The only explanation for W1 being preferable to W2 (given equal pleasure) is that virtue itself has intrinsic value.

To get a taste of what this challenge may look like consider the following hedonistic reply to Ross’s argument for the idea virtue is intrinsically valuable. Hedonists hold pace Ross that while it is obvious virtue is instrumentally good and vice is instrumentally bad, it is far from clear the former is intrinsically good and the latter is intrinsically bad (Sidgwick 1907: 400ff.). In response, Ross asks us to imagine two worlds, W1 and W2. W1 and W2 include the same quantity of pleasure. Howeve