This was responded to above — when we reflect on pain we conclude that it’s the type of thing that’s worth avoiding, that there should be less of.
When I reflect on my pain, I notice that it’s the kind of thing I want to avoid. Other peoples pain doesn’t exist phenomenally for me...I don’t feel it. An ethical theory should modify my behaviour with regard to others somehow, so I don’t think you get one out of subjective feelings alone.
Same here. When I experience pain, I only notice that it’s something I want to avoid. I don’t think of it as “bad” in some stance-independent way. I don’t want other people to be in pain, either, but that isn’t part of my phenomenology. It’s a desire, or attitude that I have, and it has nothing to do with moral realism.
Note something else strange about the remark. It says “when we reflect on pain we conclude that...”
It’s strange to make a claim about what other people conclude. Who is “we” here? It’s not me, nor does it appear to be you. Yet for some reason we’re supposed to take the author’s phenomenology as evidence in favor of realism, yet phenomenology that doesn’t lend itself to realism (or even lends itself to antirealism) seems to be ignored.
When I reflect on my pain, I notice that it’s the kind of thing I want to avoid. Other peoples pain doesn’t exist phenomenally for me...I don’t feel it. An ethical theory should modify my behaviour with regard to others somehow, so I don’t think you get one out of subjective feelings alone.
Same here. When I experience pain, I only notice that it’s something I want to avoid. I don’t think of it as “bad” in some stance-independent way. I don’t want other people to be in pain, either, but that isn’t part of my phenomenology. It’s a desire, or attitude that I have, and it has nothing to do with moral realism.
Note something else strange about the remark. It says “when we reflect on pain we conclude that...”
It’s strange to make a claim about what other people conclude. Who is “we” here? It’s not me, nor does it appear to be you. Yet for some reason we’re supposed to take the author’s phenomenology as evidence in favor of realism, yet phenomenology that doesn’t lend itself to realism (or even lends itself to antirealism) seems to be ignored.