Negative Utilitarianism and Buddhist Intuition

Abstract

Starting point:Serge-Christoph Kolm suggests that ‘Buddhism advocating minimizing dukkha (pain, dissatisfaction)—rather than maximizing sukkha (from which “sugar” comes) may be a kind of negative welfarism’(Kolm2006, 8). Christoph Fehige, after suggesting that ‘Maximizers of preference satisfaction should instead call themselves minimizers of preference frustration’, concludes that Buddha is on his side (Fehige1998, 518, 522).Type of Problem:What are the common intuitions of negative utilitarianism and Buddhism?Result:Negative utilitarianism and Buddhism share the following intuitions: Negative utilitarianism—understood as an umbrella term—models the asymmetry between suffering and happiness and therefore accords with the Buddhist intuition of universal compassion. The Noble Truths of Buddhism accord with the negative utilitarian intuition that (global) suffering cannot be compensated by happiness. Some forms of Buddhism and negative utilitarianism share the intuition that non-existence is a perfect state.