para-border-div; padding: 1.0pt 4.0pt 1.0pt 4.0pt;">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; line-height: 150%; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-padding-alt: 1.0pt 4.0pt 1.0pt 4.0pt; padding: 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "berlin sans fb demi" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">A:
Nothing matters!</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; line-height: 150%; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-padding-alt: 1.0pt 4.0pt 1.0pt 4.0pt; padding: 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "comic sans ms"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">B: What
do you mean, nothing matters? </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; line-height: 150%; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-padding-alt: 1.0pt 4.0pt 1.0pt 4.0pt; padding: 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "berlin sans fb demi" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">A:
What I said.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; line-height: 150%; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-padding-alt: 1.0pt 4.0pt 1.0pt 4.0pt; padding: 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "comic sans ms"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">B: So
what you mean is that nothing matters to <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">you</i>,
right?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; line-height: 150%; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-padding-alt: 1.0pt 4.0pt 1.0pt 4.0pt; padding: 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "berlin sans fb demi" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">A:
No, I don’t mean that at all. In fact, it matters very much to me that nothing
matters. I’m extremely concerned about it!</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; line-height: 150%; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-padding-alt: 1.0pt 4.0pt 1.0pt 4.0pt; padding: 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "comic sans ms"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">B: But if
you are concerned about it, if it matters to you that nothing matters, then
there clearly <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">is</i> something that matters.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; line-height: 150%; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-padding-alt: 1.0pt 4.0pt 1.0pt 4.0pt; padding: 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "berlin sans fb demi" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">A:
Yes, but only to <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">me</i>. The point is
that it doesn’t really matter what matters to me or if there is anything that
matters to me. It doesn’t matter whether or not things matter to people, me
included.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; line-height: 150%; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-padding-alt: 1.0pt 4.0pt 1.0pt 4.0pt; padding: 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "comic sans ms"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">B: Okay,
but what do you mean when you say it doesn’t matter? If they matter to you, and
they matter to me, if there is <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">somebody</i>
to whom they matter, how can they still not matter?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; line-height: 150%; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-padding-alt: 1.0pt 4.0pt 1.0pt 4.0pt; padding: 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "berlin sans fb demi" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">A:
They do not matter in the sense that it makes <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">no difference</i> whether or not they matter to me, or, for that
matter, if they exist or not exist. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; line-height: 150%; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-padding-alt: 1.0pt 4.0pt 1.0pt 4.0pt; padding: 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "comic sans ms"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">B: No
difference to you, you mean?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; line-height: 150%; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-padding-alt: 1.0pt 4.0pt 1.0pt 4.0pt; padding: 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "berlin sans fb demi" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">A:
No, not to me. To me it does make a difference.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; line-height: 150%; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-padding-alt: 1.0pt 4.0pt 1.0pt 4.0pt; padding: 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "comic sans ms"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">B: To whom
then?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; line-height: 150%; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-padding-alt: 1.0pt 4.0pt 1.0pt 4.0pt; padding: 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "berlin sans fb demi" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">A:
To nobody in particular. It simply makes no difference. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; line-height: 150%; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-padding-alt: 1.0pt 4.0pt 1.0pt 4.0pt; padding: 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "comic sans ms"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">B: But it
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">does</i> make a difference. After all, if
those things didn’t exist or if they were different, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">other</i> things would be different, too, wouldn’t they? </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; line-height: 150%; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-padding-alt: 1.0pt 4.0pt 1.0pt 4.0pt; padding: 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "berlin sans fb demi" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">A:
Yes, but not in the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">long</i> run. A time
will come when the world will be exactly as it would have been if things had
been different. Say in 5 billion years when the sun will swell up and swallow
Earth. None of the things that we do now will then have made any difference. So
I guess what I mean when I say nothing matters is that nothing matters <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">ultimately</i> or in the long run.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; line-height: 150%; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-padding-alt: 1.0pt 4.0pt 1.0pt 4.0pt; padding: 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "comic sans ms"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">B: Okay,
fine, perhaps what happens now and what we do and whether we live or die makes
no difference for the long-term future. But all of this certainly makes a
difference <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">now</i>. Why should we want it
to make a difference for all eternity? </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; line-height: 150%; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-padding-alt: 1.0pt 4.0pt 1.0pt 4.0pt; padding: 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "berlin sans fb demi" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">A:
Well, I guess you are right. Although when that future comes, there will also
be nobody left to whom anything matters that matters to us now. So then nothing
will matter anymore, right?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; line-height: 150%; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-padding-alt: 1.0pt 4.0pt 1.0pt 4.0pt; padding: 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "comic sans ms"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">B: Yes,
correct, but why should we worry about that? Perhaps it is true that there will
come a time when nothing matters any more, but that time is not here yet. That
nothing <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">will</i> matter does in no way
show that nothing matters, namely now. So what is your problem?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; line-height: 150%; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-padding-alt: 1.0pt 4.0pt 1.0pt 4.0pt; padding: 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "berlin sans fb demi" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">A:
I don’t know. You are confusing me. Let’s go and have a drink. It doesn’t
really matter anyway.</span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Still,
it remains difficult to consistently think about ‘importance’ or ‘mattering’
the way that Hare suggests we do. Hare himself seems to forget what he has just
told us when, in the last paragraph of his essay, he advises us to “learn to
prize those things whose true value is apparent only to those who have fought
hard to reach it.” (46) This is clearly something that matters to Hare.
However, in suggesting that this matters he is also clearly not merely
expressing his own concerns. He is, rather, expressing the belief that we, too,
should be concerned about it. So ‘this matters’, at least in this particular
instance, means, in addition to “this matters to me (= Hare)”, “this <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">should</i> matter to <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">you</i> (= the reader)”. Why should it, though? The reason seems to
have something to do with some things being <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">truly</i>
valuable and others not, yet in light of Hare’s own analysis it makes little
sense to assert that things have a “true value” that is not always apparent to
us. In accordance with Hare’s analysis of the meaning of ‘X matters’, it seems
that what we mean (and all we <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">can</i>
mean) when we say that “something has true value” is that it has true value <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">for us</i>. But in that case it would make
no sense to say that the “true value” may not be apparent to us. If having such
a value means having such a value <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">for us</i>,
then it needs to be apparent to us. Yet the very term “true value” is designed
to suggest that we may be mistaken about a thing’s true value (just as,
perhaps, we can be mistaken about what truly matters, or that things matter at
all). “True value” implies the possibility of “false value”, but it would be
very odd to say that certain things have a false value for me. They either have
value or they don’t. That their value is false can only mean that even though
they appear to be valuable to me, they are in fact not valuable at all. Accordingly,
to say that something is <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">truly</i>
valuable can only mean that it has value even if I am unable to see it (so that
it has no value for me). If nothing matters unless, and to the extent that, it
matters to someone, then nothing has value either, unless, and to the extent
that, it has value for someone. </span></div>
<div style="mso-element: footnote-list;">
<br clear="all" />
<hr align="left" size="1" width="33%" />
<div id="ftn1" style="mso-element: footnote;">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText">
<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=2391584212436941572#_ftnref1" name="_ftn1" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn1;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif";"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%;">[1]</span></span></span></span></span></a><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif";"> “’Nothing Matters’” was written
in 1957 when Hare was 38. It was originally published in French as “Rien n’a d’importance”
in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">La Philosophie Analytique</i>, Paris:
Les Éditions de Minuit 1959, and later reprinted in English in Hare’s <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Applications of Moral Philosophy</i>,
London: Macmillan 1972, 32–47. I am using another reprint, namely the one in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Life, Death and Meaning</i>, ed. David
Benatar, Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield 2004, 41-47.</span></div>
</div>
<div id="ftn2" style="mso-element: footnote;">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText">
<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=2391584212436941572#_ftnref2" name="_ftn2" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn2;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif";"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%;">[2]</span></span></span></span></span></a><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif";"> Note to my wife: this is Hare’s
example, not mine.</span></div>
</div>
</div>
Michael Hauskellerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00129104411381847911noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2391584212436941572.post-67190344070909346622017-03-11T09:32:00.002-08:002017-03-11T09:32:38.140-08:00Thomas Nagel on the Absurd<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">It
is often said that life is absurd. However, it is not always clear what exactly
we mean by that. What, if anything, makes it absurd, and why do we think, as we
seem to do, that life’s being absurd is something we should rightly worry about?
Perhaps life <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">is</i> absurd and that is
actually a <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">good</i> thing. This is what
Thomas Nagel argues in a paper on the topic, published in 1971.<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=2391584212436941572#_ftn1" name="_ftnref1" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn1;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">[1]</span></span></span></span></a>
</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVAH5G6cqvIr_ivajOVsPtl04AZ8cPcNkCVkxA8MdHjm89s95OlXFXZIh11ovwj-aXxnk4j-J65XIQBEyyD9_obUHVe7xFcGhBriNRFY_aRI_qBomRocJKz0k6EWSrN5kxemHB3CdV3tc/s1600/Absurd.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVAH5G6cqvIr_ivajOVsPtl04AZ8cPcNkCVkxA8MdHjm89s95OlXFXZIh11ovwj-aXxnk4j-J65XIQBEyyD9_obUHVe7xFcGhBriNRFY_aRI_qBomRocJKz0k6EWSrN5kxemHB3CdV3tc/s1600/Absurd.jpg" /></a><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Nagel
begins his investigation by ruling out the usual suspects. What makes life
absurd is <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">not</i> the fact that what
matters to us now will most likely not matter anymore at some time in the future
(say, in a million years), because we have no good reason to think that the things
that matter to us now would matter more or would only <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">really</i> matter if they also mattered in the future. Also, if what
happens now does not matter in the future, then surely what happens in the
future does not matter now. Consequently, it does not matter now whether what
matters now will also matter in the future. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Neither
is what makes life absurd the fact that we will die, or the fact that we are
very small and insignificant when compared to the enormous size of the universe.
If our life is absurd (i.e. meaningless) now, then it would also be absurd if
we lived considerably longer or forever, or if we were actually big enough to
fill the universe. Nor is life absurd because it will be cut off at some point
and in that sense does not lead anywhere. What we do in life does in fact lead
to many things <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">in</i> life. Why should it
have to lead to something that is no longer part of our life? The chain of
justifications (‘I do this in order to achieve that’) needs to come to an end <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">somewhere</i>, and there is no reason why it
should not come to an end within our given life span.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiC-jyCTo0ZG-uHvNyCyNagDP0boAvr0IvZxKsAWpMafzTzUbT4443VNdWVUjojt7rVdX1L52LLi6kNpAYiAzz1c8dr-pP_u4z_wtn3mWmWkmdOVEeWg8GdIYp_0JjLZplN1d0ldcVqQeI/s1600/Absurd+2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiC-jyCTo0ZG-uHvNyCyNagDP0boAvr0IvZxKsAWpMafzTzUbT4443VNdWVUjojt7rVdX1L52LLi6kNpAYiAzz1c8dr-pP_u4z_wtn3mWmWkmdOVEeWg8GdIYp_0JjLZplN1d0ldcVqQeI/s1600/Absurd+2.jpg" /></a><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">From
this it does, of course, not follow that life is not absurd. What follows is
merely that <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">if</i> life is absurd, it
must be something else that makes it so. Nagel suggests that we normally call a
situation absurd if there is a “conspicuous discrepancy between pretension or aspiration
and reality” (31). You are being knighted and your pants fall down, that kind
of thing. Accordingly, life as a whole would be absurd (for each one of us) if
there were an <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">inevitable</i> clash
between our pretensions as human beings and reality (or what we know about it).
Now there is indeed such a clash, namely between our inability to take our life
other than <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">seriously</i> and our inability,
as thinking beings, not to understand the ultimate <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">arbitrariness</i> of everything we do. Among the animals, only humans
have the ability to look at their own lives from, as it were, the outside, as
mere spectators, or <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">sub specie
aeternitatis</i>. If we adopt this “view from nowhere” (as Nagel shall later
call it), then we realize that everything that is important to us is <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">only</i> important because we happen to be
the kind of creature that we are. If we were different, then different things
would matter to us. Nothing matters in itself. It is all contingent, and in
that sense arbitrary. When we look at our lives from that perspective it seems
rather ludicrous how seriously we take it all. And yet, seriously we do take
it. We have to carry on with our lives and to continue to treat things as
important that from an impartial spectator’s point of view are anything but. (I
know it does not <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">really</i> matter
whether I get that promotion or not, but knowing this does not change the fact
that it still matters to <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">me</i>.) This inevitable
conflict of perspectives is where absurdity lies: that we can be deeply
involved in our lives <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">and</i>, at the
same time and without undermining or diminishing our involvement in any way,
realize that if we had been “put together” (35) differently we could just as
well be involved in something else, or in nothing at all. In this respect, our
sense of the absurd resembles epistemological scepticism: despite understanding
perfectly well that I have no grounds to be certain about anything (for
instance the existence of an external world or other minds), I cannot help continuing
to act as if I was certain. Or rather, I <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">am</i>
certain, although I know that, rationally speaking, I shouldn’t. Similarly, I
take my life seriously, although I know that I have no rational grounds to do
so. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">However,
something changes when we cultivate (rather than suppress) the external view on
our lives: our seriousness is not gone (which would in fact be disastrous), but
it is now “laced with irony”. (37) Should we regret this? For Nagel, the
absurdity of (our) life is actually a good thing and not something we should bemoan
or try to escape from. It is most definitely no reason to despair. Remember, it
is <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">only</i> because we can look at our
lives from the outside that life can appear absurd to us. We don’t really <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">discover</i> it to be absurd. If Nagel is
right, then our lives are not absurd <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">prior</i>
to our realizing this. The absurdity <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">consists</i>
in the conflicting viewpoints. That is why the life of an animal is never
absurd, precisely because it cannot be absurd<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> for</i> it. For an animal, say a mouse, life is never absurd because he
lacks that crucial impartial perspective. He lacks the “self-consciousness and
self-transcendence that would enable him to see that he is only a mouse.” (38) Yet
is he better off because his life is not absurd? No. The animal’s life is not
absurd, says Nagel, but it is not meaningful either. In fact, at the end of his
paper Nagel comes very close to suggesting that it is actually the very fact
that we have a sense of the absurdity of our lives that makes our lives
meaningful. “I would argue”, he writes, “that absurdity is one of the most
human things about us: a manifestation of our most advanced and interesting
characteristics.” Our sense of the absurd is in fact “a way of perceiving our
true situation” and a result of our “capacity to transcend ourselves in thought”
(39). So nothing to worry about. (And anyway, Nagel rather glibly concludes, if
nothing matters, then it does not, or should not, matter that nothing matters
either.)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">COMMENTARY:
</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">I
am wondering whether Nagel’s analysis of our sense that life is absurd does not
rely rather too heavily on a redefinition of the absurd. Nagel’s absurd does
not seem to be the absurd that people tend to be concerned about. When he
begins his analysis he occasionally uses the term ‘meaningless’ synonymously with
‘absurd’, but when he reaches his conclusion, the absurd has mutated into
something else that can no longer be equated with meaninglessness. No wonder then
that Nagel does not find the absurd particularly bothersome. All it does is
invite us to adopt a slightly ironical, moderately detached attitude towards
life. We still take life seriously, but perhaps not <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">that</i> seriously anymore. We have distanced ourselves slightly from
our individual persona, have gained a little freedom from ourselves and can now
meet the world with a little more equanimity. That is all very useful and
liberating, I’m sure. However, it does not really address the existential
concerns that people sometimes have, about whether, when all is said and done, life
is really worth all the trouble. Why bother if in the end it will all be for
nothing? The worry that nothing might really matter is an <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">existential</i> worry, or, in Kierkegaard’s sense, an <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">ethical</i> worry. In contrast, Nagel’s
absurd is purely <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">aesthetic</i>, more pleasurable
than horrifying. It is indeed the product of the view from nowhere, the absurd
of a pure spectator. Never mind that I <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">am</i>
that spectator and what I am looking at is my <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">own</i> life, which I cannot help taking seriously. It is still from the
spectator’s perspective that it appears absurd to me. It is the place where I
can laugh about my struggles, where death is simply the end of a story that has
been told before and will be told again, many, many times. But the absurd that
bothers and alienates us, which might even drive us into despair, is something
that is perceived not from the viewpoint of the spectator, but from the
viewpoint of the one who actually lives that life. And who lives it here and
now and only this once. Nagel’s absurd is harmless, even edifying, because it
is perceived from the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">outside</i>. It
invites us to see the comical side of things. Yet there is also an absurd that
is perceived from the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">inside</i>, and
that is a very different thing, something that does not liberate us from our
natural obsession with ourselves, our inborn parochialism, but that instead
rips a hole into our world and threatens to rob us of our sanity. Here be lions
and dragons, here be cold and dark and emptiness. It is a different, far less
congenial kind of absurd, one that is more akin to the absurd of Lovecraft and
Ligotti than to that of Nagel.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">One
more thing: the notion of the absurd is very much associated with the French
philosopher Albert Camus. Nagel mentions him, but only briefly and rather
disparagingly at the end of his paper, only to accuse him of being a bit too “romantic
and slightly self-pitying” (39). Instead of happily embracing the ironic
detachment that the absurd can and should give rise to, Camus asked us to respond
to the absurd with defiance, by “shaking a fist at the world”. This, however,
is at best only partly true and a bit of a caricature. The absurd, for Camus,
also rests on a discrepancy, but not between an internal and an external view,
but between human hopes and desires on the one hand, and the unresponsiveness and
indifference of the universe on the other. But what Camus thinks of as the
appropriate response to this discrepancy amounts to more than just shaking one’s
fist at the world. It is, rather, a determination not to accept the
indifference with which the universe looks back at us, and to <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">resist</i> this indifference by not adding
to it. We defy the absurd by insisting that it matters what we do, by <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">making</i> them matter, by <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">caring</i> about what happens and what is
being done to other people, and by acting accordingly. We thus create, little
by little, a different universe, one that does care, at least in part, because
we do. In short, Camus’ absurd prompts us to care more, whereas Nagel’s absurd
prompts us to care less. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div style="mso-element: footnote-list;">
<br clear="all" />
<hr align="left" size="1" width="33%" />
<div id="ftn1" style="mso-element: footnote;">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText">
<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=2391584212436941572#_ftnref1" name="_ftn1" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn1;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">[1]</span></span></span></span></a><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"> Thomas Nagel, “The Absurd”. Originally
published in the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Journal of Philosophy</i>
68/20 (1971): 716-727. Reprinted in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Life,
Death and Meaning. Key Philosophical Readings on the Big Questions</i>, ed.
David Benatar, Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield 2004, 29-40 (which is the
version I have been using).</span></div>
</div>
</div>
Michael Hauskellerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00129104411381847911noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2391584212436941572.post-87474059495613198912017-03-10T22:46:00.000-08:002017-03-10T22:46:13.490-08:00Richard Taylor on the Meaning of Life<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Richard
Taylor’s “The Meaning of Life”, published in 1970,<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=2391584212436941572#_ftn1" name="_ftnref1" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn1;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">[1]</span></span></span></span></a>
starts off with an analysis of the myth of Sisyphus, which Taylor introduces as
a “perfect image of meaninglessness” (20). Sisyphus was condemned by the gods
to push a rock up a hill, for all eternity. For whenever he gets to the top,
the rock rolls down again, so that he has to start all over again. There is no
hope that he will ever accomplish his task, and giving up is not an option. The
“idiotic cycle” that is his life will never end. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKTE_p1RYnSucbURCDlqkpcyJuSWO2Wty9QfBbonFCrpVZd6r8402nC4A-8c7sal69vyKq2b6QvUIBFzdvI2V6NxbThm3uQWpl6IMb80hk3R2AmfyXU2H8PUpoj-869VsJev_Xx_u8w24/s1600/Taylor+Richard.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKTE_p1RYnSucbURCDlqkpcyJuSWO2Wty9QfBbonFCrpVZd6r8402nC4A-8c7sal69vyKq2b6QvUIBFzdvI2V6NxbThm3uQWpl6IMb80hk3R2AmfyXU2H8PUpoj-869VsJev_Xx_u8w24/s1600/Taylor+Richard.jpg" /></a><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">There
are two features that, for Taylor, makes the Sisyphus case such a perfect
example of a meaningless life. The first is the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">repetitious</i> nature of his labour, and the second is the fact that
“nothing ever comes of what he is doing”. Taylor clearly gives more weight to
the second feature, the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">pointlessness</i>
of his labour, suggesting that what someone is doing might be meaningful
despite being repetitive, as long as it eventually leads to something, which in
Sisyphus’s case it doesn’t. Equally, if one’s life were <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">less</i> repetitive, it would still be meaningless if nothing ever came
of it. “Meaninglessness is essentially endless pointlessness, and
meaningfulness is therefore the opposite.” (23)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Unfortunately,
our own lives seem to be equally pointless. Like all living beings we tend to
do the same things over and over again. Our days strongly resemble each other.
We get up, use the bathroom, have breakfast, go to work, come home, eat, sleep,
and then we do it again tomorrow. Our life as a whole is equally predictable in
its overall trajectory. We get born, grow up, find a job, a hobby, fall in
love, marry, have children, get old, retire, and die. And our children will do
the same, as will their children after them, ad infinitum. There is some
variation in the detail, of course, but in terms of their general features most
human lives are pretty much alike. For one thing, they are characterized by
endless repetitions, and for another, they do not seem to lead anywhere. Our
lives are therefore just as pointless as the life of the famous rock-pusher.
“The picture of Sisyphus is the picture of existence of the individual man,
great or unknown, of nations, of the human race, and of the very life of the
world.” (25)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Except
it isn’t. As it turns out, this was only the first step in Taylor’s argument,
which he subsequently turns completely around by flatly contradicting the
equation between <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">pointlessness</i> (the
not-going-anywhere of our lives) and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">meaninglessness</i>
that he initially seemed to accept. Pointless our lives may be, he now argues,
but that does not necessarily mean that they are meaningless. Contrary to what
was suggested before with the Sisyphus example, what makes them meaningful is <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">not</i> what comes of them (or <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">that</i> something comes of them), but the
fact that we deeply <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">care</i> about what
we do, that we are really emotionally <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">involved</i>
in our lives. The things we do are important to us, and that is enough to make
our lives meaningful, even if nothing that we do actually leads anywhere (at
least to nothing permanent, nothing that will stay). </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Why
should we think that their ‘leading somewhere’ would make our lives meaningful
anyway? Let us suppose that Sisyphus actually managed to fulfil his task. He
rolls the rock up the hill, and it stays up. Sisyphus has accomplished his
goal, and since there aren’t any other goals to replace this one (for instance
to roll a <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">different</i> rock up the hill,
which wouldn’t really change much), he now has got nothing left to do. His life
has led to something, and that’s it. Would his life now be meaningful? Taylor
insists (and quite plausibly so) that it would not. It would, instead, from the
moment of his accomplishment onwards, be “the picture of infinite boredom”
(26). </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">This
has, according to Taylor, nothing to do with the fact that what he has achieved
is unlikely to be regarded as something that is actually <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">worth</i> achieving. Having put a rock on top of a hill is perhaps not
something one can be particularly proud of. Perhaps one should have better
things to do. Yet even if we supposed that Sisyphus used his rocks to build a
beautiful temple on top of that hill, then this would still not make his life
any more meaningful. In both cases, the “nightmare of eternal and pointless
activity” has now merely been replaced with “the hell of its eternal absence.”
(26) And <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">that</i> particular form of
meaninglessness, which according to Taylor would be a <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">genuine</i> hell (27), is precisely what our lives normally do <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">not</i> have because we, together with all
other living beings, tend to feel an “inner compulsion to be doing just what we
were put here to do, and to go on doing it forever.” This, Taylor, suggests,
“is the nearest we may hope to get to heaven”. (27) It is also what makes our
lives meaningful. The meaning is in the (passionate) doing of things, not in
what that doing leads to. “The point of living is simply to be living, in the
manner that it is your nature to be living.” (28) We need to look at lives not
from an external point of view, but from within, and then we will see that the
endless activity that leads nowhere, which characterizes life, is, simply
because it is energetically pursued, perfectly sufficient to give meaning to
life. Consequently, even Sisyphus would, according to Taylor, have a meaningful
life (and one that would not be in any way less meaningful than any other life)
if he actually <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">loved</i> rolling rocks up
hills. So if we could implant in him “a strange and irrational impulse; namely
a compulsive impulse to roll stones” (22), then his life would be just as good
as ours and just as good as any life can ever be.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">I
am inclined to agree with Taylor’s overall conclusion that the meaning of life
is to be found in the living of it, and that the fact that our lives are in
many ways repetitive and ultimately ‘do not lead anywhere’ (i.e. end in death),
does not make our lives any less worth living. As long as we love doing what we
do, as long as we are, as Taylor says, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">deeply</i>
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">involved</i>, our lives are meaningful in
that sense. In that sense even animals can have a meaningful life. As long as
my dog still feels “the rapture of bones under hedges” (William James), her
life is as meaningful as it can get. However, I still have a few qualms about
the argument.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">First,
Taylor depicts the situation where something actually has come of what we do as
the end of all possible pursuits. We achieved our life goal, and now we are
done. Nothing left to live for. Pure hell. Okay, fine. However, that is not
what we desire when we feel that our life is not going anywhere, or that
nothing comes of it. Why should there be only one concern in our life, or a
limited number of concerns? We want our life to go somewhere, but we don’t want
to reach the point where it no longer goes anywhere. We want it to <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">keep</i> going somewhere. That seems to me
entirely consistent. The question would then be, Is my life better (more
meaningful) if what I am doing actually has a point (say, by changing the
world, if only for a while, for the better) than if it does not?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Also,
Taylor is suggesting it doesn’t matter at all <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">what</i> we do as long as we are really into it. In terms of what makes
life meaningful, endless rock pushing is just as good as, say, curing cancer
(which echoes Bentham’s claim that pushpin is just as good as poetry: whatever
works for you). This has a certain democratic appeal, which I do appreciate,
but I am wondering whether Taylor is not taking the democratization a bit too
far.</span> <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Does
it really not matter <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">at all</i> what we
take a keen interest in? Would Sisyphus’s life really suddenly become
meaningful if we managed to manipulate him in such a way that he wants nothing
more than pushing that damn rock up the hill? And if that completely satisfied
him? Should we then also say that if we could create humans who are more than
happy to be our slaves, then they too would have meaningful lives? What about
conscious, self-aware sex robots whose only purpose in life is to satisfy our
every desire? Or “pigs that want to be eaten” (Baggini)? From the internal
perspective their lives might appear worth living, but looked at from the
outside it is difficult not to find them somehow deficient, even lamentable.
And the fact that those who live them don’t mind living that way, and even
positively relish their situation, does not make it any better. If anything, it
makes it worse. The happy Sisyphus is an abomination.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">This
may have something to do with the obvious unnaturalness of those lives. There
is something obnoxious about <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">making</i> a
living being enjoy a life that is forced upon it and that it would never choose
for itself if it had a choice. Taylor finds the meaning of life in the “inner
compulsion to be doing just what we were put here to do, and to go on doing it
forever”. The way this is phrased, however, is puzzling, and certainly
ambiguous. What exactly does it mean to say that we have been “put here to do”
something? Who put us here? And does anything depend on our being <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">put</i> here to do something? And if so,
does anything depend on <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">who</i> put us
here to do whatever we are meant to do? What if we have not been put here at
all, or not put here to do anything in particular? </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">It
may well be, though, that Taylor was just a bit careless with his formulation
and that all he meant to say is that a life is meaningful if the one who lives
it can do what is in their <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">nature</i> to
do, and pursue the goals that is in their nature to pursue. Would we then be
prepared to say that it is in Sisyphus’s nature to push rocks up hills, in the
sexbot’s or sexual slave’s nature to want to be sexually abused, and in the
pig’s nature to be eaten, provided they have been designed to enjoy this? Would
it be different if they hadn’t been <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">designed</i>
that way, but had just turned out to be appreciative of those things through an
accident of nature? If they just happened to be born that way? </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">And
what about those blind, ugly worms living in dark caves that Taylor mentions
earlier in the paper to illustrate the apparent pointlessness of existence,
unmoving and doing nothing except occasionally eating an insect that gets stuck
to them, reproducing once, and then dying? Is that <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">really</i> more or less what we do? Is that <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">really</i> all that we are? Are our lives not in any significant way
different from that of those worms? Meaningful perhaps, if we go along with
Taylor’s assessment, but only as meaningful as the life of such worms? It
doesn’t feel right. More importantly, it does not feel like we are getting an
awful lot of meaning out of this, and certainly not the kind of meaning that
would justify and support the exaltation with which Taylor concludes his essay,
declaring that the meaning of life (which we share with those worms) “far
exceeds in both its beauty and permanence any heaven of which men have ever
dreamed or yearned for.” (28) I’m not sure that blind, ugly worms in a cave can
carry the weight of such exaltation. </span></div>
<div style="mso-element: footnote-list;">
<br clear="all" />
<hr align="left" size="1" width="33%" />
<div id="ftn1" style="mso-element: footnote;">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText">
<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=2391584212436941572#_ftnref1" name="_ftn1" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn1;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">[1]</span></span></span></span></a><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"> Originally in Richard Taylor, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Good and Evil</i>, New York: Macmillan 1970,
reprinted in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Life, Death and Meaning. Key
Philosophical Readings on the Big Questions</i>, ed. David Benatar, Lanham:
Rowman & Littlefield 2004, 19-28 (which is the version I have been using).</span></div>
</div>
</div>
Michael Hauskellerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00129104411381847911noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2391584212436941572.post-8242655540113582172017-01-31T03:49:00.002-08:002017-01-31T03:49:50.275-08:00William James on Donald Trump<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">I just stumbled across the following passage in an
address that William James gave in 1897 on the occasion of the unveiling of the
Robert Gould Shaw monument in Boston. In the light of recent developments in
the United States, I thought I should share it as a particularly apt comment on
what we are witnessing today and what, somehow, inexplicably, we have allowed
to let happen.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjW5QEYhqOl0XwFn1_0WF37SUmG8ubTdyBpQMDclo0ktropctVSCbJmwBS9Ksi1d_kWFWIYV6FBbCR9Fo_sibiLQ6QkSHU0J20eg-gPN1kaz0gO3N0aHORwsfD3V8Q-NuwHhXVZLEHfE3c/s1600/Donald+Trump.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjW5QEYhqOl0XwFn1_0WF37SUmG8ubTdyBpQMDclo0ktropctVSCbJmwBS9Ksi1d_kWFWIYV6FBbCR9Fo_sibiLQ6QkSHU0J20eg-gPN1kaz0gO3N0aHORwsfD3V8Q-NuwHhXVZLEHfE3c/s1600/Donald+Trump.jpg" /></a><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“The deadliest enemies of nations are not their
foreign foes, they always dwell within their borders. And from these internal
enemies civilization is always in need of being saved. The nation blest above
all nations is she in whom the civic genius of the people does the saving day
by day, by acts without external picturesqueness; by speaking, writing, voting
reasonably; by smiting corruption swiftly; by good temper between parties; by
the people knowing true men when they see them, and preferring them as leaders
to rabid partisans or empty quacks.”</span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">(William
James, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Memories and Studies</i>, London/
Bombay/ Calcutta: Longmans, Green and Co. 1911, 58)</span></div>
Michael Hauskellerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00129104411381847911noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2391584212436941572.post-33901361127836068442016-12-10T23:20:00.000-08:002016-12-10T23:20:29.029-08:00Galen Strawson against Narrativity<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 150%;"></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">In
his paper “Against Narrativity” (in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Real
Materialism and Other Essays</i>, Oxford: Clarendon Press 2008), Galen Strawson
attacks two common views: the descriptive claim that we typically experience
our life as some kind of narrative or story (aka the ‘psychological Narrativity
thesis’) and the related, but logically independent normative claim that a
truly <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">good</i> human life requires such a
narrative outlook (aka the ‘ethical Narrativity thesis’). Both claims, Strawson
holds, are actually false because there are in fact “deeply non-Narrative
people and there are good ways to live that are deeply non-Narrative.” </span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitiCxamnVqwr_wdAjIex7y-cRs-GFh4NAUlo9RH8DllUvTy1wfikqacnvWHSPqbY4uGlAIz-wk2ZzGJZRpFfLu_IpEn6qCNbu1OrcYrrf0Sg5la9BIwaVz7hX5m4H1kWfyVQDiE4wNn4o/s1600/Grasshopper.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitiCxamnVqwr_wdAjIex7y-cRs-GFh4NAUlo9RH8DllUvTy1wfikqacnvWHSPqbY4uGlAIz-wk2ZzGJZRpFfLu_IpEn6qCNbu1OrcYrrf0Sg5la9BIwaVz7hX5m4H1kWfyVQDiE4wNn4o/s1600/Grasshopper.jpg" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">According
to Strawson, there are two types of people, those who experience their self as
being extended in time and those who do not. Both are perfectly normal, and
both can equally flourish as human beings. The former simply have a <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">diachronic</i> self-experience, and the
latter an <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">episodic</i> one. Those with
diachronic self-experience (the ‘diachronics’) falsely believe that everybody
is like them, while in fact some (perhaps many) are not. As it happens, they
are also mistaken about the true nature of the self. ‘Episodics’ have a better
grasp of what the self actually, “as a matter of metaphysical fact”, is, namely
something momentary, which is always just beginning (and presumably also always
about to end). Obviously, episodics do not experience their life as a story
(because in order to experience your life as a story, you need to experience
your self as being extended over time). Only diachronics (though not
necessarily all of them) do. How, then, do episodics experience their life?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Strawson
identifies himself as an episodic. He thus can bear witness to what it is like
to be one. Of course he is aware of having a past and a future, or more
precisely, he is aware that the human being Galen Strawson has a past and a
future. But he himself, or the self that he is, does not (despite remembering
some of Galen Strawson’s past as if it had happened to himself, that is, from a
first-person perspective). “I”, he confides, “have absolutely no sense of my
life as a narrative with form, or indeed as a narrative without form.
Absolutely none. (…) I have no significant sense that <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">I</i> – the I now considering this question – was there in the further
past.” Strictly speaking, he writes, what happened to the human being Galen
Strawson in the past (and I am assuming this includes GS’s <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">actions</i>) is not something that happened to him. In other words, my
past self is not me. It’s another. (Perhaps that is what Rimbaud meant when he
said “Je est un autre”.) If I know this, then I am an episodic. An episodic
seems to be someone who is smart enough not to (falsely) identify with his
previous and future incarnations.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Now
several ethicists wrestling with the question what constitutes a good human
life have suggested that in order to live a good, not only subjectively
pleasant, but <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">meaningful</i> human life,
we need to develop some understanding of our life as a whole by binding the
various episodes of our life together into a coherent, unifying narrative. This
is often being treated as pretty obvious. Strawson, however, denies that it is
in any way necessary. On the contrary, he argues, “the best lives almost never
involve this kind of self-telling.” Yet why exactly he thinks that is not
entirely clear to me. My guess is that the reason for it is this: Strawson
seems to (rather conventionally) assume that a truthful life is better than an
untruthful one, and he believes that any attempt to view your life as a
coherent whole is an attempt to blind yourself to what he calls the “truth of your
being”. The more you build your self-conception on memory, which is notoriously
unreliable, and the more you try to give yourself an identity by constructing a
narrative of your life, the less likely you are to understand who and what you
really are. Narrative self-articulation “almost always does more harm than
good” because it is, “in general, a gross hindrance to self-understanding: to a
just, general, practically real sense, implicit or explicit, of one’s nature.” So
in short, a non-narrative life is more truthful and therefore (in this respect)
better.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Strawson
is willing to defy Socrates and with him, it seems, our entire philosophical
tradition by suggesting that the unexamined life might actually be better than
the examined life. That is quite an extraordinary and actually rather
refreshing statement. Far from being deprived in some way, he says, “truly
happy-go-lucky, see-what-comes-along lives are among the best there are, vivid,
blessed, profound.” Better, in other words, to be a grasshopper singing through
the summer than an ant worrying about the days to come. It is easy to see the
attraction. Perhaps life can indeed be lived better if we are unburdened by the
certainties of the past, and the uncertainties of the future. Until winter
comes, of course (and winter <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">always</i> comes
in the end), but that does not need to concern us because it won’t happen to
us. We will long be gone then. Is that what Strawson means? I’m not entirely
sure, but it sure sounds like it. Such a view on life does of course also have
a place in our philosophical tradition. It ties in with Horace’s advice to “seize
the day” (carpe diem) and the Stoic precept not to concern oneself with the
things that one cannot control (which includes the past and the future). There
is certainly some wisdom in this.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Yet
there is another reason why I feel attracted to Strawson’s rejection of the
ethical Narrativity thesis. That we need to give our life a coherent narrative
shape in order to live a good (human) life is a claim that is usually made in
the context of discussions about meaning in life (though Strawson does not
mention meaningfulness at all in his paper – he just talks about the “good” life).
A good human life, the standard argument goes, is more than just a happy (subjectively
good, pleasurable) life. A happy life is not a good life if it is meaningless,
and it cannot be meaning<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">ful</i> without
having (at the very least) some kind of narrative coherence. What bothers me
about this argument and the whole discourse focusing on meaning in life is that
is generally assumed that only human lives can be meaningful. Yet if only a
meaningful life is a truly good life, then non-human animals cannot have a truly
good life. In fact, if their lives are not meaningful, then they seem to be
meaningless, and being meaningless is much the same as being pointless, which
is much the same as being not worth living in the first place. But it seems to
me that an animal’s life certainly <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">is</i>
worth living and that it is <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">not</i>
pointless, even though it may not have a point. Yet if an animal’s life is
worth living without having a point and without being meaningful in any of the
usual senses, then perhaps a human life can also be worth living without that. Strawson
seems to suggest that it can, and I like that.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">However,
what I find problematic is the underlying metaphysical claim about the supposedly
true nature of the self. It is difficult to see what truth it is that we fail
to grasp when we experience ourselves as being extended in time and when we
understand each episode of our lives as being connected to other, earlier and
later, episodes in a narrative fashion. Perhaps all that Strawson means here is
that, as diachronics, we fail to understand the true nature of selves <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">in general</i> (as opposed to the true nature
of our own <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">individual</i> self) because we
believe that our selves are temporally extended while in fact they are not. But
I don’t think we can really know what the self is. Perhaps it does not even
make sense to ask whether the self is <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">in
fact</i> episodic or diachronic. Or perhaps the self is both, episodic <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">and</i> diachronic, in the sense that in some
respect we are the same self that we were yesterday, and in other respects a
new self is born at every new moment in time. It is, in any case, far from
obvious, what the self <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">really</i> is, “as
a matter of metaphysical fact”. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">That
episodics are better at understanding the nature of their <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">individual</i> selves is also rather unlikely because such an
understanding would require self-reflection, and self-reflection is not
possible without some kind of story-telling. After all, if Strawson is right,
then the self on which I reflect is never the self that does the reflecting. It
is always in the past and a different self, and that different self needs to be
narratively constructed before it can be examined. But it is not only
self-reflection that relies on story-telling. All perception is already the
telling of a story. It is an activity where narrative decisions are being made:
about who is playing the lead and who the supporting actors are, what is
important and what is not, where things have come from and where they are heading,
the (likely) causes and purposes of events and actions. Perceiving the world is
already a way of making sense of it, and we make sense of things by constructing
plots for them, by weaving them into a coherent storyline. You cannot perceive
anything without that. In that sense we are all natural born story-tellers.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Another
problem is that if I don’t identify with my future selves (which, according to
Strawson, I shouldn’t if I can help it), then I have no good reason to make
sure that my life (the life of Michael Hauskeller) will continue to go well. If
I truly believe that those future selves of Michael Hauskeller are, despite
appearances, not me, then what happens to those selves need not be of any
concern to me (or at least not of more concern than what happens to the selves
of other people). Yet if I don’t care what happens to my future selves, then
the good life that I might be having now is unlikely to last very long.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">We
may also wonder what a determined episodic makes of moral feelings such as
responsibility, guilt, shame, remorse, or gratitude, all of which only seem to
make sense if I see myself as the same self that has done certain things in the
past, and to whom certain things have happened. Do episodic selves not have
those feelings, or do they regard them as misleading? Again, it is not
completely absurd to think that we might actually be better off if we did not
have those feelings. A guilt- and remorse-free existence has a certain appeal,
but unless we are willing to accept that one needs to be a psychopath in order
to live a truly good human life, we should probably reject the suggestion.</span></div>
Michael Hauskellerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00129104411381847911noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2391584212436941572.post-26901474401725550902016-12-03T03:35:00.004-08:002016-12-03T03:35:55.435-08:00Susan Wolf on Meaning in Life<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 150%;"></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">An
excellent summary of Susan Wolf’s well-known account of meaningfulness can be
found in her book <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Meaning in Life and Why
It Matters</i> (Princeton and Oxford: Princeton University Press 2010). The
book also includes insightful commentaries by John Koethe, Robert M. Adams,
Nomy Arpaly, and Jonathan Haidt. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsAaBAUocRlnoZ2ecL16lY4c_U2k3LOkaPYtuV_Whx2yfbAjd4cFCtkLBifDAaFGZ-PtYqx5kFl3y-mu85Y_dKYvhB7TmGjhAL2XZdz9w9sIq8AtiCojOnnvCYT5X4mlN0MRqoxINM47k/s1600/Flagpole.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsAaBAUocRlnoZ2ecL16lY4c_U2k3LOkaPYtuV_Whx2yfbAjd4cFCtkLBifDAaFGZ-PtYqx5kFl3y-mu85Y_dKYvhB7TmGjhAL2XZdz9w9sIq8AtiCojOnnvCYT5X4mlN0MRqoxINM47k/s1600/Flagpole.jpg" /></a><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">For
Wolf the concept of meaningfulness is important because it allows her to define
a class of actions that is neither configured by our own (selfish) interests
and well-being, nor by the (impartial) demands of morality. Not everything we
don’t do for others we do for ourselves; not everything we don’t do because it
is good for others we do because it is good for us. Some things we do neither
for our own happiness nor out of duty, but out of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">love</i>. Those are the things that give meaning to our life. “Writing
philosophy, practicing the cello, keeping one’s garden free of weeds, may
demand more of one’s time and attention than would be optimal from the point of
view of one’s own well-being. Yet in these cases, even more than in the cases
involving beloved human beings, it is obvious that no impersonal perspective
requires us to act.” (4) Instead, what drives one to do those things is “a
perceived or imagined value that lies outside of oneself.” (5) (N.B.: I am
assuming that this value can also be the well-being of others. If we understand
moral actions as actions that aim at the preservation or improvement of other
people’s well-being rather than our own, then presumably this can be as
important for me as doing philosophy or practicing the cello, in which case it would
be the pursuit of other people’s well-being which gives meaning to my life. Think
of the life of Mother Teresa, for instance, or that of Albert Schweitzer. We
probably would not want to say that although they lived moral lives, they did <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">not</i> live meaningful ones. Rather, their
lives were meaningful precisely because they were moral, i.e., dedicated to the
well-being of others. Only if we understand morality as <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">impartiality</i> and moral actions as being motivated by duty and not
by love (not even by one’s love for duty) is there a potential conflict between
morality and meaningfulness.)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrjx5KqARseVwweGu7UesTTw89KJgQq-RQTqVEaERanZiuVD3CgwmQ2mI5A7sdwdvT1E0EE4B-vJlNswe3HsaML8idQvewJGYf2zD6B2NTcfoY40qpKEFjUob5GiAo-T_TFdMuY35T190/s1600/Lawnmower.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrjx5KqARseVwweGu7UesTTw89KJgQq-RQTqVEaERanZiuVD3CgwmQ2mI5A7sdwdvT1E0EE4B-vJlNswe3HsaML8idQvewJGYf2zD6B2NTcfoY40qpKEFjUob5GiAo-T_TFdMuY35T190/s1600/Lawnmower.jpg" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Without
love (for something that lies outside of ourselves), or more precisely the
active engagement with something that we love, or that we love engaging with,
our lives lack meaning. However, Wolf points out, not everything we do for love
makes our life meaningful. There are some things we do for love that we shouldn’t
really be doing at all. In those cases our love is misplaced. We love something
that we shouldn’t love, see value in something that in fact doesn’t have any
value, or at any rate not as much value as we think it has. Meaningful is our
loving engagement only if what we engage with <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">deserves</i> the love and attention that we bestow on it. Meaning “arises
from loving objects worthy of love and engaging with them in a positive way.” (8)
(N.B.: It is not quite clear to me what Wolf means by “object” here. If I love
doing philosophy, is the object that I love and that is supposed to be worthy
of my love ‘philosophy’ or my <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">doing</i>
philosophy? And if I love playing the cello, is the object of my love then the
cello or my <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">playing</i> the cello? It
would seem odd to think of ‘philosophy’ or ‘the cello’ as the object of my love.
Surely it is my doing those things and perhaps what hopefully <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">results</i> from doing them – clarity of
thought, beautiful music – that I value and that is the object of my love. But
is that really something that can adequately be described as lying “outside of
ourselves”?)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Meaning
in life is thus neither purely subjective, nor purely objective. In order for
there to be meaning in our lives, the subjective (love, appreciation, and the peculiar
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">fulfilment</i> that results from our active
engagement with what we love) and the objective (that what we love is actually <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">worthy</i> of being loved) need to come
together. Meaning, Wolf says, “arises when subjective attraction meets
objective attractiveness.” (9) Fulfilment, in Wolf’s terminology, is, although
subjective, more than just pleasure. It is the specific kind of pleasure (or
positive feeling) that arises from an engagement with what is taken to be
objectively good. Wolf insists, however, that <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">subjective</i> fulfilment is not enough. If Sisyphus were not
frustrated, but on the contrary completely fulfilled by his never-ending task
of rolling a rock up a hill, if he thought that rolling a rock up a hill is a
really good thing to do, a worthy end, then this would not suddenly make his life
meaningful. What he is doing would still be pointless, simply because perpetually
rolling a rock up a hill for no good reason is not an objectively worthy end.
(N.B.: Wolf references Camus to support her claim that Sisyphus “has been
commonly treated as a paradigm of a meaningless existence” (17). However, Camus
wants us to regard Sisyphus as <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">happy</i>,
suggesting that our human existence, which resembles that of Sisyphus in its apparent
pointlessness, is meaningful after all. In Camus’ interpretation of the myth,
Sisyphus is someone who does not give up and does not give in, someone who
carries on despite the apparent hopelessness of his endeavour. He thus becomes,
paradoxically, a paradigm of a meaning<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">ful</i>
existence.)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Fulfilment,
according to Wolf, only makes our lives meaningful if it is a <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">fitting</i> fulfilment. The problem is, of
course, that it is far from easy to say exactly which activities or ‘objects’
merit our love and our being fulfilled by them, and which do not. Wolf suggests
that the things that we are fittingly fulfilled by are things that offer us an
opportunity to develop our powers, realize our potential, or achieve excellence
(36-37), but does not want to rule out that there may be others that do not
meet those criteria and with which to engage is still fittingly fulfilling. What
is clear, though, is that it is not sufficient for an object to give us
pleasure. An activity can be very pleasurable to me, even very interesting, but
may still be meaningless if what pleases or interests me is not of the kind that
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">merits</i> my attention. It would only merit
my attention if its value exceeded the value that it has as an object of my
pleasure or interest, or if its value had a different source than my pleasure
or interest. We need to connect with and be concerned about a value that exists
“outside of ourselves”, so that it can, in principle, also be accessed and
appreciated by others. “A meaningful life is one that would not be considered
pointless or gratuitous, even from an impartial perspective.” (42) (N.B.: The
trouble is, however, that there <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">is</i> not
really an impartial perspective. It may seem to me that your life is pointless,
but the fact that my perspective on your life is not your perspective, i.e.,
not the perspective of the one who lives it, does not make my perspective impartial.
And even if everybody else thought your life was meaningless, then this
assessment would still not be impartial. It would simply be not your assessment,
but somebody else’s.)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Despite
acknowledging that it “is far from clear what a reasonably complete and
defensible nonsubjective account (of value) will look like” (47), Wolf insists
that we need to assume that certain things we do are <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">objectively</i> valuable to account for the fact that some lives do not
strike us as meaningful even though they are lived in active engagement with an
object of love (for instance those of people who find subjective fulfilment in caring
for a goldfish). If our intuitions are to be trusted, then it seems that it is
not sufficient to find something we love and then just do it. We also need to
find the right, objectively worthy thing. (N.B.: I suppose that Wolf’s
insistence on the objectivity of values has something to do with her primary
purpose, which is not so much to understand what constitutes a meaningful life,
but to convince us that “there are things worth doing that do not contribute
maximally to either happiness or morality” (49). I’m not quite sure whether
that means that we should feel free to do those things even if that prevents us,
or at least takes time away, from doing something more morally commendable –
such as aiding the poor – <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">or</i> whether
it is being suggested that we are in fact justified in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">violating</i> moral norms if that is necessary to do what we love. Most
likely it means that moral concerns do not <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">automatically</i>
trump concerns relating to what is needed for us to live a meaningful life. Sometimes
we are justified in choosing to do what we love rather than what morality
demands from us.)</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">In
contrast with, for instance, Kauppinen, Wolf does not commit to the view that
meaningfulness is an aspect of well-being, or in other words that a meaningful
life is better for the one who lives it than a meaningless life. She suggests
that instead of asking whether life has been <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">good</i> for a certain person, we should be asking whether it has been <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">admirable</i> or something they could justly
have been <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">proud</i> of. (But why is it
important to live a life that we can be proud of and that others can admire if that
does not make our lives any better?) Nor does she think, as Campbell and Nyholm
seem to do, that the more meaningful a life is, the better it is. “Is the more
meaningful life better for oneself than the one that is easier, safer, more
pleasant? There may be no answer to this question. Nor is it obvious that
meaning is something it makes sense to want to maximize in one’s life, even if
it does not compete with other self-interested goods. (52)</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">The Commentaries</span></i></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Robert
M. Adams casts doubt on Wolf’s claim that a meaningful life requires subjective
fulfilment, citing the case of Claus von Stauffenberg who failed in his attempt
to assassinate Hitler. His life, Adams, thinks was meaningful even though it is
extremely unlikely that, when he faced the executioner, he felt good about it. Wolf
responds with an attempt to clarify what she means by ‘fulfilment’, which is
different from feeling good about something. It is, rather, the (not exactly
joyful, but still positive) feeling that even though I may have failed, it was
still the right thing to do. Something akin to pride.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Jonathan
Haidt questions whether Wolf needs an account of objective value, on the
grounds that the examples given of lives that are devoted to certain activities
that are perceived as worth doing, but that are still meaningless, are
unrealistic. In actual life, nobody would seriously find fulfilment in things
like lawnmower racing or flagpole sitting, not because these things are not
objectively valuable, but because they are not the kind of things that are
likely to fulfil anyone. “Lawn mower racing and flagpole sitting do not lend
themselves to vital engagement. People do such things for fun, and to get into
record books. They might even find friendship along the way. But how many of
them found flow in these activities as adolescents, devoured all the books they
could find on the history of lawn mower and flagpoles, lovingly assembled
collections of lawn mowers and flagpoles, and chose colleges and jobs so as to
ensure that they would always be able to race mowers or sit on poles in the
company of other mower racers and pole sitters?” (96-97) Wolf’s response: “There
is always some chance that what one thinks is valuable will turn out not to be,
that the objects of one’s subjective attraction will turn out not to be
objectively attractive. One might be worshipping a false god, loving a
scoundrel, writing terrible poetry.” (125) </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Although
I find it difficult to get my head around the notion of “objective value” and
am struggling to understand what it means to say that something we do is “objectively
valuable”, I must admit that Wolf has a point here. We may perhaps doubt that
there are right gods or that there is anyone who deserves to be loved, but it
is hard to doubt that there is such a thing as bad poetry. This does not seem
to be just a matter of taste. Some art really <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">is</i> (objectively) bad. But those who produce it may well be unaware
of this. They may think of themselves as great artists, while for us it is pretty
obvious that they are mistaken. But does that also mean that their engagement,
their love, is also worthless? Does it mean, as Wolf suggests, that the life of
someone who loves writing poetry more than anything else, but does it badly, is
meaningless? I’m not so sure.</span></div>
Michael Hauskellerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00129104411381847911noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2391584212436941572.post-59771494454127391512016-11-27T01:30:00.001-08:002016-11-27T01:30:17.769-08:00Antti Kauppinen on Meaningfulness and Time<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiRuzgmcETHI2EDD3vZmSwpLkcaA_eKviGSu1WIlPLOF_scISTrAXpYmC25UNBSqCBn2pkp5YvelGWKowqc_L_sLHyvqr4ynA_8O1UMwKX_Xhkvwe_K9auoTz2_Th81zBIUMHqGjFI-KKU/s1600/Happiness-Meaningfulness.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="241" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiRuzgmcETHI2EDD3vZmSwpLkcaA_eKviGSu1WIlPLOF_scISTrAXpYmC25UNBSqCBn2pkp5YvelGWKowqc_L_sLHyvqr4ynA_8O1UMwKX_Xhkvwe_K9auoTz2_Th81zBIUMHqGjFI-KKU/s320/Happiness-Meaningfulness.jpg" width="320" /></a><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">In
a very long and rich paper on “Meaningfulness and Time”, published in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Philosophy and Phenomenological Research</i>
84/2 (2012): 345-377, Antti Kauppinen defends what he calls the “Teleological View
of meaningfulness”. Meaningfulness is here understood as one of the two
properties that makes a life good for the one who leads it, the other one being
happiness (or pleasure). Both together constitute human well-being. Since
happiness (pleasure) and meaningfulness are distinct properties, a life can be
happy, but meaningless, and also unhappy, but meaningful. (N.B.: Although Kauppinen
is far from alone in distinguishing meaningfulness from happiness, there is something
odd about treating them as separate. People are, after all, not likely to be
happy and at the same time regard their life as meaningless. If they <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">do</i> regard their life as meaningless, feeling
that there is no real point to what they are doing, this usually means that
they are <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">not</i> happy. The apparent
pointlessness of their lives is what <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">makes</i>
them unhappy, or a feeling of meaninglessness is the specific form their
unhappiness assumes. It seems that in order to allow for the possibility of
someone living a happy, but meaningless life, and a meaningful, but unhappy
life, we need to assume that meaningfulness is an objective property of one’s
life in the sense that you don’t have to <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">feel</i>
your life to be meaningless or meaningful for it to <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">be</i> meaningless or meaningful, respectively, which is also strange,
because it privileges the third-person perspective over the first-person
perspective: <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">I</i> judge <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">your</i> life to be meaningless, even though
you are not aware of it.)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">While
happiness, for Kauppinen, is the final good for <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">passive</i> <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">subjects of
experience</i>, meaningfulness is the final good for <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">active</i> <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">agents</i> (372). Since
we are both, experiencers and agents, the best life for us is one that contains
(a maximum of) both, happiness and meaning.</span> (<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">N.B.: I think
this is an important point: that the passive or experiential side of our being
makes for one sort of good, while the active or agential side makes for
another. However, I am wondering how non-human animals would fit in here. Are
animals not also agents? And if they are, do their lives have to be meaningful,
too, to be truly good? And if an animal’s life cannot be meaningful, nor
meaningless, then perhaps it is not agency as such that generates the
orientation towards meaning as a final good, but rather the ability to look
back and plan ahead, to perceive one’s life as being stretched out in time,
surpassing the needs and rewards of the present moment. Meaningfulness would
then not be the final good for <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">agents</i>,
but the final good for <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">recollectors</i>.)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Kauppinen’s
aim is twofold. He wants to a) convince the reader that meaningfulness is an
important dimension of (human) well-being and b) determine what meaningfulness
actually consists in. His method is to present the reader with contrasting cases
of lives lived (some real, some fictional) and then appeal to our intuitions
regarding which of those lives we think is better, all things considered. The
Argentinian revolutionary Che Guevara’s life for instance may have been happier
(and longer) if he had not fought so passionately against poverty and social
injustice in South America, but it almost certainly would have been (or struck
us as) less meaningful, and maybe for that very reason less good overall (and
hence less worth choosing). </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">In
order to be meaningful, Kauppinen suggests, a life must have a certain
narrative shape. Whether a moment or period in my life is meaningful or not
depends not only on what is happening during that period, but also on what
happened before and what will happen later. Meaningfulness unfolds gradually
over time and is thus, if I understand Kauppinen correctly, ultimately a
property of a life considered as a <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">whole</i>.
In other words, my life now is, properly speaking, neither meaningful nor
meaningless. My life now may well contribute to the overall meaning of my life
(which can be more or less meaningful), but not because it is in itself
meaningful, but because it helps create the narrative shape that makes (or
perhaps better: will have made) my life as a whole meaningful. Meaning is not
additive, which means that a life’s (degree of) meaningfulness cannot be
determined by adding up all the meaningful bits or periods in it (and possibly
subtracting all meaningless or “anti-meaningful” bits, as Campbell and Nyholm
have suggested). </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">So
what exactly makes a life meaningful? Kauppinen lists a series of key features,
which, when present in somebody’s life, makes it appropriate for them to feel a
certain pride and joy, and appropriate for us to admire and feel inspired by
them. (N.B.: Kauppinen suggests that we understand meaningfulness primarily in
terms of the appropriateness of these feelings: the prouder the agent should
feel about their life and the more admiration we should feel for them, the more
meaningful their life has been. Yet since their appropriateness depends
entirely on the presence of those alleged key features of a meaningful life, I
don’t quite see why we should not focus directly on them. The suggested “fitting
attitude analysis” seems an unnecessary detour.) Key features of a meaningful
life are: that the goals pursued are objectively valuable, that pursuing those
goals challenges the agent’s abilities, that nobody else can replace the agent
in their pursuit, that the goals are pursued with some degree of success, that
success is lasting rather than fleeting, and, perhaps most importantly, that
the agent’s life “forms a coherent whole”, meaning that “past efforts increase
the success of future goal-setting, goal-seeking, and goal-reaching” (346). Because
it is so much goal-focussed, Kauppinen calls this particular conception of
meaningfulness <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">teleological</i>. The view
is summed up in the formula “life is ideally meaningful when challenging
efforts lead to lasting successes.” (346) If good things happen to us, this is
good, but it is even better (namely in terms of meaningfulness) if we had to <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">work hard</i> to make them happen, and the
harder we had to work to get them, the better (more meaningful) our lives are. Furthermore,
to get what we want is good, but it is even better if <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">what we want is good</i> (i.e. worthy of being wanted), and the better
what we want is, the better our lives are. It is even better still if what we
get will <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">last</i>, and the longer it
lasts the better our lives are. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Meaningfulness,
for Kauppinen comes in degrees. Our lives are always more or less meaningful. When
we call a life simply meaningful (or meaningless), then what we actually mean
is that it is <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">more</i> meaningful (or less
meaningful) than the average life, just as when we call someone “tall” what we
actually mean is that they are taller than a contextually determined standard
of comparison, e.g., tall for a five-year old boy, but not tall for a five-year
old elephant. (N.B.: It seems to me, though, that the predicate “tall” adheres
to a different logic than the predicate “meaningful”: while it is impossible
that everyone is tall, it does not seem impossible for every life to be
meaningful, not even maximally meaningful.)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Now,
as others have noticed before, the sequence of events matters for how good we
think a life is. A life that starts out badly, but then gets better (happier),
is considered better (more worth having) than a life which starts out very
well, but then eventually goes downhill. All other things being equal, we would
rather have a happy ending than a happy beginning. The hedonic shape of life matters.
However, Kauppinen notes, there is more to the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">narrative</i> shape of life than just the sequence of events. Thus an
upward trajectory in life seems more valuable when it is the result of hard
work than if it results from sheer luck. Even a life eventually ending in
failure can be better than a life that ends in bliss, if what precedes the
failure is a sustained effort to achieve something really good and important, and
the bliss, in contrast, comes unearned and unconnected to the achievement of objectively
valuable goals. Noble failure makes for a more meaningful life than sheer luck.
(N.B.: But does it really? How reliable are our intuitions here? Is it really
better <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">for me</i> to fail in my pursuit
of the truly good than to succeed in my pursuit of minor or false goods such as
wealth or fame? Good how exactly? Good in the sense of making my life more
meaningful, but what exactly does <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">that</i>
mean? When we call a life “more meaningful”, are we then really saying more than
Mill did when he called certain pleasures “higher”?) </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Kauppinen
holds that meaningfulness is an objective quality of lives: “Just as a food can
be unhealthy for a person even if she thinks it is healthy, a life can be meaningless
for someone even if she thinks it is meaningful.” (356) However, as far as I
can see he does not attempt to provide an argument for this claim. What is
important for him is that we understand meaning in terms of narrative shape. “A
meaningless life is one that is not going anywhere or moving forward.” (357)
Every life has a narrative structure, a plot, he argues (drawing on Aristotle’s
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Poetics</i> as a major inspiration), thereby
suggesting that the better the plot is, the better our lives are. (N.B.: The analogy
is initially attractive, but ultimately misleading. A good plot does not always
make for a good life. The story of Oedipus as related by Sophocles has a very convincing
narrative structure, a good plot, and but we would hardly want to say that
Oedipus’s life must therefore have been a good one. In judging the quality of a
life by its narrative qualities we adopt an <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">aesthetic</i>
perspective, which may not be appropriate at all. It is once again a third-person
perspective, a look at a life from the outside, which ignores what it is actually
like to live that life. That a life “is not going anywhere or moving forward” sounds
suspiciously like the complaint of a bored spectator who needs some juicy
action, a rape or a murder perhaps, to sustain their interest. Of course that
is not what Kauppinen has in mind. What he wants a life to have is not really,
as he suggests, a good plot, but in fact an <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">edifying</i>
one, which is not the same thing at all.)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">A
good (i.e. meaningful) life plot, for Kauppinen, requires, above anything else,
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">coherence</i>. Coherence is meant to integrate
all the other key features of a meaningful life mentioned above: “A life is the
more Coherent the more that later activities are positively informed by earlier
activities with respect to goal-setting (the agent’s goals are more valuable
than they would otherwise be), goal-seeking (the agent exercises her capacities
more effectively and/or is more irreplaceable), and/or goal-reaching (the agent
is more successful).” (368) A good, meaningful life is not so much one in which
every single ‘chapter’ is better than the last, but one whose coherence increases
over time. In order for a life to be meaningful, its chapters need to “build on
each other” (which seems to mean that they sustain and reinforce an upward
trajectory). Apparently, however, our life story can have chapters added to it even
after our death, which may then affect the extent to which our lives have been
meaningful. “Since narrative significance of an event can change even after one’s
death, the meaningfulness of a life may be influenced posthumously. What if
Martin Luther King’s campaigns eventually turn out to have led to catastrophic
consequences for African-Americans? Shall we think of his life as having been
as meaningful, or to have been as good for him as we now do?” (374, footnote) Perhaps
not. It is a bit odd, though, to think that we can never be sure how good or
meaningful a life has really been, not even when it is over and we know everything
there is to know about it. Nobody can foresee the long-term consequences of
their actions. And there is no temporal limit to the effects of our actions. Also,
how can something that happens in, say, a thousand years, long after I died, even
if it results in part from my actions now, make my life any better or worse
than it is now? Doesn’t that require some kind of backward causation? </span></div>
Michael Hauskellerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00129104411381847911noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2391584212436941572.post-61391566403530873102016-11-20T07:11:00.000-08:002016-11-20T07:13:13.390-08:00Guy Kahane on our Cosmic Significance<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfDoqk-HC1JyETJ7s2e-GvY3jEZsGgt-nVay9guMdn7aUMs8rYciTN7vNnR74Twvt-zDGsQu7AJfyzVWLUb3icUB_QuYlRhyRHg0ac_Njw5jfQgiOiGXkf7LTJ5vmyVSeup_ad0_iFWQ4/s1600/cosmic.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfDoqk-HC1JyETJ7s2e-GvY3jEZsGgt-nVay9guMdn7aUMs8rYciTN7vNnR74Twvt-zDGsQu7AJfyzVWLUb3icUB_QuYlRhyRHg0ac_Njw5jfQgiOiGXkf7LTJ5vmyVSeup_ad0_iFWQ4/s1600/cosmic.jpg" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">In
a paper entitled “Our Cosmic Insignificance”, published in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Nous</i> 48.4 (2014): 745-772, Guy Kahane attempts to clarify what
cosmic significance (and its opposite, cosmic <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">in</i>significance) actually is and whether we really are as
“cosmically insignificant” as the immense vastness of the universe has often
been taken to suggest. Kahane argues that we often misunderstand the nature of
cosmic significance and insignificance and that, due to this misunderstanding,
we mistakenly believe ourselves to be cosmically insignificant, while in fact
we are anything but (assuming we are right about the facts on which we base the
belief in our alleged insignificance): “it turns out that we might be of
immense cosmic significance, even universally central, in the only sense that
matters.” (746-7) In view of this conclusion, the paper would have been more
aptly titled “Our <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Alleged</i> Cosmic
Insignificance” or simply “Our Cosmic Significance”. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">It
is not uncommon for us to feel cosmically insignificant. Kahane cites many
philosophers and writers who provide evidence of this. If you feel too
important and take yourself and your affairs too seriously, just think how
gigantic the universe is both in space and time and how miniscule we are in
comparison. The contemplation of all those billions of years during which we do
not exist and all those vast spaces that we are unable to fathom, let alone
traverse, should be more than sufficient to crush all our illusions of
grandeur. It makes us realize that in the grand scheme of things our lives do
not really matter. From the point of view of the universe, we are nothing. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">As
Kahane correctly points out, this concern about our cosmic insignificance seems
to be different from metaethical concerns about the non-existence of objective
values. Even if we do have such metaethical concerns and believe that because
nothing matters objectively we don’t matter either and (perhaps erroneously) that
this makes our existence pointless, surely this has got nothing to do with the
size or age of the universe. If we lived in a tiny and very short-lived
universe, then values would not be any more objective than they are now. So it
seems that if we are worried about our cosmic insignificance, we are not
worried about there not being anything that <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">really</i>
matters, but about our own <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">relative</i>
insignificance. In other words, we do not seem to doubt that things can have
value. We simply have lost our confidence that <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">we</i> have much value, all things considered. Some things do matter.
We just happen to be not one of them. Yet once again it is not clear why we
should think we have less value in a big universe than we would have in a small
one. “If something possesses intrinsic value, value in virtue of its intrinsic
properties, then how could the size of the universe, or indeed anything about
the surrounding universe, affect its value in any way?” (748) Size is
irrelevant for (intrinsic) value. What I am and what I do either matters or
does not matter, but whether or not it does is independent of the size of the
universe. Kahane cites Bertrand Russell to emphasize this point: “there is no
reason to worship mere size”, Russell said, “Sir Isaac Newton was very much
smaller than a hippopotamus”.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">That
size does not matter in itself is of course correct. However, it seems to me
that Kahane is perhaps missing the point here. Newton may be much smarter than
a hippopotamus and much more eminent, but if the two had a fight, the hippopotamus
would probably win it and there wouldn’t be much left of Newton. And while we
may conceivably win a fight against a hippopotamus, we have no chance at all to
win a fight against the universe, precisely because it is <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">so</i> much bigger. My point is that perhaps our concerns are not so
much about <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">size</i> as such as they are
about <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">power</i>. While what is bigger is
not necessarily more powerful than what is smaller, size is usually a good
indicator of power, and if the size of a thing is so immense that there is not
really a common measure between it and us, then it would be foolish to think we
might stand a chance to overpower it in a confrontation. In other words, we
don’t feel insignificant because the universe is big and we are small, but
because we correctly infer from its immensity that we are utterly powerless to
influence the course of (cosmic) events. Whatever we do, things will stay
pretty much the same, and in the end, once we are all gone (and gone we will
be), things will be exactly as they would have been if we had never existed at
all.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">While
our ‘intrinsic value’ may not be affected by the size of the universe, our
power (the effect we may hope to have on the overall course of things)
certainly is. And ‘intrinsic value’ is a very abstract notion, by which I mean
that it does not have much, if any content. It is pragmatically empty. ‘Power’
on the other hand is concrete, steeped in the real world. Power and its absence
are very real for us; intrinsic value, on the other hand, not so much. The more
we are able to effect, the more powerful we are. The less we are able to
effect, the more powerless we are. In order to think that we can ‘change the
world’, as many of us aspire to do, we need to pretend that “the world” is
pretty much exhausted by the here and now, confined to Planet Earth and a few
hundred years (if we are very ambitious). If we then, in a lucid moment,
realize that the world is actually much bigger than that and that,
consequently, the effects of our actions are so infinitesimally small that they
are as good as non-existent, we are perfectly justified to feel utterly
insignificant. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">That
Kahane does not consider the possibility that the cosmic insignificance concern
is about (lack of) power rather than size is a bit odd, especially since he
continues his argument by distinguishing between (intrinsic) value and
significance, defining the latter in terms of a thing’s ability “to make a
difference”, which is pretty much what I understand by ‘power’. Value, for
Kahane, is a necessary, but not a sufficient condition of significance. Only
something that has some value can be significant, but not everything that has
value is. In order to be significant, the valuable thing also needs to “make a
difference”, and if it does make a difference (and only then), it “merits our
attention and concern”. (749)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Kahane
uses the example of pain to illustrate the difference between value and
significance. Pain is bad. Its badness is its intrinsic (though in this case
negative) value.<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=2391584212436941572#_ftn1" name="_ftnref1" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn1;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">[1]</span></span></span></span></a>
However, not each instance of pain is significant. In order to be significant,
i.e. to matter in the emphatic sense of meriting our attention and concern, it
needs to stick out, either by being much more intense or enduring than most
other instances or pain, or by being a relatively rare occurrence. What is
important here is that intrinsic value is thought to be independent of changes
in the environment, while significance is not. My pain is bad no matter how
many people are in pain and how bad their pain is. My pain does not get any
better if your pain increases. However, if that happens, then my pain becomes
less significant. It is no longer such a big deal if we adopt an objective (or
cosmic) point of view, because it is just one instance of pain among others,
and there are others that are worse. Similarly, if my existence is
intrinsically valuable, then it is valuable no matter what happens around me,
and no matter how big or small the universe is. Yet the significance of my
existence may increase or decrease, depending on certain changing features of
my environment. If that is correct, then our significance may possibly also be
affected by the size of the universe. And indeed it is. Just not the way we
thought it was. Far from making our lives insignificant, the sheer vastness of
the universe actually increases our significance. This is because although the
universe may be vast, there is not much of value in it: “When we are impressed
by our tiny size, by the vastness of the space that envelops us, and conclude
that we must be very unimportant, this may be because we forget to consider
just how empty this immensity is. An observer might take a very long time to
find us in this immensity, but besides us, he might find in it little or
nothing to care about.” (753)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">We
cannot know whether there are other beings like us anywhere in the universe,
but so far we haven’t found any evidence of that. If there is nobody else out
there, that would make us very special indeed. The emptier the world is, the
more significant our comparative fullness (the fact that our lives have value)
becomes. We are then, from the point of view of the cosmos, the only thing that
matters in the world. “The argument is embarrassingly simple. We possess value,
and, if we are alone, nothing else in the universe does. Therefore we are the
only thing that has value, and, trivially, possess most value. We’re therefore
of immense cosmic significance.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">But
why do we matter in the first place? What exactly is it that is supposed to
give us intrinsic value? According to Kahane, we “possess value in virtue of
our capacity to think and love”. (754) The assumption that human lives possess
some intrinsic value is justified, he argues, because virtually everyone agrees
that we do. At least we will all agree that it is bad when people (and perhaps
also animals) suffer, which implies that it matters what happens to them. If
their lives had no value, their suffering should not concern us. But according
to Kahane our significance goes beyond that of sentient life. We are also
intelligent, and this intelligence and what it allows us to do gives us a
unique, distinctive, superior kind of value (757). Why? Because (almost)
everyone says so. And even if that were not so, we can very much affect what
happens to other life on earth and even the planet as a whole, which, if all
value is terrestrial, puts us in a very important position indeed. Given our
(probably) unique constitution, we are anything but insignificant. We do make a
huge difference.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">The
problem I have with this argument is not so much that it is simply taken for
granted that humans lives are intrinsically valuable (on the rather shaky
grounds that most humans would agree with that), but that I’m having trouble
understanding what ‘making a difference’ means in this context. Those who have
bemoaned our cosmic insignificance have understood it in the sense of a lack of
causal power, for instance Nicholas Rescher or Susan Wolf, who are both quoted
by Kahane. Rescher states that “on the astronomical scale, we are no more than
obscure inhabitants of an obscure planet. Nothing we are or do in our tiny
sphere of action with the universe’s vast reaches of space and time makes any
substantial difference in the long run.” Wolf, similarly, stresses our
inability to “make a big and lasting splash”. Evidently, the feeling of cosmic
insignificance is, as I pointed out earlier, not about size, but about (the
relative lack of) power. But Kahane refuses to acknowledge that. He accepts
that we may very well disappear very soon without a trace, without having made
“any grand, lasting causal impact on the cosmic scale” (760), but insists that
we are still making “a <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">vast</i>
difference” and that it would be “a momentous loss” if we disappeared from the
cosmos. Unfortunately, however, it is not clear at all (at least not to me) in
what <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">way</i> we are ‘making a
difference’. What difference exactly does our existence make? And for <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">whom</i> and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">what</i> does it make a difference? And who would suffer the loss if we
were no longer around? The universe? Would the universe care? If it could care,
then our disappearance would presumably not be such a great loss (because, as I
understand the claim, it is a great loss precisely because we are the only ones
who <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">can</i> care). And if it would not,
how can our disappearance be a loss for it? For Kahane, our significance is
ultimately a function of our supposed intrinsic value. We ‘make a difference’
not because we achieve anything lasting, but because we are ‘valuable’ while
nothing else is. In other words, we are supposed to make a difference despite
the fact that we are not really <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">making</i>
any difference at all.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">I
am not a hostile critic. I am sympathetic to what Kahane is trying to do. I
want to believe that what we do and not do matters, that it is significant in
some way (and I kind of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">do</i> believe
it). But Kahane’s argument has failed to convince me that we have no grounds to
feel cosmically insignificant. We try to reassure ourselves that we are
something special and something wonderful, and perhaps we are, but we also want
to believe that there is a (cosmic) point to our existence, and perhaps there
isn’t. To insist so much on our cosmic significance smacks of narcissism, of
megalomania. Kahane realizes that, but insists that it is not that at all.
Having such significance is, after all, “not a cause for elation, but a burden”
(764). It gives us a whole lot of responsibility, lends a “cosmic urgency” to
our existence and survival. Understanding our cosmic significance should prompt
us take our existence seriously. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Fair
enough. However, I still don’t see why it matters whether we exist or not. Why
is it important that beings exist who can think and love if, ultimately,
nothing comes off it? Even if we are markedly different from the rest of the
universe (as the only creators of values), why is this a difference that <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">makes</i> a difference?</span></div>
<div style="mso-element: footnote-list;">
<br clear="all" />
<hr align="left" size="1" width="33%" />
<div id="ftn1" style="mso-element: footnote;">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText">
<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=2391584212436941572#_ftnref1" name="_ftn1" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn1;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "calibri" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%;">[1]</span></span></span></span></a><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif";"> That this value is intrinsic I
take to mean that it is bad for there to be pain rather than merely bad for the
one who suffers it, but perhaps Kahane has a different view on that.</span></div>
</div>
</div>
Michael Hauskellerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00129104411381847911noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2391584212436941572.post-74890144475039779332016-11-13T07:48:00.002-08:002016-11-13T07:48:52.738-08:00Anti-Meaning<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">It
is widely thought (though hardly uncontested) that a life (and certain
activities in life) can not only be happy or unhappy (as well as more or less
happy or unhappy), but also meaningful or meaningless (or perhaps more or less
meaningful). People do not always agree what exactly it is that makes some
lives more ‘meaningful’ than others, but it is certainly not unusual at all for
us to express how well or badly we think a life is going in terms of its
supposed meaningfulness or lack thereof. We seem to understand what people are
saying when they complain about a lack of meaning in their lives, and we
readily accept that living a ‘meaningless’ life is anything but desirable.
Meaninglessness is supposed to be bad, something that we have good reason to
avoid if we can. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghKxS4mSKQ2ATeVT6EcUiGIVzPHARxU3DRK7tk4BPWV3ZpbrnoTTViQnQEYWH9wwIIieYay-0_EpTovzcv4hb1zu1de_IoSvLZqFKmlPXyDXmT1PE3oTt-LFySpzhTWnZfatc5tkUEfYo/s1600/Sisyphus.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghKxS4mSKQ2ATeVT6EcUiGIVzPHARxU3DRK7tk4BPWV3ZpbrnoTTViQnQEYWH9wwIIieYay-0_EpTovzcv4hb1zu1de_IoSvLZqFKmlPXyDXmT1PE3oTt-LFySpzhTWnZfatc5tkUEfYo/s1600/Sisyphus.jpg" /></a><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">But
perhaps lives can be even worse than just meaningless. In a recent paper
(“Anti-Meaning and Why It Matters”, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Journal
of the American Philosophical Association</i> 1/4 (2015): 694-711), Stephen M.
Campbell and Sven Nyholm have argued that lives can not only be meaningful or
meaningless, but also “anti-meaningful”. If a meaningless life is bad, then an
anti-meaningful life is even worse. According to Campbell and Nyholm we need to
recognize the existence of anti-meaning to make sense of the fact that some
lives appear to be less meaningful than others although they contain the same
number of meaningful activities, as well as the fact that some lives appear to
be not meaningful at all despite clearly containing some meaningful activities.
If we think for instance that to what extent our lives are meaningful depends
on the extent to which we contribute to what is (objectively) good (which is
one popular theory of meaning in life), then we would probably want to say that
somebody who does good and no evil leads a more meaningful life than somebody
who does the same amount of good, but also some evil. However, in order to
accommodate this intuition we need to assume that the bad things we do, do not
only <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">not contribute</i> to the
meaningfulness of our life, but actually <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">detract</i>
from it. In other words, what we <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">gain</i>
in meaning by doing what is good, we <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">lose</i>
in meaning by doing what is bad, so that the more good and the less bad we do,
the more meaningful our lives are, and if we actually do more bad than good,
then our lives are not merely meaningless (or not meaningful): they are
anti-meaningful. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">The
same argument can be made within the context of other theories of meaning. If
you, for instance, think that meaning is determined not by our contribution to
the good, but by subjective life-satisfaction, then a life that contains a lot
of satisfying experiences and no dissatisfying (i.e., positively unpleasant or
painful) ones would still appear more meaningful than one that contains the
same amount of satisfaction, but also, in addition, a lot of dissatisfaction.
And if you think that meaning is determined by the extent to which you achieve
your central goals in life, then a life in which you achieve <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">all</i> your goals would still appear more
meaningful than a life in which you achieve the same number of goals, but also
fail to achieve some others. No matter which theory of meaning you favour, anti-meaning
is needed to explain how the overall meaning in a life can be <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">diminished</i> (rather than simply not
enhanced) by some activities or experiences.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Campbell
and Nyholm maintain that because it helps us account for the above intuitions,
the concept of anti-meaning is of quite some theoretical significance. But the
main reason they would like to see the existence of anti-meaning acknowledged
is practical in nature. They argue that anti-meaning would give us a good,
additional reason to stop engaging in certain practices that are actually
harmful to others (for instance consumptive practices that contribute to the
gradual destruction of the environment, or our meat consumption, which
contributes to widespread animal suffering). It helps us to be more concerned
about “the harms and burdens that we collectively impose on present and future
individuals through our economic and individual lifestyle choices”, namely when
we realize that by making those choices we “are actually harming ourselves by
generating anti-meaning in our own lives”. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Should
we, therefore, accept the authors’ suggestion that lives can be anti-meaningful
and that certain actions and practices in life can generate anti-meaning?
Although this is certainly an interesting idea, I am not convinced that it is,
all things considered, all that useful, neither for theoretical nor for
practical purposes. For one thing, it is hard to believe that anyone would
abstain from, say, eating meat or driving around in their car, or generally
from causing harm to others in some way, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">not</i>
because they think it is bad to inflict harm on other people or animals, but
because “doing so generates anti-meaning” in their lives. Apologies to the
authors, but this expectation or hope strikes me as preposterous. If people cannot
get motivated to change their ways by considering the harm they cause, they
will most certainly not be motivated to do so in order to avoid something as
obscure and intangible as “anti-meaning”. (Imagine a savvy democrat trying to
convince a Trump supporter before the presidential election that he had better
not vote for Trump: “I know you couldn’t care less about Trump’s racism,
sexism, egocentrism, and all too obvious lack of self-control and moral
integrity, despite the fact that all of this clearly has the potential of
unleashing a lot of evils on the world. I know you will vote for him anyway.
But have you considered that doing so will actually increase anti-meaning in
your life?”)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Neither
am I convinced that there is a theoretical need to acknowledge the existence of
anti-meaning. It is difficult enough to defend a concept of meaningfulness, but
at least we have a widely used word for it, which indicates that there is <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">something</i> there, some aspect of our
life, some aspect of our experience, that we try to get conceptual hold of by
calling it ‘meaning’. We may find it difficult to pinpoint exactly what we mean
when we call a life or an action meaningful or meaningless, but we can be
pretty sure that there is some quality that the one has and the other lacks and
that, for some reason, we think is important to take into account. But, as
Campbell and Nyholm point out, the word “anti-meaningful” is a new word, which
previously did not exist, nor was or is there any other word that would convey
what the word “anti-meaning” is meant to convey. We feel the need to describe
certain states of affairs as meaningful and others as meaningless, but it
appears that before Campbell and Nyholm nobody has ever felt the need to
express anti-meaning. Yet if there is something like anti-meaning, why do we
not have a word for it?</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Campbell
and Nyholm try to make the idea palatable by claiming that the case is
analogous to those of good and evil, benefit and harm, and well-being and (more
controversially) ill-being. Evil, they point out, is not merely the absence of
good, but something in its own right, something positive. Similarly, harming
somebody is different from merely not benefiting them. Finally, we can be well,
not well, and unwell (or ill). In all those cases we have three different
states, not two, a positive one, a negative one, and a neutral one. So why do
we suppose that there are only two states of meaning, namely meaningful and
meaningless? If meaninglessness is the absence of meaning, then we should
expect that there is also the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">opposite</i>
of meaning, a negative to the mere neutral state of meaninglessness and the
positive one of meaningfulness. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">However,
not for all conditions we have three different states. Yes, perhaps unhappiness
is not merely the absence of unhappiness. We know that suffering and pain are
more than just the absence of pleasure. But evil can plausibly be understood as
the absence of good, and a total absence of well-being may plausibly be seen as
the worst state you can possibly be in. We normally don’t make any difference
between being unwell and being not well. And even if in all those cases there
really were a positive, a neutral, and a negative state, it would not follow
that the case of meaning was analogous. A glass can be either full or empty, or
even half-full or quarter-full, but it cannot be anti-full. A room can be light
or dark, or more or less light or dark, but it cannot be anti-light. Perhaps
meaningfulness is very much like fullness or lightness, and not at all like
pleasure or happiness. Then the assumption that “where there is meaning, there
is the possibility of anti-meaning” would simply be false.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">It
is also not clear to me that it makes sense to say of a life, as Campbell and
Nyholm frequently do, that it is “somewhat meaningful” or “very meaningful”. It
does not sound right to me, which would suggest that meaning is not really
something of which a life (or an activity) can have more or less. My life would
then be either meaningful or not, but not more or less meaningful. By introducing
the notion of “anti-meaning”, Campbell and Nyholm make the question of meaning
a matter of mathematical calculation. If you want to know whether your life is
(overall) meaningful, you just have to add up all instances or bits of meaning
that you have accumulated in your life, then subtract all the bits of
anti-meaning that you have also accumulated, and if the balance is in the
black, then your life is meaningful, and if it is in the red, then it is
anti-meaningful. Should you find that it is anti-meaningful, then all you would
have to do is perform a sufficient amount of meaningful activities (like
spending a couple of hours every day for the next two weeks on saving the world
or curing cancer) until you are in the black. Some lives might be so balanced
that those who live them permanently switch from having a meaningful life (just
about) to having an anti-meaningful life (just about) and back again, forever
fluctuating between meaning and anti-meaning. We could then also expect lives
to be very rarely meaningless, because in order to be meaningless there would
have to be exactly the same amount of meaning and anti-meaning in it, so that
meaning and anti-meaning cancel each other out, which is rather unlikely. It
seems to me, then, that whatever we have in mind when we talk about meaning in
our lives (and perhaps more importantly its absence), it is surely more complex
than this rather mechanistic view of meaning and anti-meaning would suggest.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">We
may indeed want to say that somebody who does more good than bad in their life,
or somebody who experiences mostly satisfaction and success, leads a better
life than somebody who does more bad than good, or somebody who experiences
mostly dissatisfaction and failure. But the reason for this may not be that their
life is, on the whole, more meaningful. Perhaps it just lacks consistency or
coherence, or perhaps dissatisfaction and frustrated life plans count as bad,
even though they do not make your life any less meaningful. The whole scenario
assumes that we can actually make our lives more meaningful by consistently
seeking out meaningful activities and avoiding those that are anti-meaningful
or meaningless. If you devote every hour of your day to making the world a
better place, whereas I spend only 50% of your day on making the world a better
place, using the rest of my time for meaningless activities such as walking the
dog, doing the dishes, or watching a romantic comedy with my wife, then your
life would apparently be much more meaningful than mine (twice as meaningful,
to be exact), at least on the contributing-to-objective-good theory of meaning.
Or if (in accordance with the aim-achievement theory of meaning) I only get to
achieve half of my central goals in life and you achieve all of them, then your
life is so much more meaningful than mine (again, twice as meaningful). What,
then, do we make of people who, like the members of the German resistance group
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">White Rose</i>, fight bravely against an
oppressive regime and pay for it with their lives? Clearly they did not achieve
their goals, but were their lives therefore less meaningful than if they had
succeeded? Are we really prepared to say that their lives were in fact even
worse than just meaningless, namely “anti-meaningful”, as the discussion in
this paper suggests? Sometimes it is better to try and to fail than not to try
at all. Perhaps that is why (according to Camus) we need to imagine Sisyphus as
happy (precisely because his life, despite the apparent pointlessness of how he
spends it, achieves meaning by his refusal to accept that it is best for the
rock to remain at the bottom of the hill).</span></div>
Michael Hauskellerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00129104411381847911noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2391584212436941572.post-29440655423274064462015-11-09T08:29:00.000-08:002015-11-09T08:29:42.418-08:00Gregory E. Kaebnick on Nature and Moral Humility<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Bioethics
as a profession has a strong tendency to simplify things, to do away with the
messiness of real-life situations, to escape from the fuzziness of real-life
ethics. It seeks to impose order and rational structure onto the chaos of our
moral life. Irreducible individuality, the uniqueness of the concrete, the
uncertainty that comes with complexity, are its sworn enemies and cannot be
tolerated. Because it is supposed to tell us how we ought to act, bioethics’
findings need to be easily applicable, and hence universalizable. That is why
bioethicists are so fond of trolley problems and similar schematics. They make
things appear simple and straightforward, whereas in reality they almost never
are. That is also why the concepts that bioethicists prefer to use tend to be
ones that can be clearly defined. What cannot be clearly defined is deemed to
have no ethical relevance. Think of the concept of ‘potentiality’, or the
concept of ‘dignity’. Pretty damn useless, both of them. Bioethics, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">rational</i> bioethics, cannot afford to
take moral intuitions into account that draw on those concepts. The same goes
for the concept of ‘nature’, which many people appear to attach some normative
significance to, but which is so vague and lacking in content that common
appeals to what is ‘natural’ or ‘unnatural’ can best be understood as the
expression of a deep-seated, but entirely unreflected aversion to change. In
other words, talk about nature and the natural and that both should be
protected from human interference merely voices a (conservative) <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">attitude</i>, but not a (rational and
therefore worth-considering) <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">argument</i>.
Or so we are being trained to think by a bioethics that is largely liberal,
progressivist, and most importantly result-oriented in its outlook.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Yet
even though the concept of nature is without doubt difficult to apply in a
coherent and consistent manner, we may not have to give it up entirely. At least
that is what Gregory F. Kaebnick argues in his book <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Humans in Nature. The World as We Find It and the World as We Create It</i>
(Oxford University Press 2014).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Kaebnick
is the editor of the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Hastings Center
Report</i> and a research scholar at the Hastings Center, which describes
itself on its website as a “nonpartisan research institution”, and nonpartisan
is exactly what it is. Kaebnick’s work is, like that of his colleague Erik
Parens<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=2391584212436941572#_ftn1" name="_ftnref1" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn1;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">[1]</span></span></span></span></a>,
infused by the ethos of his institution and thus bears no traces of the
self-assured dogmatism that too many professional bioethicists adopt as a
matter of course when they set out to tell us what is right and wrong, morally
permissible and morally obligatory, justified and unjustified, rational and
irrational. Kaebnick is not interested in prescribing actions to his readers,
and he certainly doesn’t want to persuade us to ‘do what is natural’ or to
‘protect nature’. Instead he explores with an open mind what, if any, moral
significance the concept of nature has or can have in various different
contexts, looking at the discourses in which the concept is used, and leaving
it to the reader to draw his or her own practical conclusions from those
discussions. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Kaebnick’s
open-mindedness results from his neo-Humean ethical subjectivism (or maybe his
ethical subjectivism results from his open-mindedness), which shies away from
postulating the truth of certain moral judgements (and, as a corollary, the
falsity of others). Because ethics is not about truth, but about positioning
oneself in the world of human (and non-human) relations, we need to practice what
Kaebnick calls “moral humility” (32). Ethics is about <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">commitment</i>. But commitments are personal. They are built on, or nourished
by, individual <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">ideals</i> that cannot and
should not be regarded as obligatory for everyone. “If moral standards are
projections on the world of human attitudinal stances, then why not allow that,
within the complex social web of moral standards, there arise some that are
endorsed by individuals specially to guide their own lives?” (56) But the fact
that those standards are not universally binding constitutes no good reason to
take them less seriously: “If we are committed to our commitments, then we need
not relinquish them just because somebody else disagrees with us.” (35) If we
genuinely care about something, then knowing or believing that it is not
objectively true that we ought to care gives us no reason at all to stop
caring. That doesn’t mean that we should blindly follow our intuitions and
initial emotional reactions. Reason is important to sort out our preferences
and to understand and negotiate conflicting intuitions. It helps us figure out
what we care about most and why. “The very point of morality, after all, is
that it is about what matters <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">most</i>:
therefore we must (and often will) try to get to the bottom of our values, to
articulate them in their most general terms, and also to think about how
seemingly competing considerations compare.” (41) However, a complete
rationalisation of our moral outlook is not possible (and understanding this may
well be part of what it means to be morally humble). This is no reason to
resign ourselves to a brute-fact view of morality: “We will not be able to
support our positions with arguments that are entirely noncircular: ultimately,
our values form a closed system, since they are not grounded on analytic truths
or objective features of the universe. But we should still be able to
articulate, convey, and defend our views.” (43) </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">This
articulation, however, is not always as easy as we may wish. Thus, if we want
to protect ‘nature’ from human interference, be it as ‘wilderness’ and ‘wildlife’,
as genetically unmodified animals and plants, as analytic rather than synthetic
biology, or as human rather than posthuman biology (or post-biology?), we
shouldn’t expect to be able to come up with a persuasive rationale for our
concerns. “Concern for nature can be brute feature of our moral lives.” (181) Nor
should we expect to be able to defend (before others as well as ourselves) an indiscriminate
condemnation of all human interference in those areas. Instead we have to look
at what exactly is being done or proposed and then decide whether this
particular instance of, say, genetic modification or change of the human
condition violates or undermines our shared or personal values. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A dogmatic stance on those issues cannot be
justified given the interconnectedness of all things. While the subtitle of Kaebnick’s
book (“the world as we find it and the world as we create it”) suggests that we
can neatly distinguish between the natural (i.e. the world as we find it) and
the artificial (the world as we create it), he makes it very clear that in
practice there is no clear-cut distinction between the two. Instead, the world
as we find it is <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">already</i> a world that
we have created, and any world that we create does of course also have to be
built out of the world that we have found. So the natural is never completely
opposed to the artificial. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Yet
despite the “ineradicable fuzziness” of the concept of nature (126), it has
some heuristic value for us, functioning, if I understand Kaebnick correctly,
as a comprehensive label for a group of concerns that have to do with the kind
of relationship that we have to the non-human world. This relationship,
Kaebnick believes, should ideally (and this may well be a <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">personal</i> ideal) be not one of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">domination</i>,
but more like a <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">conversation</i>: “What
makes a food ‘natural’ (or ‘organic’) is not that humans did not produce it,
but that its production reflects a kind of limited exchange with nature, one in
which nature is not thoroughly dominated.” (126) One may say, of course, that
this is not an argument, and indeed it is not. There is no persuasive argument
in support of conversation rather than domination. Whether you favour the one
or the other depends on your mind-set. I personally find the ideal of
conversation much more appealing than the ideal of domination, and so,
obviously, does Kaebnick, but I’m sure some other readers will not. That may
also be the reason why I am often taken aback by the way many bioethicists
practise their profession.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Talking
about the difference between an “industrial paradigm” and an “ecological
paradigm” in agriculture, Kaebnick suggests that the industrial paradigm, although</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-left: 36.0pt; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-left: 36.0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 150%;">“featuring
technological sophistication, (…) is really fundamentally about <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">simplicity</i> , about trying to iron out
the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">irregularities</i> of nature and
ignoring the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">complexities</i> that
careful organic farming is based on. It is about control of nature, with
practices that fly in the face of natural mechanisms and must be strenuously
maintained over against nature, rather than about collaboration with nature. (…)
With animals, too, industrial agriculture tends to depart from nature, at least
in the sense that it encourages farmers to treat their animals in ways that
have ever less to do with animal husbandry, with <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">caring</i> for animals, and more to do with productivity.” (125, my
italics)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">It
seems to me that what Kaebnick says here about agriculture could also be said
about bioethics. The dominant paradigm in bioethics today is industrial. It
aims at what Kaebnick calls the “industrialization of life” (125). In contrast,
the paradigm that Kaebnick himself follows with his style of conducting an ethical
inquiry is ecological, i.e., far more willing to acknowledge the complexities (what
I would call the ‘messiness’) of our ethical life. I for one would like to see
more of that. </span></div>
<div style="mso-element: footnote-list;">
<br clear="all" />
<hr align="left" size="1" width="33%" />
<div id="ftn1" style="mso-element: footnote;">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText">
<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=2391584212436941572#_ftnref1" name="_ftn1" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn1;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">[1]</span></span></span></span></a><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"> Last year Parens published <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Shaping our Selves: on Technology,
Flourishing, and a Habit of Thinking</i> (Oxford UP 2014). Brian D. Earp and I
have (sort of) reviewed the book for the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">American
Journal of Bioethics</i>, endorsing Parens’s defence of “binocularity”: </span><a href="https://www.academia.edu/16935197/Binocularity_in_Bioethics_-_and_beyond"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">https://www.academia.edu/16935197/Binocularity_in_Bioethics_-_and_beyond</span></a></div>
<div class="MsoFootnoteText">
<br /></div>
</div>
</div>
Michael Hauskellerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00129104411381847911noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2391584212436941572.post-28421849596091331862015-11-01T04:41:00.000-08:002015-11-01T04:41:18.861-08:00David Benatar Debating Procreation: Is It Wrong to Reproduce?<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Nine
years after <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Better Never to Have Been</i>
(Oxford University Press 2006), David Benatar has published yet another book about
the harm of coming into existence: <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Debating
Procreation. Is It Wrong to Reproduce?</i> (Oxford University Press 2015).
Roughly half of the book is written by Benatar, the other half by David
Wasserman who rejects the anti-natalism defended by Benatar and others (Matty
Hayry and Valentine Shiffrin), mostly on the grounds that life is, for various
reasons, not as bad as they depict it, and wrestles with some philosophical
procreation problems of his own. The title of the book is slightly misleading
because there is no real debate between the two authors. Benatar says his bit,
then Wasserman says his, and that’s it. No real dialogue takes place. I will
here focus, once again, on Benatar’s position.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Life
cannot have been very good for Benatar this past decade because he still
believes (or professes to believe) that we would all be better off if we had
never been born and that our parents have inflicted serious harm on us by
allowing us to come into existence. His argument is basically the same,
although he now puts more emphasis on the existential risks that we expose our
children to by bringing them into the world, which may be read as a tacit
acknowledgement that maybe not <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">all</i>
lives are so bad that they are not really worth starting. Even if this were so,
he now argues, for each and every child there is always a non-negligible <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">risk</i> of ending up with a really
miserable life. It may not be likely, but certainly possible. And since we
shouldn’t be playing Russian roulette with our children’s lives (65), we
shouldn’t procreate. Benatar now also fully appropriates the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">misanthropic argument</i> that he only
alluded to in his previous book on the subject: humans are really so prone to
doing so much damage to each other, to animals, and to the environment, that
the world would be a much better place if we weren’t around. (Maybe so, but I
don’t think we should be giving up on us just yet.) Whatever we may think of
this argument, the fact that Benatar makes so much of it in this new book
clearly shows that his main concern is not primarily <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">theoretical</i> (i.e. to establish the truth of the claim that
existence is always harmful), but <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">practical</i>
(i.e. to convince us that it is always wrong to reproduce). However, the
theoretical claim that existence is always harmful for the one whose existence
it is still constitutes the foundation of his anti-natal position, and it seems
to me that the argument he presents in support of this claim presents the
greatest philosophical challenge to those who, like me, are unwilling to accept
his practical conclusion. So this argument – the (axiological) asymmetry
argument - needs to be dealt with.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">What
the asymmetry argument seeks to establish is that “even if there were more good
than bad, the presence of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">any</i> bad
would be sufficient for coming into existence to be a harm. Because every life
includes some bad, coming into existence is always a harm.” (18) This
supposedly follows from the fact that while it is bad to cause harm (or more
precisely to allow harm to exist), it is not bad not to cause benefit (not to
allow benefit to exist). While the absence of harm is good, the absence of
benefit is neither good nor bad, i.e. “not bad”. (23) For this reason, no
amount of good in a possible future life can outbalance even the slightest harm
in it. This axiological asymmetry between harm and benefit explains why (as
most people would acknowledge) “we have a duty to avoid bringing into existence
people who would lead miserable lives”, but “no duty to bring into existence
those who would lead happy lives.” (25). Similarly, while we may well regret
the suffering of existing people in remote places, we do not regret the absence
of happy people on, say, Mars. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Benatar
finds the axiological asymmetry thesis not only true, but “clearly true”.
Moreover, he accuses those who reject it of “moral callousness” and “moral
insensitivity” (27). So by daring not to accept the thesis we would reveal not
only our essential blockheadedness - because we would allow our truth-tracking
reasoning abilities to be compromised by “powerful biological drives with deep
evolutionary roots” (11), but also our bad moral character. Let’s give it a try
anyway, at the risk of being found wanting both intellectually and morally. Is
the axiological asymmetry thesis obviously true? I think not. In fact, I think
it is false.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Here
is why: we neither have a moral obligation to bring new people into the world,
nor do we have a moral obligation not to bring new people into the world, or
more precisely we don’t have such an obligation <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">to the possible people</i> that could be in the world if we brought
them into it. We may have moral obligations to already existing people, or also
people that are <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">going</i> to exist
independent of our decision to procreate or not to procreate. If, for instance,
we think that the world suffers from overpopulation, then we may conclude that
it would be wrong for us to add to the problem by bringing even more people
into the world. Likewise, if society suffers from a <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">lack</i> of children, we may find that it is our duty to do our bit to
alleviate the problem by reproducing. Or if we knew that our child is likely to
be a very bad person who will cause a lot of harm to others, we may also feel
that we have a moral duty not to have that child. Likewise, if we knew that our
child would be likely to do a lot of good, then we may conclude that we should
reproduce. But generally speaking it is neither wrong (morally <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">prohibited</i>) nor right (morally <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">required</i>) to reproduce. Instead, it is,
in the absence of particular circumstances that speak against or for
reproduction here and now, merely <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">permissible</i>.
Now if we do decide to reproduce, then there will be new people whose existence
we have caused, and we do have moral obligations to them, just as we have moral
obligations to any other person that exists or is going to exist (such as
future generations of people, whose identity is not defined, but who we can
reasonably be sure will exist). If we know that the child that we are going to
have is likely to have a bad life full of suffering, then we may justly be
accused of having caused harm to that child by allowing it to have such a bad
existence (and the greater the harm the more difficult it becomes to justify
our decision to them). Likewise, if we know that the child we are going to have
is likely to have a life that lacks most of the pleasures, satisfied desires,
or benefits that we feel constitutes a good life, then we may <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">also</i> be accused of having caused harm to
that child. In both cases the child that we would have harmed is not the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">possible</i> child, but the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">actual</i> child that will exist if we
decide to bring it into the world. The presence of pain (or more generally any
kind of harm), and the absence of pleasure (or any kind of benefit) is equally
bad for that child and may serve as a good (moral) reason for us to abstain
from procreation. It is thus <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">not</i> the
case that while the absence of pain is good, the absence of pleasure is merely
not bad. The one is as bad as the other (especially as the absence of goods is
generally a cause of suffering). While neither harms a possible child, both
harm any actual child that will result from our decision to procreate. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">So
why is it generally thought to be wrong to bring a child into existence that
(we know or can reasonably assume) will have a miserable life, but not wrong <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">not</i> to bring a child into existence that
is likely to have a very happy life? And why are we concerned about the bad in
the lives of existing people, but not about the good lives that <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">could</i> exist if we had created them?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Does that not imply that the absence of
suffering is good and the absence of pleasure is not bad (i.e. neither bad nor
good)? No, it does not. It merely implies that any moral obligation we may have
is always an obligation to existing people, and never to merely possible
people. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">If</i> (!) we are going to
reproduce, we should be reasonably sure that the life that results from our
decision is a reasonably good one. A reasonably good life is one that has
sufficient access to life’s goods and is sufficiently devoid of life’s harms.
If we know it is not going to be a reasonably good life, then we should abstain
from reproducing. If we know it is, then we are <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">free</i> to reproduce, meaning that the quality of our future child’s
life does not constitute a moral reason <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">against</i>
reproduction. What it does <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">not</i> mean
is that we have a moral reason <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">for</i>
reproduction. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Now
it <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">may</i> be the case that it is (in an
impersonal sense) better for there to be no world at all rather than a world
that is filled with suffering. But if we accept this possibility (which is not
easy to make sense of, but nonetheless doesn’t strike me as completely absurd),
then it may, on the same grounds, also be better for there to be a world filled
with goods (be they pleasures or something more objective) rather than no world
at all. (We may also feel that a world like ours, in which there is life and
sentience and reflection, is, in some unspecified sense, better than a world in
which none of this exists.) Then the absence of pleasures would be just as bad
as the presence of suffering, or if not <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">just</i>
as bad, then at least <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">also</i> bad. But
we are not in the business of creating worlds. This is not a decision we are
ever going to make, because the world already exists, and it exists with us in
it. What we should be concerned with is whether the lives we create are going
to be good or bad. A good life requires no justification (and creating it is
therefore permissible), while a bad life <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">does</i>
require justification (and creating it is, to the extent that a justification
cannot be given, impermissible).</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">This
is all very much common sense and does not require any commitment to a
fundamental axiological asymmetry between harm and benefit, or the existence of
impersonal harms and the non-existence of impersonal benefits.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Now,
I could leave it at that, but there’s one more thing about this new book that I
find worth mentioning, namely the now <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">explicit</i>
(albeit partial) endorsement of the transhumanist worldview (lending support to
my view that we are currently experiencing a “transhumanization” of our culture,
which includes our intellectual culture)<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=2391584212436941572#_ftn1" name="_ftnref1" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn1;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">[1]</span></span></span></span></a>.
Here is what Benatar writes in support of his claim that our lives are actually
much worse than we commonly recognize: </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-left: 36.0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 150%;">“The
sad truth, however, is that, on the spectrum from no knowledge and no
understanding to omniscience, even the cleverest, best educated humans are much
closer to the unfortunate end of the spectrum. There are billions more things
we do not know or understand than we do know and understand. If knowledge
really is a good thing and we have so little of it, our lives are not going
very well in this regard. Similarly, we consider longevity to be a good thing
(at least if the life is above a minimum quality threshold). Yet even the
longest human lives are fleeting. If we think that longevity is a good thing
then a life of a thousand years (in full vigor) would be much better than a
life of eighty or ninety years (especially where the last few decades are years
of decline and decrepitude). Ninety is much closer to one than it is to a
thousand. It is even more distant from two or three or more thousand. If, all
things being equal, longer lives are better than shorter ones, human lives do
not fare at all.” (52) </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-left: 36.0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 150%;">“Human
lives would (…) be immensely better if we lived for many thousands of years in
good health and if we were much wiser, cleverer, and morally better than we
are.” (53)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-left: 36.0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 150%;">“To
prefer a human life to a better life suggests a distracting sentimentality
about humanity. It is to think that it is more important to be human than to
have a better quality of life” (58)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-left: 36.0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 150%;">“Not
all optimists fetishize humanity. Among the advocates of human enhancement are
those who envisage and welcome the project of a ‘post-human’ future – a future
in which humans have been so enhanced (physically, mentally, and morally) that
they are no longer recognizably human. These advocates of transhumanism think
it is much more important to improve the quality of life than for the enhanced
future beings to be human. While there are many who object to the wisdom and
morality of seeking such enhancements, I am not among those categorically
opposed to technological enhancements.” (60)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Where
Benatar disagrees with transhumanism is mostly with regard to the optimistic
expectation that with such enhancements our lives will soon be good enough.
Enhanced posthuman lives will certainly be much better, but that doesn’t
necessarily mean that they will be good (60). Why? Because “we would still die and
we would still have vastly more ignorance than knowledge” (62), to which a
truly dedicated transhumanist may well respond: Just wait, have faith, we are
already working on it. Immortality and omniscience might be difficult to
achieve, but eventually, if we try hard enough, we may well figure it out. And
then, when we are for all intents and purposes like Gods, even Benatar will
have to agree that our lives are now, finally, worth living.</span></div>
<div style="mso-element: footnote-list;">
<br clear="all" />
<hr align="left" size="1" width="33%" />
<div id="ftn1" style="mso-element: footnote;">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText">
<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=2391584212436941572#_ftnref1" name="_ftn1" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn1;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">[1]</span></span></span></span></a><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"> Cf. Michael Hauskeller, “A Cure
for Humanity? The Transhumanisation of Culture”, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Trans-Humanities</i> 8/3 (2015): 131-147. A pre-print version can be
accessed here: </span><a href="https://www.academia.edu/9517910/A_Cure_for_Humanity_The_Transhumanisation_of_Culture"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">https://www.academia.edu/9517910/A_Cure_for_Humanity_The_Transhumanisation_of_Culture</span></a></div>
<div class="MsoFootnoteText">
<br /></div>
</div>
</div>
Michael Hauskellerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00129104411381847911noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2391584212436941572.post-51298060234021982122015-10-25T05:15:00.000-07:002015-10-25T05:15:25.950-07:00David Benatar on the Harm of Coming into Existence<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">In
his book <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Better Never to Have Been. The
Harm of Coming into Existence</i> (Oxford University Press 2006), David Benatar
skilfully defends the seemingly absurd view that we would all be better off if
we had never been born and that, precisely for this reason, it is a) morally
wrong to bring children into existence, b) morally wrong <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">not</i> to abort a fetus before it comes into existence “in the morally
relevant sense at around twenty-eight or thirty weeks gestation” (148), and c) morally
desirable that our species (and indeed all sentient species) go extinct earlier
rather than later. Even if one’s children are going to have a comparatively
good life (which one can never be sure of in advance), it is still never good
enough to outweigh the harm of existence, and the longer humanity carries on with
prolonging its existence by procreation, the more unjustifiable suffering there
will be. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">According
to Benatar, non-existence (or more precisely not <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">coming</i> into existence, which is different from <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">ceasing</i> to exist) is always preferable to existence. This is so for
the following reasons: <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">first</i>, even
the most blissful human life is still subject to various forms of inevitable
suffering: “pain, disappointment, anxiety, grief, and death” (29). No matter
how lucky you are, it is simply not possible to avoid all of these harms once
you have started existing. The only way to avoid them is by <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">not</i> coming into existence. “Only
existers suffer harm.” (29) <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Second</i>
(and most crucially) this suffering is not outweighed by the many good things
that you may enjoy when you are alive, even if those good things in your life by
far outnumber the bad things. While this may be sufficient to make your
existence worth <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">continuing</i>, it is not
sufficient for your life to be worth <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">starting</i>.
The good things cannot outweigh the bad things because there is a basic <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">asymmetry</i> between pleasures (positive
experiences, satisfied preferences, or goods of any kind) and pain (negative
experiences, unsatisfied preferences, or the lack of goods), such that the
absence of pain is good even if that good is not experienced by anyone, while
the absence of pleasure is <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">not</i> bad
unless that absence <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">is</i> experienced by
someone (30). So in other words, while non-existence is better than a bad
existence, it is <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">not</i> worse than a
good existence. This asymmetry explains why we tend to believe that it is a
moral duty not to bring people into existence that we know are likely to have a
miserable life, but <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">not</i> that it is
moral duty to bring people into existence that are likely to have a (comparatively)
good life. If we wanted to insist on the symmetry between pleasure and pain,
then we would <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">either</i> have to claim
that there is nothing wrong with bringing people into the world that we know will
have a miserable life, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">or</i> that we are
morally obligated to bring as many happy people into the world as possible. If
we are not prepared to subscribe to either of those two views, then we have to
accept the asymmetry between pleasure and pain. Yet if it is good to prevent
the existence of a life with pain in it, but not bad to prevent the existence
of a life with pleasure in it, then it follows that even “a life filled with
good and containing only the most minute quantity of bad – a life of utter
bliss adulterated only by the pain of a single pin-prick – is worse than no
life at all.” (48) </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Benatar
knows very well that few people will be willing to accept his conclusion, no
matter how compelling his argument may be. The world is, after all, full of “cheery
optimists” (211) who stubbornly and against all logic cling to the belief that
their life is, all things considered, not so bad (and much better than it actually
is), that bringing children into the world is a good thing or at least not
something that is generally morally wrong, and that we have a moral obligation not
to endanger the continued existence of humanity. However, as Benatar argues, these
deeply ingrained intuitions are not trustworthy because they are simply the psychological
effect of evolutionary pressures. We only think that way because it promotes
the survival of the species: “Those with pro-natal views are more likely to
pass on their genes.” (8) That is why we are very good at seeing the silver
lining, but not so good at seeing the cloud, whose continued existence we tend
to ignore. Instead of seeing life as it really is (namely “a piece of shit when
you look at it”, to quote not Benatar, but Monty Python), we are “engaged in a
mass self-deception about how wonderful things are for us” (100). The fact that
most people do not regret having come into existence does therefore not count
against the argument because it is not rational reflection that leads people to
be happy with their existence, but their “primal” psychological biases, which
have been shaped by the process of natural evolution. Benatar thus uses the
same kind of evolutionary debunking argument to discredit widely held moral
intuitions (in his case: that it is <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">not</i>
morally wrong to reproduce and not morally wrong <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">not</i> to abort a healthy child, and that it <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">is</i> morally wrong to prevent the existence of future human life) that
Peter Singer uses in “Ethics and Intuitions”<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=2391584212436941572#_ftn1" name="_ftnref1" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn1;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">[1]</span></span></span></span></a>
in order to debunk anti-utilitarian intuitions. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Now
since I am a cheery optimist myself (i.e., I do not regret having come into
existence and do not feel guilty of having brought others into this world), I
find it difficult to agree with Benatar’s conclusion and would very much like
to find fault with it. However, I do accept that while we do not have a moral
duty to cause the existence of happy people, we do have a moral duty not to
cause the existence of unhappy people. So it seems that I do accept the
asymmetry claim: not causing the existence of happy people is not wrong, but
causing the existence of unhappy people is. I also agree that we would not be <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">worse off</i> if we had never existed. So I
guess what I do <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">not</i> agree with is the
claim that we would have been <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">better off</i>
if we had never existed. While existence may not be preferable to
non-existence, even if that existence is rich and rewarding, neither is
non-existence generally preferable to existence (though it might be in some
cases). If that is correct, then we do not have a duty to procreate (at least
not for the sake of those we bring into existence), but neither do we have a duty
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">not</i> to procreate. It seems to me that
Benatar’s claim that non-existence is preferable to even the best possible
human existence gains its plausibility not so much from the asymmetry claim,
but from the evolutionary debunking argument that suggests we vastly
overestimate the quality of our lives. But for this to be even possible we need
to assume that we may be <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">mistaken</i> in
finding our lives worth living. What Benatar is saying is that even though we
may be perfectly happy with our lives, we <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">ought</i>
not to be happy, that even though we may not regret at all having been brought
into existence, we <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">ought</i> to regret
it. Life is in fact pretty bad, but we are constitutionally unable to see it.
Yet if we don’t <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">perceive</i> our lives as
bad, how can they be <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">in fact</i> bad?
Well, we might say that there are certain features that a human life must have
in order to be called good. But normally we would seek to establish a list of
such objective good-making features by looking at what actual lives we think go
well. But this Benatar cannot do because he believes that there are no such
lives. What he does instead is postulate a counterfactual state of complete
autonomy as the norm for a good life, which, incidentally, feeds into the
transhumanist narrative that the current state of humanity is fundamentally
deficient and, in comparison to what is theoretically possible, a harmed state,
or a state of disability<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=2391584212436941572#_ftn2" name="_ftnref2" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn2;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">[2]</span></span></span></span></a>:
“Paraplegics may require special access to public transport, but the inability
of everybody to fly or to cover long distances at great speed means that even
those who can use their legs require transportation aids. Our lives surely go
less well for being so dependent. Our lives also go less well because we are
susceptible to hunger and thirst (that is unable to go without food or water),
heat and cold, and so on. In other words, even if disability is socially
constructed, the inabilities and other unfortunate features that characterize
human lives are enough to make our lives go very badly – indeed much worse than
we usually recognize.” (119)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">In
other words, our lives are in fact bad because we lack complete independence,
because we <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">need</i> stuff and because it
is not fully under our control whether we get what we need. I don’t think that
neediness is something that makes our lives on the whole bad (and worse than if
we weren’t needy creatures). More importantly, I don’t think it is more <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">realistic</i> to regard our various
dependencies in that way. It is not in any way closer to the truth of the
matter. It simply betrays a different attitude to life and what makes it good. Transhumanists,
however, should adopt Benatar’s view and argue that as long as we don’t
radically enhance ourselves so that we are no longer dependent on food and
water, temperature, and transportation aids, we’d be better off dead, so that
the only justification for continuing our existence as a species is a
determined effort to pursue a transhumanist agenda of overcoming all our
dependencies. It all fits together perfectly: the transhumanist dissatisfaction
with the current human condition and Benatar’s “pro-death view”.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">And
Benatar’s view is even more “pro-death” than he himself cares to acknowledge. If
I was convinced that Benatar was right, that it would indeed be better if the
human race became extinct sooner rather than later, then I might well feel
compelled to conclude that we have a moral duty to “embark on a ‘speciecide’
programme of killing humans” (196). The amount of suffering in the world could,
after all, “be radically reduced if there were no more humans.” (224). For
obvious reasons Benatar does not encourage this inference, saying that it would
be wrong for a moral agent to kill somebody “without proper justification”,
mostly because cutting a human life short adds to (rather than diminishes) the
harm of their existence. But the problem is that if there is harm in killing
people, then we can still weigh this harm against the harm that would result
from allowing the human species to continue to exist. In other words, the fact
that if I would be responsible for the continued suffering of many more
generations of humans that would be brought into existence if I did <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">not</i> kill everyone off surely <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">does</i> give me “proper justification”. It
seems that the harm I would inflict on those that already exist would be more
than outweighed by the many billions of lives that I would save from “the
immense amount of suffering that this will cause between now and the ultimate
demise of humanity” (208). I think I’d rather stay a cheery optimist than
accept this conclusion.</span></div>
<div style="mso-element: footnote-list;">
<br clear="all" />
<hr align="left" size="1" width="33%" />
<div id="ftn1" style="mso-element: footnote;">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText">
<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=2391584212436941572#_ftnref1" name="_ftn1" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn1;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">[1]</span></span></span></span></span></a><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"> Peter Singer, “Ethics and
Intuitions”, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Journal of Ethics</i> 9
(2005): 331-352. Cf. my reading notes, “Peter Singer on Ethics and Intuitions”:
<a href="https://www.academia.edu/s/6f07b57561">https://www.academia.edu/s/6f07b57561</a></span></div>
<div class="MsoFootnoteText">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div id="ftn2" style="mso-element: footnote;">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText">
<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=2391584212436941572#_ftnref2" name="_ftn2" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn2;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">[2]</span></span></span></span></span></a><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"> Cf. John Harris, “Is Gene
Therapy a Form of Eugenics?”, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Bioethics</i>
7.2, 3 (1993): 178-187; and John Harris, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Enhancing
Evolution</i>, Princeton 2007.</span></div>
</div>
</div>
Michael Hauskellerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00129104411381847911noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2391584212436941572.post-10060615650416707272015-10-19T01:40:00.001-07:002015-10-19T01:40:50.044-07:00Lazari-Radek and Singer on the Objectivity of Ethics and the Unity of Practical Reason<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Katarzyna
Lazari-Radek and Peter Singer’s paper “The Objectivity of Ethics and the Unity
of Practical Reason”, published in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Ethics</i>
123 (2012): 9-31, aims to defend the objectivity of ethics, or more precisely
the objectivity of a particular ethical judgement, against the kind of
evolutionary debunking argument that was brought forward especially by Sharon
Street.<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=2391584212436941572#_ftn1" name="_ftnref1" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn1;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">[1]</span></span></span></span></a>
They take as their starting point the “dualism of practical reason” that
confounded Henry Sidgwick in his <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Methods
of Ethics<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=2391584212436941572#_ftn2" name="_ftnref2" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn2;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">[2]</span></b></span></span></span></a></i>
and that prevented him from concluding that there is only one rational answer
to the question what we ought to do, namely the utilitarian one that favours
impartiality and tells us to aim at the good of all. Sidgwick’s problem was
that it seems just as rational to only aim at one’s own good. Thus practical
reason commands us to <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">both</i> pursue our
own best interest <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">and</i> the best
interest of all. Although those two goals may often coincide, there are clearly
also situations where they can clash. Therefore, in those situations, reason
cannot tell us what we ought to do. Sidgwick thought that this problem could
not be resolved and that, therefore, ethics cannot be completely rationalized.
Lazari-Radek and Singer think it can.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Their
strategy is to revisit Street’s evolutionary critique of objectivity in ethics
and then to show that while the maxim of universal benevolence or impartiality
survives the attack, rational egoism does not. Street has argued that our
evaluative attitudes including our moral beliefs about what is right and wrong
have been shaped by evolutionary forces and that because our knowledge of how
evolution works gives us no reason to suppose that it favours the development
of evaluative attitudes that are objectively true (rather than beliefs that are
conducive to our survival and to reproductive success), it would be a very
unlikely coincidence if our moral beliefs actually were all true. If we were
constructed in a different way (say, more like social insects), so that our
survival and reproductive success were dependent on different evaluative
attitudes, then we would think differently about what is right and wrong.
Hence, we have no reason to suppose that our moral beliefs are objectively
true.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">However,
Lazari-Radek & Singer argue that while this argument is on the whole
persuasive, it does <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">not</i> undermine the
objective truth of the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">ultimate</i>
principle of ethics, which, with Sidgwick, they take to be the principle that
we should always do “what is best for the well-being of all” (16), precisely
because such a principle does <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">not</i>
seem to improve our chances of survival or to increase our reproductive
success. On the contrary, it seems to diminish it (19-21). </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Indeed,
if believing in the objective truth of that principle <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">were</i> conducive to our survival or reproductive success, then we
would have no good reason to suppose that the principle was objectively true.
But if it is in fact <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">not</i> conducive to
our survival or well-being, then, paradoxically we <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">do</i> have a reason to regard the belief as objectively true. Why is
that? Because if that belief does not stem from our evolved evaluative
attitudes, then it can only be the result of the use of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">reason</i>. Of course our ability to reason generally is very useful
for us by allowing us to solve problems that would otherwise have threatened
our survival, so it no doubt has evolutionary value, too, but it is quite
possible that it <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">also</i> allows us to do
things that are not relevant to our survival, like doing advanced physics and
mathematics and grasping objective moral truths. So when we ask why we
developed those particular abilities in the first place if they are not
conducive to our survival, then a plausible explanation for their existence is
“that the ability to reason comes as a package that could not be economically
divided by evolutionary pressures. Either we have a capacity to reason that
includes the capacity to do advanced physics and mathematics and to grasp
objective moral truths, or we have a much more limited capacity to reason that
lacks not only these abilities but others that confer an overriding
evolutionary advantage. If reason is a unity of this kind, having the package
would have been more conducive to survival and reproduction than not having
it.” (17) </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">The
unity of reason helps us explain why we have the ability to track moral truths
despite the fact that we could survive and reproduce just as well, or even
better, without it, and this <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">lack</i> of
an evolutionary explanation allows us to conclude that the principle of
universal benevolence must be objectively true: “there is no plausible
explanation of this principle as the direct outcome of an evolutionary process,
nor is there any other obvious non-truth-tracking explanation.” (26)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">For
the same reason we can now also conclude that practical egoism, i.e. the maxim
that we should always choose the action that produces the best outcome for <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">ourselves</i>, is <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">not</i> objectively true. We do, after all, have a perfectly good
evolutionary explanation for why we should have that particular evaluative
attitude. The belief that we primarily ought to promote our own good and that
of our kin rather than that of everyone is exactly the kind of evaluative
attitude that we should expect to have developed under evolutionary pressures.
It is therefore not reliable and should not be seen as having any normative
significance. Since we have that attitude not because we have used our ability
to reason and as a result grasped the truth of the underlying principle of
egoism, but merely because we have been shaped by the forces of evolution to be
that way, practical egoism is in fact <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">not</i>
rational. Sidgwick’s dualism of practical reason is thus proven to be
unfounded. There is no dualism of practical reason. What practical reason
commands is one thing, and one thing only: that we always seek and promote the
best outcome for all (28).</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Is
that argument convincing? I think not. While it may make sense to distrust
beliefs and evaluative attitudes that we merely have because having them
increases (or at one point did increase) our evolutionary fitness (so that we
can assume we would also have them if they were not true) and to try and
confirm them on independent grounds, this gives us no reason at all not to hold
on to those beliefs and attitudes. It merely gives us reason to doubt that
those attitudes are <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">objectively true</i>.
If I have to have a healthy concern for my own good to survive, and I do have
an interest in surviving, then it is perfectly rational for me to promote my
own good first and foremost. It is just not rational to believe that this is
what I <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">ought</i> to do, or more precisely
that it is objectively true that this is what I ought to do. In other words, it
is difficult to uphold moral <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">realism</i>
in the face of an evolutionary explanation of our moral beliefs, but it is not
difficult to continue letting ourselves be guided by certain moral or
prudential principles. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Perhaps
more importantly in the context of the present argument, the fact that we do <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">not</i> have an evolutionary explanation for
some of our evaluative attitudes, e.g. universal benevolence or the belief that
we should do what is best for all, does not imply that they are more reliable
than those that can be thus explained.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>When Lazari-Radek and Singer state that “there is no plausible
explanation of this principle as the direct outcome of an evolutionary process,
nor is there any other obvious non-truth-tracking explanation” (26), they
simply assume without further argument that those acts of reasoning that lead
us (or some of us) to postulate that particular moral principle of universal
benevolence are <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">truth-tracking</i>. But
surely the fact that a belief is not directly caused by evolutionary forces
does not prove that we have it because it is true. If reason comes indeed in
one package, so that our ability to postulate the truth of that particular
moral principle is a mere (not fitness-enhancing) by-product or our (generally
fitness-enhancing) ability to reason, then we have already explained it. A further
explanation – we have it because that belief is true – is not needed. Moreover,
it is difficult to see why we should assume that, although reason is generally
an ability that has evolved because it increases our chances of survival and
not because it leads us to the truth, should in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">some</i> instances allow us to see the world as it really is. If reason
is not <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">generally</i> truth-tracking, why
should we suppose that it is when it leads us to have beliefs that are not
conducive to our survival? The hypothesis of a “unity of reason” helps us
explain how we <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">could</i> have developed
an ability to grasp objective moral truths, just as it helps us explain why we
have developed the ability to grasp abstract mathematical truths that have no
practical value, but it doesn’t do anything to show that we have indeed
developed such an ability. </span></div>
<div style="mso-element: footnote-list;">
<br clear="all" />
<hr align="left" size="1" width="33%" />
<div id="ftn1" style="mso-element: footnote;">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText">
<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=2391584212436941572#_ftnref1" name="_ftn1" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn1;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">[1]</span></span></span></span></a><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"> Sharon Street, “A Darwinian
Dilemma for Realist Theories of Value”, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Philosophical
Studies</i> 127 (2006): 109-166.</span></div>
</div>
<div id="ftn2" style="mso-element: footnote;">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText">
<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=2391584212436941572#_ftnref2" name="_ftn2" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn2;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">[2]</span></span></span></span></a><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"> Henry Sidgwick, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Methods of Ethics</i>, 7<sup>th</sup>
ed. London: Macmillan 1907.</span></div>
</div>
</div>
Michael Hauskellerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00129104411381847911noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2391584212436941572.post-90715803347926710382015-10-10T06:31:00.003-07:002015-10-10T06:32:42.576-07:00Peter Singer on Ethics and Intuitions<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwkiPlH_Ft2x2yAygEkA5INNokfOJSixgruRtHGPBU1mv_Gl7G35hD69lEP-G-zqqF6by6xeTCsIKGPSWBQ3sybHU1m9QYKhVGmyBU2SMXXCzJRpsRmv_7Vy9SoZy7h758OcLTnw-hKHY/s1600/trolley%252Bproblem1-290x160.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjF8FabYhjkogVbLbYG6jKDSx0ISA5UeC4cQT5-Lp1ZqO4UNBkgtNJRG6CQ7dG8l8bqc4bEGpolxFfF59snH-bPpRJuO6KeKF7jO1qlAXy2wGITUAgS9lKjpJ300xmKrx7IHfRhdluQ4nM/s1600/Peter_Singer_MIT_Veritas.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjF8FabYhjkogVbLbYG6jKDSx0ISA5UeC4cQT5-Lp1ZqO4UNBkgtNJRG6CQ7dG8l8bqc4bEGpolxFfF59snH-bPpRJuO6KeKF7jO1qlAXy2wGITUAgS9lKjpJ300xmKrx7IHfRhdluQ4nM/s320/Peter_Singer_MIT_Veritas.jpg" width="320" /></a><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">In
his 2005 paper “Ethics and Intuitions” (<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The
Journal of Ethics</i> 9: 331-352), which I recently reread, the Australian
philosopher and ethicist Peter Singer sets out to “argue that recent research
in neuroscience gives us new and powerful reasons for taking a critical stance
toward common intuitions” (332). The argument follows an argumentative pattern
that I have noticed is increasingly being used by ethicists today, especially
those of a broadly utilitarian persuasion: some science or another is said to
present us with indubitable facts that clearly show some of our commonly held
moral convictions to be wrong, unfounded, or simply not worth holding on to. In
Singer’s case, the scientific findings that he builds his case on are the
results of measuring test subjects’ brain activity through functional magnetic
resonance imaging (fMRI) while confronting them with trolley problems and
asking them what the right thing to do in such situations was. Unsurprisingly,
it turned out that people are generally more reluctant to get involved in
“personal violations” than in “impersonal violations” in order to achieve a
certain morally desirable outcome. If all that needs to be done to save five
people on a railroad track who are about to be crushed by an oncoming trolley
is to <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">throw a switch</i> that redirects
the trolley to a different track where it will kill only one person (who would
otherwise remain unharmed), most people are prepared to say that one should do
it. If, however, the five people can only be saved by <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">pushing</i> a stranger with sufficient mass and weight to stop the
trolley on the track, then most test subjects say that this would be wrong,
even though the outcome (one life is sacrificed to save five others) is exactly
the same. So in the first case they judge like good utilitarians, while in the
second they don’t. The question is why. Neuroscience provides the answer: while
in the first, “impersonal”, case those areas in the brain that are associated
with the emotions show less activity than the areas associated with cognition,
the opposite happens in the second, “personal”, case. Also, those few people
who thought it was <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">right</i> to push the
stranger onto the tracks showed more cognitive brain activity than emotional
brain activity. It did, however, take them longer to come to a decision,
indicating that they, too, first had to overcome an instinctive negative
emotional reaction to the idea of personally harming people. </span><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwkiPlH_Ft2x2yAygEkA5INNokfOJSixgruRtHGPBU1mv_Gl7G35hD69lEP-G-zqqF6by6xeTCsIKGPSWBQ3sybHU1m9QYKhVGmyBU2SMXXCzJRpsRmv_7Vy9SoZy7h758OcLTnw-hKHY/s1600/trolley%252Bproblem1-290x160.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwkiPlH_Ft2x2yAygEkA5INNokfOJSixgruRtHGPBU1mv_Gl7G35hD69lEP-G-zqqF6by6xeTCsIKGPSWBQ3sybHU1m9QYKhVGmyBU2SMXXCzJRpsRmv_7Vy9SoZy7h758OcLTnw-hKHY/s1600/trolley%252Bproblem1-290x160.jpg" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">But
what do those findings tell us about what is right and wrong, and more
specifically whether it is right or wrong to kill people, either personally or
impersonally, in order to save a larger number of lives? It seems to me that
they don’t tell us anything at all about this. Singer, however, believes
otherwise. The very fact that anti-utilitarian judgements are apparently due to
strong instinctive emotional reactions rather than an emotion-free process of
reasoning provides sufficient grounds for rejecting those judgements as
unfounded. Although admittedly those neuroscientific findings in and of
themselves “cannot prove any normative view right or wrong” (347), they should <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">ultimately</i> lead us to embrace
utilitarianism as the best normative ethical theory if we consider them in the
context of what we know about our own evolutionary history. For what we know is
this: for a long time humans lived in small groups, and in these groups
“violence could only be inflicted in an up-close and personal way – by hitting,
pushing, strangling, or using a stick or stone as a club. To deal with such
situations, we have developed immediate, emotionally based responses to
questions involving close, personal interactions with others” (347-8). Knowing
this, we can understand why “pushing the stranger off the footbridge elicits
these emotionally based responses” (348), while merely throwing a switch to
kill someone from a distance does not, namely because that kind of situation
simply did not arise when those responses were developed. This means that our
current emotional response to personal violations is a mere accident of our
evolutionary history and hence without normative significance. We should
therefore disregard those responses and conclude there is no morally relevant
difference between the impersonal violation (throwing the switch and thereby
causing a person’s death) and the personal violation (pushing somebody to their
death). Moreover, we should also conclude that the way most people react to the
thought of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">impersonal</i> violations,
judging them as justifiable when they are required to bring about a greater
good (i.e., in this case, more lives being saved), is the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">right</i> way to react, simply because it is clearly the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">rational</i> answer: “The death of one
person is a lesser tragedy than the death of five people. That reasoning leads
us to throw the switch in the standard trolley case, and it should also lead us
to push the stranger in the footbridge” (350). Of course believing that the
death of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">anyone</i> is a tragedy (and
hence ought to be prevented) may be said to be based on a moral intuition, but
if it is, then it is a “rational intuition” (351) which derives from an
impartial, objective consideration of the situation and not from the accidental
circumstances of our evolutionary past. To support this view, Singer
approvingly cites Sigdwick’s third ethical axiom according to which “the good
of any one individual is of no more importance, from the point of view (if I
may say so) of the Universe, than the good of any other.” (351)</span>
<br />
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEglVB9XAFeNsHig6Ud0DhGuHjvh_nAL0YH6xntz3lQaW9ZyOKzHPN3ZL13bZok92NdTinQMueyrTaBj8kanlZTKXJkuQ5lsabVu6K2qbl9jcDkFWspK7h0tjh2PsyYOFQDnTmV_7_MlAAY/s1600/Trolley+problem.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEglVB9XAFeNsHig6Ud0DhGuHjvh_nAL0YH6xntz3lQaW9ZyOKzHPN3ZL13bZok92NdTinQMueyrTaBj8kanlZTKXJkuQ5lsabVu6K2qbl9jcDkFWspK7h0tjh2PsyYOFQDnTmV_7_MlAAY/s1600/Trolley+problem.jpg" /></a>Now
I can see at least three problems with this argument. First, contrary to what
Singer suggests, the fact that humans used to live in small groups and that
because of the short range of their weapons all killing was necessarily
personal does nothing at all to explain why most people in our society are
reluctant to regard personally killing someone as morally permissible.
Especially not when it comes to strangers. On the contrary, if it is correct
that all violence had to be up-close and personal (i.e. “by hitting, pushing,
strangling, or using a stick or stone as a club”), and if we can assume, which
I think we can, that such violence was not uncommon, especially between those
small groups who, after all, had to compete for scarce resources, then
believing in the formative power of our evolutionary heritage should lead us to
expect people to be rather <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">un</i>concerned
about inflicting mortal harm on strangers. It is hard to see what evolutionary
purpose a reluctance to kill strangers could have had 50,000 years ago. So the
whole evolutionary explanation of our emotional reaction in the trolley case
scenario is nothing but pseudo-scientific hogwash.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Secondly,
it may be true that “from the point of the Universe” nobody’s good is of more
importance than the good of any other, but that is because from the point of
the Universe nobody’s good is of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">any</i>
importance at all. This is the perfectly reasonable conclusion drawn by the
psychopath who entirely lacks the instinctive emotional responses that ordinary
people have to inflicting harm on others. Singer mentions the psychopath in
passing when he describes the reaction of those who judged that pushing the
stranger off the bridge was the right thing to do.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Even those more rational test subjects, he
points out, had to struggle with their emotions and ultimately judged the case
“in spite of their emotions”. Anyone would, “unless they were psychopaths”
(341). But since Singer argues that those emotional inhibitions, and indeed all
non-rational moral intuitions, are misplaced and ought to be ignored or
discarded, it is difficult to avoid the conclusion that the ideal moral
reasoner is in their mental constitution rather like a psychopath. Singer seems
to sense this himself when, in a curious move towards the end of his paper, he,
once again citing Sidgwick in his support, warns us from <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">praising</i> “people who are capable of pushing someone off a
footbridge in these circumstances” (350) because that might encourage them to
“do it on other occasions when it does not save more lives than it costs”. This
is clearly a form of the slippery slope argument that is occasionally employed
by utilitarians, but I find it difficult to get my head around it. The slippery
slope argument may have some plausibility when we consider acts that are just a
bit wrong or bad and that may easily pave the way for acts that gradually
become worse. You start with one little theft or lie or act of bullying, add
another, and soon you have created a habit that runs out of control, especially
if you receive some encouragement. But why on earth should we expect that being
encouraged to do the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">right</i> thing (and
praise surely is a form of encouragement) should lead people to do <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">bad</i> things (such as morally unjustified
killing sprees)? Unless of course there is something already deeply wrong with
someone who is capable of doing that supposedly right thing. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Finally,
even though Singer briefly addresses the genetic fallacy in his paper, denying
that he commits one, his argument seems to me a paradigmatic case of such a
fallacy. The fact that the specific way we look at the world and judge what is
good and bad, right and wrong, has its origin in our human nature - which has
been shaped by our evolutionary history and generally circumstances beyond our
control that conceivably might have been different and, if they had, might have
left us with a different nature - in no way discredits it. If it did, then we
would be left with nothing at all that we could rely on, because the way we
reason is just as much rooted in what we have grown to be as the way we feel.
There is no view from nowhere, and the universe couldn’t care less whether we
live or die, or how many live or die. Singer claims that a normative ethical
theory may reject <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">all</i> of our moral
intuitions “and still be superior to other normative theories that better
matched our moral judgments” (345). I don’t think such a theory would be
desirable, or useful, or indeed possible. Ethical theory cannot ignore who and
what we are. It must refer back to our nature, which includes our moral nature.
For better or worse, there is no escape from <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">our</i> way of looking at the world. Trying to get away from this, to
leave our human perspective behind, is not “a way forward” (349), but a fool’s
errand. For what leads to moral scepticism is not, as Singer claims (351), the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">acknowledgment</i> of our grown nature, but
on the contrary its <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">denial</i>. </span></div>
Michael Hauskellerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00129104411381847911noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2391584212436941572.post-17728772089854043732015-09-10T10:15:00.000-07:002015-09-10T10:15:25.999-07:00Are Ethicists an Obstacle to Progress?<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<br />
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">When people who don’t know me ask me what I do, I
tell them I’m a philosopher. When they ask me what I specialise in, I tell them
that I am mostly, even though I’ve never been entirely comfortable with that
label, an ethicist. This used to be a good thing, or at least not a bad one,
but things are changing. People like me are now increasingly being described as
at best a nuisance, and at worst a threat to human well-being and possibly even
survival. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">In this vein, Steven Pinker, the well-known
psychologist and bestselling author, has recently (1 August 2015) published an
opinion piece in the Boston Globe, entitled “The moral imperative for bioethics,”
in which he chides ethicists for hindering the progress of our species. According
to Pinker, biotechnology could do amazing things for us if we only stopped
hampering research by raising flimsy ethical concerns about it, which is not
helpful at all. Scientific and technological progress is already slow enough as
it is, and given the “vast increases in life, health, and flourishing” that
biomedical research promises, every day we lose worrying about the ethics of
the matter is one day too many. While biotechnological research is urgently
needed to rid us of all sorts of terrible diseases, what we most certainly do <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">not</i> need are professional worriers who
call themselves ethicists second-guessing every promising new development and
thus stalling scientific and technological progress by throwing “nebulous but
sweeping principles such as ‘dignity’, ‘sacredness’, or ‘social justice’” in
its way. A <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">true</i> ethicist, Pinker decrees,
would realize that there is in fact only one valid moral imperative they should
promote and follow, namely to “get out of the way”.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_F-egU3ixEttaBUy9MIMQuJyxFmjAEgkzswz-xLWVgFbwwl5m4lfDGo4X9C6CjcRdPzyai5NFx7fu_apH5ygkt14Kal3KAK8Th1OsNlnf2uVQJTja1eys94isxJUi_LWZ1-bPVXCzySM/s1600/Obstacle.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_F-egU3ixEttaBUy9MIMQuJyxFmjAEgkzswz-xLWVgFbwwl5m4lfDGo4X9C6CjcRdPzyai5NFx7fu_apH5ygkt14Kal3KAK8Th1OsNlnf2uVQJTja1eys94isxJUi_LWZ1-bPVXCzySM/s1600/Obstacle.jpg" /></a><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">For Pinker and others like him ethics is a luxury
that we cannot afford. People are dying, people are suffering. The biotech
industry is attempting to do something about it, working very hard to succeed,
while the “so-called ethicists” are attempting to prevent this from happening. Humanity
is painfully pushing a rock up a hill, while all that ethicists are doing is
help push it back down again. For Pinker it is as simple as that. Except of
course it is not. Surprising as it may be, it is in fact <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">not</i> the primary goal of us ethicists to make life difficult for
those who want nothing but make the world a better place. Ethics is not about issuing
“red tape, moratoria, or threats of prosecution” (although ethical reflection <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">may</i> occasionally give rise to all that).
Instead, ethics is about making sure that we know <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">what</i> we are doing and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">why</i>
we are doing it, that the path we are following is really the path we <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">want</i> to be following and that the place where
this path is likely to lead us is really the place where we want to end up
being. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">We all, naturally, want things to be better than
they are, if that is possible. We all want progress. But just as nothing is
ever better <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">as such</i>, but only ever in
certain respects, there is no such thing as progress as such, or in the
abstract. We are not sitting in an evolutionary elevator that has only two
directions: up and down. Instead, there are many different ways of going up and
going forward, many different ways of going down and backwards, and many
different ways of going sideways, or around in circles, or of moving without
any clear direction at all. Moreover, the ways that lead upwards in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">some</i> way may also lead downwards in some
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">other</i> way. Things are usually more
complex than we would like, and for this very reason also more complex than we may
care to acknowledge. In order to progress, to step forward, you need to have a
goal, or at least have made up your mind about a direction. Spending a thought
or two on the reasons for choosing that particular goal or direction before you
start running doesn’t seem like such a bad idea. And that is all we are doing
when we are engaging in ethical reflection. The one question that ethicists
keep asking is whether the things we do or propose to do <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">are actually good for us, all things considered</i>. Would we really
prefer that this question be no longer asked? </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">It is highly naïve to assume that all biomedical
research will necessarily benefit some of us, let alone humanity as a whole. What
is powerful enough to save us is also powerful enough to harm us. To demand
that such research not be regulated in any way because <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">some</i> of it might eventually help us find a cure for Alzheimer's and
other diseases is like saying that politicians in government should be granted unlimited
legislative, judiciary and executive power and not be checked in any way
because <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">some</i> politicians might
actually use that power for the good of the people: we just need to trust that
they know best and that they want only what is best for us. But why should we
believe that?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">I suppose most people would agree that granting such
unlimited powers to politicians would be a singularly bad idea, and that, even
if scientists and biotech firms were generally smarter and more trustworthy than
politicians, they are certainly not trustworthy enough that we could afford not
putting any regulations and safeguards in place and thereby retaining some
measure of control. Ethical reflection helps us determine the nature and extent
of those necessary safeguards. Ideas such as human dignity, sacredness, and
social justice may strike tough-minded empiricists like Pinker as decidedly
airy-fairy and not worth serious consideration, but even though they <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">are</i> a bit airy-fairy, for many of us
they do capture something that is both elusive and very real, a sense perhaps
that living disease-free and surviving as long as possible is not all that
matters, that sometimes more is at stake, that there are other dimensions of
our life and experience that are important to us and for us, whatever they may
be. Ethicists are the ones who try to figure out what those dimensions are and
why they matter to us. They are not the professional doomsayers that some like
to depict them as. Their role is more that of psychopomps who guide us from the
present to the future, providing safe passage and making sure that we get there
safe and sound.</span></div>
Michael Hauskellerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00129104411381847911noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2391584212436941572.post-3975541758245431362015-09-04T02:00:00.001-07:002015-09-04T02:00:46.314-07:00Je suis un migrant<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="DE" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-ansi-language: DE;"></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6OMmUs6qPHUKwOgv6pfHwmbRwwm1fBtC_L8rB7RV5K1KUjQCwwfANpYeSPQiNAlmltUk5A4r1pVwZq44-2_S5sq4SbDgp1YSF8S3FkF0fUTww9eqTzWeHdounwYZjna6h6LNRkbjiRYo/s1600/Migrants+3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2epcc4qiDulJnPTVrdMfB54ZTeMzQ4u4Fp94Nk42uayIu9AgYDfs_vguU1Zjt8_6fhBjqYOpvUbkr2mVz3lrIpn_Apkx1_vfXq_xhutrubbrLNI77VwfNzUevFkkSVkCXD_ytj12vVik/s1600/MIgrants+4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2epcc4qiDulJnPTVrdMfB54ZTeMzQ4u4Fp94Nk42uayIu9AgYDfs_vguU1Zjt8_6fhBjqYOpvUbkr2mVz3lrIpn_Apkx1_vfXq_xhutrubbrLNI77VwfNzUevFkkSVkCXD_ytj12vVik/s1600/MIgrants+4.jpg" /></a><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">The
migrants are coming. They want in. Europe is their Promised Land, a safe haven
from war, hunger and persecution. They are desperate and brave, crossing oceans
to get here. But the waves are not parting for them. Many drown. We watch them
approach with trepidation. There are so many of them. A horde, a “swarm” of
migrants, climbing over fences, hiding in lorries, sleeping on the streets, crowding
into train stations, trying to break through our defences. But we don’t want
them. We slam our doors into their faces. Hungary even considered building a
wall to keep migrants out. Go away, we say, we have already given you lots of
money, what more do you want? A life, they say. A future. But we do not care.
Not much anyway. Our compassion is, before it can prompt us act, curtailed by
our presumed self-interest and self-righteousness. We are worried about
murderous Muslims sneaking in undetected. We are worried about limited
resources that we would have to share with them. We are worried about so many
strangers living in our country. But mostly we feel that they are coming for
what is rightfully ours and that they have no right to it. After all, we tell
ourselves, it is not our fault that their country lies in tatters. We have
simply done a much better job of holding it all together. They should do the
same rather than come here and make claims on the fruits of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">our</i> hard work and good sense, which <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">we</i> alone deserve to consume because it
is <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">we</i> who planted the trees from
which they have sprung. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Except, of course, we didn’t. Most of us have actually
contributed very little, if anything, to the wealth, comfort, and peace that we
have become used to enjoy as a matter of course. And what we <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">have</i> contributed we have been able to
contribute only because we were <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">fortunate</i>
enough to be born into a country where such a contribution was possible. We
benefit from what others have done before us. It is largely the fruits of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">their</i> labour that we eat. We are the
lucky ones. None of us <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">deserves</i> what
we have got, at least not more than those who had the misfortune of being born
into the wrong area of the world. We are the lucky ones. If we deserve
anything, we deserve it by virtue of being human, that is, by virtue of having
certain human needs: which is in the first instance the need for food and
safety, but then also for recognition and dignity. And we are all migrants. We
have all come to the place where we live now at some time. Some came there when
they were born, others later. It makes no difference. We don’t <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">own</i> our places. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6OMmUs6qPHUKwOgv6pfHwmbRwwm1fBtC_L8rB7RV5K1KUjQCwwfANpYeSPQiNAlmltUk5A4r1pVwZq44-2_S5sq4SbDgp1YSF8S3FkF0fUTww9eqTzWeHdounwYZjna6h6LNRkbjiRYo/s1600/Migrants+3.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="193" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6OMmUs6qPHUKwOgv6pfHwmbRwwm1fBtC_L8rB7RV5K1KUjQCwwfANpYeSPQiNAlmltUk5A4r1pVwZq44-2_S5sq4SbDgp1YSF8S3FkF0fUTww9eqTzWeHdounwYZjna6h6LNRkbjiRYo/s320/Migrants+3.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">We should also keep in
mind that the situation in which we find ourselves can change anytime. A war,
an epidemic, a natural disaster, an economic crisis can easily take it all away
from us. Soon it may be we who seek refuge in other parts of the world. We may
not always remain the lucky ones. Let us hope the world will then not close its
doors on us.</span></div>
Michael Hauskellerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00129104411381847911noreply@blogger.com1