Out Of Their Depth?
valuable (among many other dubious claims). This may seem acceptable, but it is
not. It would violate the hedonist’s claim that pleasure and pain are the only
intrinsic goods or bads.
But LRS have created an even deeper problem for themselves. If, as above,
our normative evaluations of pain are distinct from, and not implied by, our
motivational (or qualitative) evaluations of it, then LRS can defend against
evolutionary debunking, but it seems they can no longer sustain Lerner- and
Sinhababu-type claims that slide between the two stances. On the other hand, if our
normative evaluations of pain are implied by, or equivalent to, our motivational
evaluations of it, then LRS can slide between the two stances and claim that pain is
normatively bad, but they will surrender their defense against evolutionary
debunking, for one of the stances (the motivational) is plainly contaminated.
It is more plausible, I suggest, that our normative evaluations of pain are not
implied by our motivational evaluations, and that beliefs about the intrinsic value
of sweet things, fire, and pleasure and pain are all debunkable. But how is it
possible to debunk these beliefs if they were not likely to be directly selected for?
It is possible because, as Kahane (2011, pp. 111-112) notes, for an
evolutionary debunking argument to go through, it is not necessary that the object
of debunking is an adaptation. It may also be an “exaptation”— a trait that takes on
a new function. Given the relative ease with which we confuse normative and the
motivating stances — as LRS themselves display above — it does not stretch the
imagination to think that we may have taken the unpleasantness of pain to mean
normative badness at some point. That is, perhaps our normative evaluation of pain
was exapted from our motivating evaluation of it, because this move was all too
convenient, though not necessarily directly adaptive. This would undermine the
reliability of the normative evaluation.
Conclusion: Debunking Runs Deep
Volume VI (2023)
58
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