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    Carmelics

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    Made withinDC&Austin
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    Home/Original/inverse
    See Original
    Inverse View

    It is not the case that The value of an action depends entirely on the quantity of pleasure it produces.

    ?Set your confidence on the premises below to see your aggregate.

    Reasons For

    2 perspectives
    Reason for 1 of 2
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    • 1.Mill himself concedes in Utilitarianism Ch.2 that some pleasures are superior in kind, not merely quantity, undermining pure quantitative hedonism.
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    • 2.If competent judges consistently prefer Socrates dissatisfied over a fool satisfied, quality must be a value-determining factor irreducible to quantity.
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    • 3.A theory that requires qualitative distinctions among pleasures cannot coherently hold that value depends *entirely* on quantity of pleasure.
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    Reason for 2 of 2
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    • 1.G.E. Moore's ideal utilitarianism holds that knowledge, friendship, and beauty have intrinsic value independent of the pleasure they produce.
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    • 2.If a world with great art but no observers has more value than a world of equal hedonic pleasure with no art, then pleasure quantity is not the sole value determinant.
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    • 3.The intuitive force of Moore's 'two worlds' argument demonstrates that equating value entirely with pleasure quantity commits the naturalistic fallacy.
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    Reasons Against

    1 perspective
    Reason against
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    • 1.Actions have only extrinsic value under hedonism.
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    • 2.Extrinsic value is determined by how much intrinsic value (pleasure) a thing brings about.
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    • 3.Quantity of pleasure is a function of the number of pleasures, their intensity, and their duration.
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