During the Spring semester of 2016, the students of PHI 360: Plato will be maintaining this blog. All are welcome to join in the conversation.
Saturday, February 23, 2013
Devil's Advocate here
Looking at Voltaire's "The Good Brhamin". Why not be a pig satisfied rather than a man dissatisfied? Some would say because of the greater capacity, the greater quality of the human. But then why, again? What of this capacity? I believe it is true that a human being has a higher quality, a greater capacity for, um, stuff (read experience, consciousness, being, living). Truth be told, we don't really know because we can't have direct knowledge, direct experience of a pig's. We can infer what it must be like, but we don't really know. However what the Brahmin is saying is this higher capacity which comes with dissatisfaction outweighs the lower capacity which is filled with satisfaction. One final thing. What if the satisfaction in the pig were of the greatest kind possible to the pig and the dissatisfaction in the man was also to the highest degree, in all respects?
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