Single Idea 5930

[catalogued under 22. Metaethics / B. Value / 1. Nature of Value / c. Objective value]

Full Idea

Everyone would prefer the second of two universes, if each had equal vice and virtue, and each had equal pleasure and pain, but in the first the virtuous were miserable and the vicious happy, while in the second universe it was the opposite.

Gist of Idea

All things being equal, we all prefer the virtuous to be happy, not the vicious

Source

W. David Ross (The Right and the Good [1930], §V)

Book Reference

Ross,W.David: 'The Right and the Good' [OUP 1930], p.138


A Reaction

This strikes me as a very good example of an intuition which it is hard to resist. Would some vile Mafia boss really want heaven to be full of murderers, while good-hearted and kind people all went to hell?