Ethics is solely and simply about decisions - which future state, conditional on current choice, is preferable.
From my perspective, we have a word for that, and it isn't ethics. It's preference. Ethics are the rules governing how preference conflicts are mediated.
I'm not trying to compare a current world with poverty against a counterfactual current world without - that's completely irrelevant and unhelpful.
Then imagine somebody living an upper-class life who is unaware of suffering. Are they ethically inferior because they haven't made decisions to alleviate pain they don't know about? Does informing them of the pain change their ethical status - does it make them ethically worse-off?
Ethics are the rules governing how preference conflicts are mediated.
Absolutely agreed. But it's about conflicts among preferred outcomes of a decision, not about preferences among disconnected world-states.
upper-class life who is unaware of suffering.
If they're unaware because there's no reasonable way for them to be aware, it's hard for me to hold them to blame for not acting on that. Ought implies can. If they're unaware because they've made choices to avoid the truth, then they're ethically inferior to the version of themselves which do learn and act.
If it's worth saying, but not worth its own post (even in Discussion), then it goes here.
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