So it occurred to me that people might wonder how, since I have drawn an asymmetry, a world is ever to increase its peak value. To do so, people have to make sacrifices and go above and beyond the call of duty (since it is not necessary to do good but is only necessary not to do bad).
Let's go back to the example I had of a student choosing to play a sport or study for a test. In the scenario I thought was plausible, the student chose to study in order for a higher gain later on. In my eyes, this is making a sacrifice at one point (i.e., lowering wellbeing) in order for a higher wellbeing later. My hope is this seems plausible to most people; I think that most people would say that if the student chose to play the sport, the student was being irresponsible or lazy or some other negative thing. Again, this is what I assume. If my assumption is wrong—i.e., if people think it more plausible that a student should choose playing the sport over studying—then this goes out the door.
Perhaps, if you don't like this example, we can discuss going to work every day. Many adults go to work every day. Excepting for those few who actually enjoy their job, to me, this would be a lowering of wellbeing in order for a later gain (e.g., working 40 hours a week at a job you hate in order to have enough money to put food on the table for your family). This may be a more plausible "sacrifice" example, at least it seems so to me.
I will continue this tomorrow.
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"to increase its peak value.... people have to make sacrifices"
ReplyDeleteBased on what? "go[ing] above and beyond the call of duty"?
Duty? Really? The obliterator of man's mind in the realm of ethics and action? How about people just act on reason and consequently are productive therefore they create more value.
"the student chose to study in order for a higher gain later on. In my eyes, this is making a sacrifice at one point (i.e., lowering wellbeing) in order for a higher wellbeing later."
You are mistaking what a sacrifice is. To sacrifice means to give up a value for a disvalue. So, in this case the person would not be making a sacrifice assuming they did it with the idea that doing well on said test is more important than playing a sport.
"if people think it more plausible that a student should choose playing the sport over studying"
If the test is stupid and has no bearing on the student's future (say they intend to play sports for their job and the test is in a class like humanities which teaches the destruction of man's mind) then the student would be stupid to study for the test rather than focusing on sports.
Regarding your other example, you still have yet to show how that would be a sacrifice, namely choosing a disvalue over a value. You don't understand the sacrifice, if you'd like i could show you why sacrifice must is how i defined it.