I’m not immediately convinced (I think you need another ingredient).
Imagine a kind of orthogonality thesis but with experiential valence on one axis and ‘staying aliveness’ on the other. I think it goes through (one existence proof for the experientially-horrible-but-high-staying-aliveness quadrant might be the complex of torturer+torturee).
Another ingredient you need to posit for this argument to go through is that, as humans are constituted, experiential valence is causally correlated with behaviour in a way such that negative experiential valence reliably causes not-staying-aliveness. I think we do probably have this ingredient, but it’s not entirely clear cut to me.
Unlike jayterwahl, I don’t consider experiential valence, which I take to mean mental sensations of pleasure and pain in the immediate moment, as of great importance in itself. It may be a sign that I am doing well or badly at life, but like the score on a test, it is only a proxy for what matters. People also have promises to keep, and miles to go before they sleep.
I’m not immediately convinced (I think you need another ingredient).
Imagine a kind of orthogonality thesis but with experiential valence on one axis and ‘staying aliveness’ on the other. I think it goes through (one existence proof for the experientially-horrible-but-high-staying-aliveness quadrant might be the complex of torturer+torturee).
Another ingredient you need to posit for this argument to go through is that, as humans are constituted, experiential valence is causally correlated with behaviour in a way such that negative experiential valence reliably causes not-staying-aliveness. I think we do probably have this ingredient, but it’s not entirely clear cut to me.
Unlike jayterwahl, I don’t consider experiential valence, which I take to mean mental sensations of pleasure and pain in the immediate moment, as of great importance in itself. It may be a sign that I am doing well or badly at life, but like the score on a test, it is only a proxy for what matters. People also have promises to keep, and miles to go before they sleep.