On Tue, Feb 19, 2013 at 9:14 AM, Bruno Marchal <marc...@ulb.ac.be> wrote:
> > On 19 Feb 2013, at 07:49, Jason Resch wrote: > > > >> Are you OK that your daughter makes money in that way? >> > > No. > > > OK. But if she is adult, and if you have the assurance that she "knows" > what she is doing, i.e. that she has some fair account of what is involved, > then you can't obliged her to not do it. This follows from what you said > above, as I am sure you see. It is not different from alpinism. I would be > anxious my daughter make alpinism, as she might get stuck of fall, perhaps > die, but then, if she is not a minor, it is her choice. > > > It might be that we just had different connotations of "OK". I would be uneasy with and disagree (hence not be OK with) her making a living by causing or suffering. I think there might be better ways to make money but still the decision is hers. Your scenario reminded me of this writing by Lee Corbin: Next suppose that you have a duplicate in an adjacent room that you are monitoring on closed circuit television. You are told that you and he are the same person. Probably, you disagree. You are then asked you whether it is preferable that your duplicate receive two minutes' electrical shock or you receive one minute's. You reply that you would prefer that your duplicate receive the two minutes' worth. ("Better him than me.") It is done, but that night a merging process copies 'your' memories of the day into 'his' brain and 'his' memories into 'yours'. (I must use funny quotes around "his" and "yours" because my central claim is that ultimately such a distinction is meaningless.) Now the next day the scenario is repeated. I ask 'you' whether it is better that 'your' duplicate get the two minute treatment or that 'you' get the one minute treatment. Now you're not so sure. For you now *remember* that yesterday you were sitting minding your own business being monitored on closed circuit television when suddenly out of the blue there came two minutes' of electrical shock. You remember this as being *very painful*. Nature has constructed you to avoid repetition of unpleasant incidents. So you now begin to suspect that 'you' and 'your duplicate' are the same person. You decide (maybe after several more days of "two minute" punishments) that perhaps it is better to call down upon 'yourself' the mere one minute punishment. After that night, when the memories are merged, you conclude that you made a wise move. Today's punishment seemed to be less severe than yesterday's. If the person making the decision to take the money in exchange for the torture would make the same decision whether or not the memory was erased, then they are making the right decision for themself. If they change their mind depending on the memory erasure, then I think they are using a faulty theory of personal identity to make their decision, and are prone to making a bad decision. Jason -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Everything List" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to everything-list+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To post to this group, send email to everything-list@googlegroups.com. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/everything-list?hl=en. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.