(August 4, 2014 at 4:38 pm)Mozart Link Wrote: I not only argued why my pleasure is more important from my own "selfish" perspective, but I have also argued this from another point of view (from a caring and selfless person's point of view such as yourself). That would, again, be that my family would obviously be more devastated knowing that I am intelligent and have no pleasure and that they would be happy and at peace knowing that I am retarded and am happy myself regardless of how hard it makes their lives in taking care of me and such.
So I ask here, why wouldn't they feel devastated if I were to be intelligent and such with no pleasure and why would they feel better knowing that I have no pleasure than if I were to be happy and them having to take care of me? They would obviously value my emotional well-being (pleasure) much more than the fact that they have the burden of having to take care of me and they would also value my pleasure over my intelligence and other things about me and such. Which is obviously why I would choose to be retarded and not cause my family the most devastation.
Therefore, from both my own "selfish" perspective and also from the "selfless" perspective of a helpful and caring person, my argument holds true for both of these types of people.
False dichotomy. Neither your parents nor anyone else you know or will know is utterly "selfless". And while I don't doubt for a moment that they would do their utmost to care for you if you could will yourself into a state of dependent, imbecilic "happiness", I also suspect that they would quietly resent your decision and wish that you had just got your shit together instead. Unless, of course, wiping your ass until the end of time is their thing. But I doubt it.
It's telling that in all of this you do not even seem to consider what your hypothetical decision would do to their plans for life and their happiness. It's all about you, isn't it? You don't seem nearly interesting enough to occupy center stage in this world.
