Bottomless Pits Of Suffering

On a scary feature of utilitarianism: a "bottomless pit of suffering" - the developing world, nursing homes, prisons; or philosophers' utility monsters, Pascal's mugging, and the addition paradoxes - demands that an otherwise-happy world make itself permanently worse to help a domain it could otherwise ignore. The vivid image is a town covering the newly-discovered pit with a camouflaged tarp. Notes that contractualism escapes too easily, which is why we need something like a veil of ignorance.

Quality 64 · Strong. A clear, useful articulation of utilitarian demandingness via a vivid handle ("bottomless pit"), with good real-world applications (nursing homes, prisons); short and exploratory. Strong.

Claude’s paradigm shift 32 · Slight. A mildly novel, vivid framing of already-known utilitarian problems (demandingness, utility monsters); not a new paradigm. Slight.

Real-world impact 2 · Minor. A vivid handle ('bottomless pit') for utilitarian demandingness with real applications (nursing homes, prisons); a clarifying philosophical idea within the discourse, no material-world reach → RWI 2.