Utilitarianism is rubbish, innit? (Philosophy & Politics, I.M.H.O.)
16 July 2016 [link youtube]
Ha! I said, "Three noble truths", instead of "three marks of existence". ;-) I'm actually glad that I'm out-of-practice on that front.
On historical nihilism: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F59Rx7uoRpo
Youtube Automatic Transcription
start open the video coughing always a
strong suit um I've got a question from a new member of Patriot named Dan Hellman Dan helmet is basically asking me in exchange for his one dollar thanks to your contribution dan uh what do I think about utilitarianism this is something that has been discussed within this patreon group recently primarily because of mod vegan mod vegan is both a regular viewer and someone who has her own YouTube channel etc I have to ask you guys to begin with to sympathize the fact that utilitarianism is a philosophy has simply failed to address the issues that matter to me personally okay endangered languages endangered indigenous languages Kree a jib way Mohawk with in Southeast Asia a bunch of languages even more obscure okay what did utilitarianism episode of that what does the principle of the happiness of the greatest number of people you demonism the core of utilitarianism Jeremy Bentham John Stuart Mill going back to the roots what does that have to say about endangered languages it's actually a political framework that is at best indifferent to my core interests indigenous people and colonialism and specifically this question of languages and at worst i think it's hostile to it right just happenstance okay if you want to know me if you want to respect me you can just recognize that respect that about me it's not that big a deal um okay what is utilitarian asthma to say about the Vietnam War or American military engagement in Cambodia and Vietnam basically nothing I'm sorry if that's yes you guys can go when you can dig up in some obscure academic journals what utilitarians what self-identified utilitarians had to say about those momentous historical events I'm sure there are a couple essays out there but for one thing it's trivial for another thing nobody cared for another thing it's utterly failed to change the world and you utilitarians had no voice in those debates and this is not the only example but my point is the issue that have mattered to me personally utilitarianism has has failed to have message on now I did study Jeremy Bentham John Stuart Mill etc in University and I did a little bit of reading above and beyond the bare minimum out of my own personal interest ah the overall shift in philosophy toward taking suffering itself seriously is perhaps an element that vegans appreciate about utilitarianism however from my perspective it's not their strong suit because 1 i'm very much familiar with buddhist philosophy where suffering is the you know the Alpha and the Omega of Buddhist philosophy to live is to suffer is one of the three Noble Truths it's a huge issue in Buddhist philosophy I mean to me that element of utilitarianism is not novel it's not impressive it doesn't make me respect utilitarianism and for another you know Arthur Schopenhauer I think really the first European philosopher to take that step towards making suffering itself of tremendous philosophical at even socio-political importance was Arthur Schopenhauer and you know Schopenhauer then influenced a great many other philosophers and thinkers so I just say although i can understand thumb attica lee why some vegans would get excited about the emphasis placed on suffering and reducing suffering that CD utilitarianism to me it is no big deal and the other failures utilitarians more bit more of a big deal below this video I will provide a link to an earlier video I made about historical nihilism I publicly identify as an historical nihilist and you may contrast that to what I'm saying here about utilitarianism I think the most interesting thing is not to talk about the details of utilitarianism as a doctrine you know historically are presently you know because obviously there's a difference between Jeremy Bentham and John Stuart Mill and what people today I think that what's really were thinking about is the significance of having a philosophy itself what does it mean for me as an individual or anyone to have a philosophy why would it matter what difference would it make especially for diamonds unlike utilitarianism which failed to make a difference in the real world for example at the 1954 Geneva Convention on Vietnam you know at any stage of the paris peace accords in Vietnam you know utilitarianism you're talking about a philosophy that is a failure to a massive extent it's much more of a failure than positivism by Augusta Campos is much more filler than communism communism still still to this day really influences world events here in China especially but all over the world even though again as you may have guessed I am NOT a communist I'm an anti-communist I'm a critic of communism but still I recognize communism in 2016 is more influential than Buddhism much more influential in a real world context but given that you're already throwing that away given that utilitarianism is a failure in that realpolitik elements of how a philosophy can change the world what does it matter what difference can it make I think that philosophy matters as a set of problem-solving methods I think that philosophy can matter in terms of the problems it selects the problems it raises and I think that finally thirdly a philosophy commodity you personally just for thematic reasons in the same way that poetry may matter to you that you just appreciate a philosopher or certain books of philosophy because of the themes they evoke and thus you know anaesthetic and emotional response more than the problem-solving element I'm talking about I have to just ask you to appreciate for me utilitarianism is a total failure under all three headings it does not provide problem-solving methods that are relevant to me and what matters in my life I've already given examples what's the future of the Korean the edge it within Canada for real I care all right all right we know I don't know what's the future tera vaada Buddhism and Laos what the future of anybody in Laos given that louse is currently a communist dictatorship what's the future of democracy and Thailand for that matter you know given that Thailand is currently a military dictatorship a capitalist military detention you know what you know you are looking at somebody on video I myself despite all the research I did on Cambodia Laos Haiti you know these bizarre episodes in u.s. foreign policy u.s. foreign policy in Haiti is an incredibly ugly chapter of American history I was willing to join the military i signed up a couple of months ago to fight in the current wars against Isis etc okay why is that this could be a one hour video talking about how I feel about that and what what the differences are I do not think that the role of u.s. foreign policy in Middle East now fighting against Isis I do not think that's morally equivalent to what the Americans did to Laos and Cambodia don't they're very different in many very important ways however the theoretical apparatus the problem-solving methods the questions the answers i would use in explaining that to you has absolutely nothing to do with utilitarianism and indeed even the issues i would explain in my analysis of effective activism and of effective charity work outcome evaluation impact evaluation of what makes charities effective and ineffective has nothing to do with utilitarianism so again the i know these are issues utilitarians including Peter Singer talk about to some extent so again to me utilitarianism is not relevant it doesn't provide the problem-solving methods it doesn't even ask the questions I want to ask it doesn't raise the problems it doesn't choose to examine the problems I want to examine and you know in the third category thematically or aesthetically no there's just absolutely nothing of interest to me there there's nothing that appeals to me although I started with the cabbie at the people who perhaps are not familiar with but it's philosophy or Arthur Schopenhauer they may just be thrilled by the shift towards the focus on suffering as the sort of central fact of philosophical inquiry and the question of reducing suffering rather than other forms of goals ah but look all of these other ambitions I talked about you know preserving the use of the Kree language I don't want the Kree language to go extinct does that have anything to do with reducing suffering does that have anything to do with the greatest happiness the greatest number of people uh as a from my perspective an historical nihilist perspective etc these issues and themes and problem solving methods presented by utilitarianism they have no salience to my life and they have no science aliens to the large-scale political questions that my generation has to answer
strong suit um I've got a question from a new member of Patriot named Dan Hellman Dan helmet is basically asking me in exchange for his one dollar thanks to your contribution dan uh what do I think about utilitarianism this is something that has been discussed within this patreon group recently primarily because of mod vegan mod vegan is both a regular viewer and someone who has her own YouTube channel etc I have to ask you guys to begin with to sympathize the fact that utilitarianism is a philosophy has simply failed to address the issues that matter to me personally okay endangered languages endangered indigenous languages Kree a jib way Mohawk with in Southeast Asia a bunch of languages even more obscure okay what did utilitarianism episode of that what does the principle of the happiness of the greatest number of people you demonism the core of utilitarianism Jeremy Bentham John Stuart Mill going back to the roots what does that have to say about endangered languages it's actually a political framework that is at best indifferent to my core interests indigenous people and colonialism and specifically this question of languages and at worst i think it's hostile to it right just happenstance okay if you want to know me if you want to respect me you can just recognize that respect that about me it's not that big a deal um okay what is utilitarian asthma to say about the Vietnam War or American military engagement in Cambodia and Vietnam basically nothing I'm sorry if that's yes you guys can go when you can dig up in some obscure academic journals what utilitarians what self-identified utilitarians had to say about those momentous historical events I'm sure there are a couple essays out there but for one thing it's trivial for another thing nobody cared for another thing it's utterly failed to change the world and you utilitarians had no voice in those debates and this is not the only example but my point is the issue that have mattered to me personally utilitarianism has has failed to have message on now I did study Jeremy Bentham John Stuart Mill etc in University and I did a little bit of reading above and beyond the bare minimum out of my own personal interest ah the overall shift in philosophy toward taking suffering itself seriously is perhaps an element that vegans appreciate about utilitarianism however from my perspective it's not their strong suit because 1 i'm very much familiar with buddhist philosophy where suffering is the you know the Alpha and the Omega of Buddhist philosophy to live is to suffer is one of the three Noble Truths it's a huge issue in Buddhist philosophy I mean to me that element of utilitarianism is not novel it's not impressive it doesn't make me respect utilitarianism and for another you know Arthur Schopenhauer I think really the first European philosopher to take that step towards making suffering itself of tremendous philosophical at even socio-political importance was Arthur Schopenhauer and you know Schopenhauer then influenced a great many other philosophers and thinkers so I just say although i can understand thumb attica lee why some vegans would get excited about the emphasis placed on suffering and reducing suffering that CD utilitarianism to me it is no big deal and the other failures utilitarians more bit more of a big deal below this video I will provide a link to an earlier video I made about historical nihilism I publicly identify as an historical nihilist and you may contrast that to what I'm saying here about utilitarianism I think the most interesting thing is not to talk about the details of utilitarianism as a doctrine you know historically are presently you know because obviously there's a difference between Jeremy Bentham and John Stuart Mill and what people today I think that what's really were thinking about is the significance of having a philosophy itself what does it mean for me as an individual or anyone to have a philosophy why would it matter what difference would it make especially for diamonds unlike utilitarianism which failed to make a difference in the real world for example at the 1954 Geneva Convention on Vietnam you know at any stage of the paris peace accords in Vietnam you know utilitarianism you're talking about a philosophy that is a failure to a massive extent it's much more of a failure than positivism by Augusta Campos is much more filler than communism communism still still to this day really influences world events here in China especially but all over the world even though again as you may have guessed I am NOT a communist I'm an anti-communist I'm a critic of communism but still I recognize communism in 2016 is more influential than Buddhism much more influential in a real world context but given that you're already throwing that away given that utilitarianism is a failure in that realpolitik elements of how a philosophy can change the world what does it matter what difference can it make I think that philosophy matters as a set of problem-solving methods I think that philosophy can matter in terms of the problems it selects the problems it raises and I think that finally thirdly a philosophy commodity you personally just for thematic reasons in the same way that poetry may matter to you that you just appreciate a philosopher or certain books of philosophy because of the themes they evoke and thus you know anaesthetic and emotional response more than the problem-solving element I'm talking about I have to just ask you to appreciate for me utilitarianism is a total failure under all three headings it does not provide problem-solving methods that are relevant to me and what matters in my life I've already given examples what's the future of the Korean the edge it within Canada for real I care all right all right we know I don't know what's the future tera vaada Buddhism and Laos what the future of anybody in Laos given that louse is currently a communist dictatorship what's the future of democracy and Thailand for that matter you know given that Thailand is currently a military dictatorship a capitalist military detention you know what you know you are looking at somebody on video I myself despite all the research I did on Cambodia Laos Haiti you know these bizarre episodes in u.s. foreign policy u.s. foreign policy in Haiti is an incredibly ugly chapter of American history I was willing to join the military i signed up a couple of months ago to fight in the current wars against Isis etc okay why is that this could be a one hour video talking about how I feel about that and what what the differences are I do not think that the role of u.s. foreign policy in Middle East now fighting against Isis I do not think that's morally equivalent to what the Americans did to Laos and Cambodia don't they're very different in many very important ways however the theoretical apparatus the problem-solving methods the questions the answers i would use in explaining that to you has absolutely nothing to do with utilitarianism and indeed even the issues i would explain in my analysis of effective activism and of effective charity work outcome evaluation impact evaluation of what makes charities effective and ineffective has nothing to do with utilitarianism so again the i know these are issues utilitarians including Peter Singer talk about to some extent so again to me utilitarianism is not relevant it doesn't provide the problem-solving methods it doesn't even ask the questions I want to ask it doesn't raise the problems it doesn't choose to examine the problems I want to examine and you know in the third category thematically or aesthetically no there's just absolutely nothing of interest to me there there's nothing that appeals to me although I started with the cabbie at the people who perhaps are not familiar with but it's philosophy or Arthur Schopenhauer they may just be thrilled by the shift towards the focus on suffering as the sort of central fact of philosophical inquiry and the question of reducing suffering rather than other forms of goals ah but look all of these other ambitions I talked about you know preserving the use of the Kree language I don't want the Kree language to go extinct does that have anything to do with reducing suffering does that have anything to do with the greatest happiness the greatest number of people uh as a from my perspective an historical nihilist perspective etc these issues and themes and problem solving methods presented by utilitarianism they have no salience to my life and they have no science aliens to the large-scale political questions that my generation has to answer