Does it then follow that the Utilitarian principle of Benefit Maximization
is
out to lunch? The greatest good for the greatest number would seem to
require
some measure of pain and pleasure in the choice of maxims where the
personal
utility of one individual may justifiably be trumped by the "average
utility"
of the population in question. As such, my "maximum suffering" is nowhere
near
equivalent to the suffering of millions of my fellows, and, hence, I may
justifiably be sacrificed to the good of the multitude. Or are we to
interpret
Lewis's words in some "literary" manner which, naturally, would escape me?
Last week I told my maid I wouldn't be paying her because I had decided to
send
her salary to the "Free Tibet" league. Imagine, she was so indignant! You
just
can't get good moral help these days.
Walter O.
Bentham Chair in Arithmetic and Moral Philosophy
Outremont Secretarial College
Outremont, QC
Quoting Eric Yost <mr.eric.yost@xxxxxxxxx>:
Consider this quote:
"There is no such thing as a sum of suffering, for
no one suffers it. When we have reached the
maximum that a single person can suffer . . . we
have reached all the suffering there can be in the
universe. The addition of a million fellow
sufferers adds no more pain."
[C.S. Lewis, The Problem of Pain, Simon &
Schuster, NY:1996, p. 103]
In one way, the statement is persuasive. You
suffer. I suffer. They suffer. It doesn't add up.
Suffering is personal and cannot be experienced
collectively.
On the other hand, "the sum of suffering," as an
imaginative construct -- never felt, but vaguely
imagined -- seems real enough. It's the kind of
thought that makes us shudder and run for cover.
Darfur. Dachau. Atrocities we briefly hold in our
minds before sipping our coffee and turning the page.
I wish I were convinced by Lewis' consolation.
Some people suffer so much more than I do; others
so much less. "The maximum that a single person
can suffer ... can I even imagine that? Failing
that capacity, has Lewis offered any consolation
at all?
Eric
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