Not All Happiness is Created Equal
“Most persons are so absorbed in the contemplation of the outside world that they are wholly oblivious to what is passing on within themselves. The premature death of millions is primarily traceable to this cause. Even among those who exercise care, it is a common mistake to avoid imaginary, and ignore the real dangers. And what is true of an individual also applies, more or less, to a people as a whole.”
-Nikola Tesla, Autobiography, Chapter 2
The Setup
Let us imagine a creed of people with a singular passion, over which they obsess so diligently, practice so precisely, that from it they derive the utmost pleasure and happiness. Let their passion hold their lives so deeply that even thirty seconds of its performance would provide utility for years or decades. The bliss would persist so long, and be so complete, that it would assuredly outweigh any pain which its creation wrought, despite the fact that these trenchant folk derive their pleasure from the quick, painless extermination of innocent people.
My intuition about this case, and, I believe the stance that would be taken by most deontologists, is that the actions of the cult are deeply reprehensible. The utilitarian, and many other consequentialists, however, would argue that our intuitions about this case are mistaken. On what grounds, if any…
