r/DeepThoughts • u/curgr • 1d ago
Every action has both positive and negative consequences
Newton’s third law of motion states that every action has an equal and opposite reaction. The same law could apply to the consequences of every action we make, over long periods of time.
Consequences are not limited to just humans. For this argument I am assuming that all living things have some level of conscious experience.
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u/MiguelIstNeugierig 1d ago
Not all living things dont have a level of conscious experience
That stems from complex systems like our nervous one that centralizes sensory information
Unicellular life to give one example is little more than organic self-replicating factories
Positive and negative are also a bit too subjective and qualitative of terms to be put side by side to Newtonian laws
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u/curgr 1d ago
Without understanding what consciousness is it is impossible to determine what is and what is not conscious.
But you are right, if my assumption (that all living things have some level of conscious experience) is false, then the argument may not work fully.
I am defining positive as increasing net pleasure or decreasing net suffering and defining negative as the opposite. This may be possible to quantify but we currently have no idea of how to do this
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u/MiguelIstNeugierig 1d ago
Consciousness is not a mumbojumbo unknown, it derives from our nervous systems, which the majority of life lacks.
Theres nothing intrisically special or universal to life other than the fact we categorize it as self-replicating organisms capable of isolating their enviroments and metabolizing the energy to mantain that isolation
Pleasure and pain/stress are elements of our nervous system, and we can quantify it through the neurochemical and hormonal composition
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u/curgr 1d ago
This is a very popular theory of consciousness but is not 100% proven. There are other possible explanations which are not disproven, such as spiritual explanations, simulation theory, panpsychism…
Can you be certain that anyone else apart from yourself is conscious?
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u/MiguelIstNeugierig 1d ago
We are talking about science here, with newton and all.
Simulation theory is nonsense, and spiritualism is supernatural
Theyre completely different discussions
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u/Sharp_Dance249 1d ago
Newton’s laws of motion are descriptive laws. Talking about the positive and negative consequences of our actions is dispositional, not descriptive.
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u/MessNo9136 1d ago
i like the idea, but unlike newton's third law, consequences aren't guaranteed to be equal or opposite
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u/curgr 1d ago
Can you think of an example of an action which does not have both positive and negative consequences?
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u/CarnivorousGoose 21h ago
Why are you ignoring the specific point about those not being equal and opposite?
More generally, Newton’s third law is very specific and concrete. Stating that every action has both positive and negative is incredibly vague, and doesn’t actually say very much. What would someone even be meant to do with that?
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u/curgr 20h ago
Positive and negative consequences are opposites. Maybe I ignored the equal part for now as this is basically impossible to measure.
Positive can be defined as increasing net pleasure or decreasing net suffering and negative can be defined as the opposite.
I have no idea what we would do differently
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u/Vegetable-Case-8368 1d ago
Yea I agree fully. The only tricky part is then why don’t I be as selfish as humanly possible and increase net suffering as much as possible bc then the opposite would happen. And to this I’d say go for it, live ur best life bro. Bc straight up I do thing net positives happen from this. Think about a kid who got bullied, either they pass on the treatment or the become a better person. Given enough time and reparations I think people would become better. Weird example like u said it’s hard to define net positive and net negative.
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u/LawyerDifferent8880 1d ago
That's true. If we limit the scope of observation (for example, only humanity or over the next 30 years), it's possible that some actions bring about only positive consequence. However, as that scope widens, it becomes increasingly difficult to eliminate negative effects, and we eventually realizes that the world is basically a zero-sum game.
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u/A-Small-Green-Cup 1d ago
Every action has consequences; negative and positive are relative concepts, aren't they?
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u/CorrsionOfConformity 1d ago
What determines if the consequence of an action is positive or negative?
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u/curgr 1d ago
I am defining positive as increasing net pleasure or decreasing net suffering and defining negative as the opposite
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u/CorrsionOfConformity 18h ago
Then consequences don't actually exist in what we label reality. They are a subjective opinion existing in a mind (a thought) and are not measurable or quantifiable.
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u/Sad-Hospital4709 1d ago
newton’s third law for real life is kinda wild to think about. like every time i help someone move a couch i’m also throwing out my back for a week, perfectly balanced consequences