Podcast
Unexplainable
This modern philosophy paper was discussed as presenting dubious arguments that concluded saving five lives isn't necessarily better than saving one life, suggesting that suffering isn't additively comparable between different people.
Should the Numbers Count by John Torek is among the few modern philosophy papers that might fairly be described as infamous.
— Episode: Consider the shrimp
Episode: Consider the shrimp
This modern philosophy paper was discussed as presenting dubious arguments that concluded saving five lives isn't necessarily better than saving one life, suggesting that suffering isn't additively comparable between different people.
Should the Numbers Count by John Torek is among the few modern philosophy papers that might fairly be described as infamous.
The conclusion that it's better to save five than one, he argues, is based on a belief that you can somehow sum up suffering and happiness between different people, so that the suffering of five people adds up to more than the suffering of one.
Thus, Torek argues that the drug's owner should not just reflexively save the five instead of David. She should instead flip a coin.