Bioethics lecture: Doug MacLean (UNC)

Doug MacLean will give a presentation entitled, “Some Reflections on Pain and Suffering”.

Abstract:

Many people believe that pain and suffering are intrinsically bad, and that, ceteris paribus, more pain or suffering is worse than less.  This way of thinking underlies most consequentialist moral outlooks and some others as well.  Of course most people,including consequentialists, will acknowledge that some pain and suffering might be instrumentally justified because they are necessary as means for realizing some greater good (e.g., some painful medical procedures).  I believe the assumption that pain is intrinsically bad is supported by certain beliefs and theories, but it is not intuitively plausible.  I will try to undermine the assumption with some examples of contexts in which it is not unreasonable to choose to experience more rather than less pain or suffering and in which pain is necessarily (not just instrumentally) connected to positive experiences.