RE: Is 10,000 people suffering identically equal bad as one of them?
October 30, 2010 at 10:14 am
(This post was last modified: October 30, 2010 at 10:24 am by Edwardo Piet.)
(October 30, 2010 at 9:00 am)ib.me.ub Wrote: So shouldnt your sig read; I don't care about the total sum of all emotion that exists because it dosen't exist.
I don't care about it because no one is experiencing it because the experience of the total sum doesn't exist in anyone's experience. Because it can't. See my tautology given below.
Quote:Also, how can you be so sure that no one suffers the sum total of suffering.Well... let's say 10,000 people suffer identical experiences of pin pricks. If the total sum of that suffering would mean 10,000 times worse than any one of those identical pin pricks, then if any one of those people suffered that sum then it wouldn't be 10,000 identical pin pricks, it would be 9,999 people suffering identical pin pricks and one person suffering a pain 10,000 times worse (equal to the whole). So then we're talking about a different scenario to 10,000 identical pinpricks.
More people suffering is worse if some of those people are suffering more than if there are less people, sure. But if any of the less people are suffering more then that's worse than a bigger group where everyone suffers less. Because my point of this thought experiment is that if every individual is suffering absolutely identically then not one individual can suffer anything more by definition. The total sum suffering can't exist in reality..... more people suffering is just usually worse in practice because the more people suffering the more likely it is that some people are suffering to a greater degree than if it was less people (because, in practice, people don't suffer identically, however similar).