Clark Wolf

Clark Wolf is director of bioethics and professor of philosophy at Iowa State University.

Quotes

• Classical utilitarians assume [...] that pains and pleasures are commensurable so that they can balance one another out in a grand utilitarian aggregate. But it is far from obvious that pains and pleasures are commensurable in this way, and there is good reason to doubt that the twin utilitarian aims are even compatible-- at least not without further explanation.
  • "Person-Affecting Utilitarianism and Population Policy" (1997)

• [T]he value of relieving suffering is […] prior to the value of providing additional happiness to the well-off.
  • "Person-Affecting Utilitarianism and Population Policy" (1997)

• If people are badly off, suffering, or otherwise remediably miserable, it is not appropriate to address their ill-being by bringing more happy people into the world to counterbalance their disadvantage. We should instead improve the situation of those who are badly off.
  • "O Repugnance, Where Is Thy Sting?" (2004)

External links

• Clark Wolf's profile at Iowa State University.

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