Quote:ok, sounds like a fair philosophy.Indeed.
Quote: But how does one then determine which individual within the larger group is suffering the most.Well that's another task. One can only give their best intuitive estimate.
Quote:Could you say that an individual, within a certain species with the least number of actual beings remaining, would be suffering the most.
If it is it is if it isn't it isn't. It's less likely to though because suffering varies over individuals and so the more individuals the more likely that one of them is suffering greater. They don't actually add up because that would mean that enough pin pricks would be worse than extreme torture when a pin-prick can only ever be as bad as a pin-prick by definition.
If we have no information whatsoever then it's better to save the larger group not because they add up (they logically can't) but because the larger the group the more likely there is someone in it who suffers the most out of both groups.
