Posted: Nov 13, 2014 3:13 pm
Fallible wrote:There is a meaningful sense in which we can say that some people suffer less than dead people? This is where I apparently keep falling down. Would that not require allowing that dead people suffer?
No, if suffering can be negative, for example if we look at net suffering (i.e. some measure of suffering offset by happiness or "thriving") then someone who does not suffer can be worse off than someone who has negative net suffering.
The point is that you seem to be taking a reasonable view that suffering is a one way street, but I don't think it's the only reasonable view. Which is why the consequences start to look less uncontroversial, for example when we talk about how the living must have it worse than the dead.