Evidence receipt / uncertainty
Published · transcript-backedPeter Singer: uncertainty
7 Jun 2023 Conversations with Tyler Peter Singer on Utilitarianism, Influence, and Controversial Ideas
“I don’t know if that doesn’t exist, but you said they’re happier than we are, which suggests that there is a common metric of happiness, and that was the basis on which I answered your question.”
Source trail
Everything needed to verify it.
- Speaker
- Peter Singer
- Attribution
- Verified speaker
- Claim type
- uncertainty
- Recorded
- 7 Jun 2023
- Publisher
- Conversations with Tyler
Transcript context
…If there’s not this common metric between us and the aliens, but you just measure — you hook people up to a scale, you measure. They have more of it than we do. Let them come in. If that doesn’t exist, what is the common good or universal good in this setting? I don’t know if that doesn’t exist, but you said they’re happier than we are, which suggests that there is a common metric of happiness, and that was the basis on which I answered your question. If there’s no common metric, I don’t really have an answer, or I would try to use the metric of overall happiness. I’m not sure why I wouldn’t be able to use that, but if we assume that I couldn’t, then I would just not know what to do. So you wouldn’t fight for our side. Even then, you’d throw up your hands or just not be sure what to do.…
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