Abstract
In this critical discussion, I evaluate David Chalmers’ position on the moral grounding question from his (2022) Reality + . The moral grounding question asks: in virtue of what does an entity x have moral standing? Chalmers argues for the claim that phenomenal consciousness is a necessary condition for moral standing. After a brief introduction to his book, I evaluate his position on the moral grounding question from the perspective of access consciousness as opposed to phenomenal consciousness, as well as the Jain doctrine of non-violence, and the differentiation of creatures in terms of their sense capacities.
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Notes
See Bradford (2022) for a great discussion of whether or not phenomenal consciousness is necessary for moral standing and for being a welfare subject. Bradford's discussion challenges the idea that appealing to phenomenal consciousness explains why something is a welfare subject. Here I have assumed that those that appeal to phenomenal consciousness as the ground for moral standing have the advantage, however, there are those, like myself, who question that position.
References
Bradford, G. (2022). Consciousness and welfare subjectivity. Nous, 1–17. https://doi.org/10.1111/nous.12434
Chalmers, D. (2022). Reality+: Virtual worlds and the problems of philosophy. Norton & Company Inc.
Montemayor, C., & Mindt, G. (2020). A roadmap of artificial general intelligence. Mind & Matter, 18(1), 9–37.
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Vaidya, A.J. A Critical Notice on the Moral Grounding Question in David Chalmers’ Reality+. SOPHIA 62, 195–200 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11841-022-00944-x
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11841-022-00944-x