The Replaceability Argument - Killing Happy Animals: Explorations in Utilitarian Ethics - page 59

Would there be positive welfare, or would the neutral zone be wider?
Unfortunately, Singer's description of the modification is restricted to
the above-mentioned citation. It is interesting, though, that Singer
takes counter-intuitive implications such as the implication that all of
us would be better off having not lived, or that all of us are replaceable,
as a reason for modifying his moral theory. Since Singer has introduced
the Replaceability Argument, he has revised his position on this issue
several times, and he always admitted to remaining unsatisfied with his
proposal. This is mainly due to counter-intuitive implications of each
proposal. I will focus on Singer's most recent strategies. 21 Appeals to
counter-intuitive implications in general are often made in the evalu-
ation of moral theories. In Chapter 8, I will discuss this issue, and in
particular utilitarianism's stance on it.
Now that Singer's account of welfare is more or less in place, I will turn
to explore its implications.
5.2 Singer's account of welfare is pessimistic
Singer's moral ledger model is not in line with how preference satisfac-
tion is usually experienced. In some cases of preference satisfaction, the
moral ledger model seems adequate. For instance, when we are thirsty,
drinking some water takes away the thirst and feels like clearing a 'debit'.
However, as Singer admits elsewhere:
We are glad that we are hungry if delicious food is on the table before us,
and strong sexual desires are fine when we are able to satisfy them. 22
In those cases, the fulfilment of a desire is experienced as creating a
credit, something of positive value. People do actually sometimes refuse
to ease their hunger in time when it comes, in order to get more satisfac-
tion from a delicious meal that is awaiting them. Thus, it seems that the
fulfilment of desires can do more than wiping out a debit. Elsewhere,
Singer argues along those lines. Singer claims that the value of the crea-
tion and satisfaction of a desire depends on whether 'the experience as
a whole will be desirable or undesirable.' 23 Thus, it seems that Singer's
moral ledger model does not match with people's experiences of their
welfare. This is a disadvantage for a definition of welfare. A welfare scale
with positive, negative and neutral welfare matches much better. Of
course, there are examples of people who have defended such a pessi-
mistic account of welfare. However, the conclusions these people draw
from these accounts are not the conclusions that Singer wishes to draw,
as we will see later on in this section.