Well-Being Counterfactualist Accounts of Harm and Benefit

Abstract

Suppose that, for every possible event and person who would exist whether or not the event were to occur, there is a well-being level that the person would occupy if the event were to occur, and a well-being level that the person would occupy if the event were not to occur. Do facts about such connections between events and wellbeing levels always suffice to determine whether an event would harm or benefit a person? Many seemingly attractive accounts of harm and benefit entail an affirmative answer to this question, including the widely held Counterfactual Comparative Account (CCA). In this paper, however, we argue that all such accounts will be unsuccessful.

Causal Accounts of Harming

“…CCA struggles to accommodate these claims, however, in part due to the preemption and failure to benefit problems and related issues (e.g. Bradley 2012;Carlson 2019Carlson , 2020Feit 2019;Carlson et al 2021;Johansson and Risberg forthcoming). As causal theories of harming promise to avoid those problems, they also promise to do better in accommodating the normative significance of harming.…”

“…Whether some other theory of harming can be used to provide such a vindication remains, we think, to be seen. 19 Department of Philosophy Uppsala University, Sweden NOTES 1 CCA (as well as other related views of harm) faces several further problems that we lack the space to mention here but discuss elsewhere (Carlson 2019(Carlson , 2020Johansson and Risberg 2020, forthcoming;Carlson et al 2021).…”

“…CCA (as well as other related views of harm) faces several further problems that we lack the space to mention here but discuss elsewhere (Carlson 2019, 2020; Johansson and Risberg 2020, forthcoming; Carlson et al 2021).…”

Does Abortion Harm the Fetus?

“… 6 It also follows from the view defended in Johansson and Risberg (forthcoming), and from all views considered in Carlson, Johansson, and Risberg (2021b). …”

“…Does it occupy a zero level, making it more virtuous than a bad person and less virtuous than a good person? Again, that is a 6 It also follows from the view defended in Johansson and Risberg (forthcoming), and from all views considered in Carlson, Johansson, and Risberg (2021b). 7 Some might want to say that sentences like, "The computer occupies some financial level" are meaningless (and similarly with other relevant examples below).…”