Consciousness and the good

Thesis

This thesis is a collection of articles on the moral and prudential significance of consciousness. It investigates the ways in which the very fact that an individual has a conscious mental life determines (i) whether anything can be good or bad for them, (ii) what, if anything, is good or bad for them, (iii) whether they have prudential or self-interested reasons to care about their own lives or the lives of others, and (iv) whether they matter morally in and of themselves. It also discusses how these facts relate to our reasons to care about future generations, animals, the dead, and artificial intelligence systems. Chapter 1 argues that introspection gives us strong reason to believe that only conscious beings have lives that can go well or badly for them. Chapter 2 argues that consciousness itself, while necessary, is not sufficient for having a life that can go well or badly, and thus for mattering morally. What is required is a particular kind of consciousness, the affective kind possessed by beings capable of pleasure, pain, and emotion. The chapter argues that this has important implications for the moral status of animals and the future design of artificial intelligence systems. Chapter 3 argues that even if only conscious beings matter morally, there is still an important sense in which beings who were once conscious can be harmed or benefited after death. This is because something of their mental life can survive in other minds, namely the psychological connections that grounded the prudential concern they once had for themselves. Chapter 4 argues that because of these surviving psychological connections, we should care about the wellbeing of future generations for the same sorts of prudential reasons we care about our own. This means not only that our deaths may be less bad than we thought, but also that the extinction of humanity could be worse.

Authors: Cecchinato, M

• DOI: 10.5287/ora-n6jawbazw
• Type of award: DPhil
• Awarding institution: University of Oxford
• Language: English
• Keywords: personal identity; moral status; consciousness; wellbeing; theories of welfare; posthumous harm; animals; prudence; what matters in survival; future generations; artificial intelligence; Derek Parfit
• Subjects: Ethics; Philosophy