Is Benefit Subjective?
I was debating a close friend of mine recently on the subject of "benefit." He took the stance that one has to decide for himself what is beneficial for him based on his values. While I agree that one needs to decide their course of action based on their values, I do not agree that anyone can decide what is beneficial, period. I do not believe that benefit is subjective to one's opinion. In actuality, I do not necessarily believe that benefit is subjective at all. I believe that benefit is a constant that is waiting to be discovered, regardless of our opinion.
Now, that being said, there are different things that benefit different people and their different goals more than others. Nevertheless, there are still certain factual, non-negotiable, benefits. For example eating healthy and exercise are both beneficial. They have been proven to be beneficial to the body, and since every one has a body they are beneficial to every one regardless of their opinion. That is not to say that a person should not be able to choose his course of action, or even whether he believes it or not. I am merely saying that benefit is fact, not subjective to your opinion of it.
In relation to this, my friend gave this example: If a health food nut says that eating Twinkies are bad, so a person should eat health food because it is beneficial. Yet that that certain person wants to gain weight because their girlfriend prefers heavier guys. That person should decide which is beneficial for them.
Now, I can understand the dilemma... (I would recommend dumping the chick.) However, just because their goal is to gain weight does not mean that is healthy or beneficial. Healthy food is beneficial to one's body in spite of what their personal goals or values might be. Gaining weight may or may not be beneficial to their relationship, while eating Twinkies (although furthering them toward their goal) is most likely not beneficial.
The question was also posed, that if healthy food and money are both beneficial but it takes all your money to eat healthy, and only a small amount of your money to eat poorly, which is more beneficial?
The answer is that they are both beneficial. You decide which is more important to you, or what your priorities and values determine your action to be. (Personally, I think that money is a tool to be used. And there is no value in having a tool if you are not going to use it.) But that doesn’t make one more beneficial than the other. If you choose to spend the money and buy health food, does that mean that having money is not beneficial? Or if you choose to keep the money and eat poorly, does that mean that eating healthy is not beneficial? Absolutely not! They are both beneficial in spite of your decision. It merely means that you must choose which benefit is of more importance to you. One may be more important to you since it would help in obtaining your goal, but that dose not mean that it would null the beneficiality of the other.
The same is true if you were to go to an automotive dealer looking for a new vehicle. If he were to tell you that you should buy a car as it would get better gas mileage, but you wanted to buy a truck so that you could pull a 15,000 lb trailer, it would not null the beneficiality of good gas mileage. Good gas mileage is beneficial. So is having a truck that could pull a 15,000 lb trailer behind it. Those are facts that are not up for debate. What you must decide (since you cannot have both) is which vehicle would better suit your purposes. Different things may benefit different goals, or different people more.
For example, the person selling gas would benefit more from you buying a vehicle with poor gas economy since you would buy more of his gas and he would make more profit. You on the other hand, would benefit more from buying a vehicle with good gas economy, as you would be able to save money on gas. But both are a benefit regardless of your opinion. Whether it is actually beneficial for your particular goal may be another matter (also not subject to your opinion).
Just because you believe something to be the case does not make it so. Just because I believe that my eyes are purple, or that a board will hold my weight, or even that I can fly... does not make it so. I can believe that something will benefit me, but that doesn’t necessarily make it so. If I was trying to get out of debt, and believed that filing bankruptcy would benefit me (as I thought it was the only, or even the best, way to get out of debt), I would be wrong. If I were trying to build a business, and believed that it would benefit me to use credit so that I could build it quickly, rather than using cash, I would be wrong. If I were starting to invest and decided that it would benefit me to borrow at 8% and invest at 12%, I would be wrong again. These are common money myths. Just because people believe them to be true, does not make them so. Just because people think that something may benefit them, does not make it so.
Each person must decide for himself what his values are, and base his goals and priorities upon them. Then he must decide what course of action to take based on his desires and what he *believes* will be of the most benefit to him.
My point is that what we believe to be beneficial, does not affect whether it actually is or not. Benefit is a constant, waiting to be discovered. That is why it's our responsibility to stay well informed.
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Some definitions of the word Beneficial:
"Promoting or enhancing well-being; "an arms limitation agreement beneficial to all countries"; "the beneficial effects of a temperate climate"; "the experience was good for her”.... tending to promote physical well-being; beneficial to health; "beneficial effects of a balanced diet"; "a good night's sleep"; "the salutary influence of pure air""
wordnet.princeton.edu/perl/webwn
"Advantageous; helpful; contributing to a valuable end. Beneficially” –Webster’s
Benefit:
"A term used to indicate an advantage, profit, or gain attained by an individual or organization."www.gao.gov/policy/itguide/glossary.htm
posted by She who is by birth... at 9:53 PM
3 Comments:
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At one point you state, "I do not believe that benefit is subjective to one's opinion...benefit is a constant..." but later you concede that "Different things may benefit different goals." In other words, the benefit derrived from an object or activity is subject to one's goals.
In all of your examples where you call something "beneficial," you are implying that it benefits a specific goal. Eating health food is beneficial to your health. Good gas mileage is beneficial to your wallet. But eating health food is not beneficial to gaining weight, and the better gas mileage of a compact car is not beneficial to towing a trailer. Who is to say which of these goals are to enjoy the benefit? Just because a small hybrid car benefits one person, does not mean it benefits another. To say that buying a small car is "beneficial" as a blanket statement ignores the situation about which you may be talking.
Another example I might add is the Heimlich manuver. This is a very beneficial technique...to someone who is choking. But to say that it is just beneficial, as if beneficial was an absolute, concrete attribute that is not subject to the specific situation at hand is short-sighted. To someone trying to enjoy a steaming hot cup of coffee, the Heimlich manuver is anything but beneficial.
It was my understanding that you believed a person could decide for himself what was beneficial, and that benefit is subjective to one's opinion on whether it is beneficial or not. My argument is that beneficiality is not something that can be decided, but that already is, and that is not subjective to one's opinion.
I did indeed state that "I do not believe that benefit is subjective to one's opinion...benefit is a constant..." but finished my sentence with "regardless of our opinion."
I did not contradict myself when I later said that "Different things may benefit different goals," as goals and opinions are two distinct and unrelated (although not mutually exclusive either) things... and yes, a certain thing is related to a certain goal, and must be in order to benefit said goal. In order for something to be beneficial, it must be beneficial to something. Therefore there is a relationship between the benefit and end that it is beneficial toward, or goal. But what one thinks to be beneficial may still be unrelated to what is actually beneficial to them or that certain goal, as I explained in my example with debt.
I felt that you actually confirmed my argument rather than confronting it by restating the examples I cited and abandoning your previous stance that a person "deicides what is beneficial" for themselves, and that benefit is subjective to one's values and opinions. I would not use a self-defeating example to defend my opinion.
You posed the question: "Who is to say which of these goals are more important?" As I said before "You decide which is more important to you, or what your priorities and values determine your action to be." Your goals are very obviously based on your values, so you choose them. That, however, is not to say that it is possible for one to decide what is actually beneficial to those goals. One can decide what they think to be beneficial to their goals, based on their knowledge... but that does not mean that they are correct. They are merely able to perform according to their knowledge. What is actually beneficial to those goals, may be different than what they perceive as beneficial.
Benefit must be related to a person and goal in order to actually be beneficial... but the actual benefit is not subject to that person's perception of what is beneficial.
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