I have been associating the term “welfare” with suffering-minimization. (Suffering is, in the most general sense, the feelings that come from lacking something from the Maslow’s hierarcy of needs.)
It indeed seems like I’ve misunderstood the whole caring-about-others thing. It’s about value-fullfillment, letting them shape the world as they see fit? And reducing suffering is just the primary example of how biological agents wish the world to change.
That’s way more elegant model than focusing on the suffering, at least. Sadly this seems to make the question “why should I care?” even harder to answer. At least suffering is aesthetically ugly, and there’s some built-in impulse to avoid it.
EDIT: You’re arguing for preference utilitarism here, right?
I have been associating the term “welfare” with suffering-minimization. (Suffering is, in the most general sense, the feelings that come from lacking something from the Maslow’s hierarcy of needs.)
It indeed seems like I’ve misunderstood the whole caring-about-others thing. It’s about value-fullfillment, letting them shape the world as they see fit? And reducing suffering is just the primary example of how biological agents wish the world to change.
That’s way more elegant model than focusing on the suffering, at least. Sadly this seems to make the question “why should I care?” even harder to answer. At least suffering is aesthetically ugly, and there’s some built-in impulse to avoid it.
EDIT: You’re arguing for preference utilitarism here, right?