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A Beautiful Planet and an Ugly Planet

Let us imagine one world exceedingly beautiful. Imagine it as beautiful as you can; put into it whatever on this earth you most admire—mountains, rivers, the sea; trees, and sunsets, stars and moon. Imagine these all combined in the most exquisite proportions, so that no one thing jars against another, but each contributes to the beauty of the whole. And then imagine the ugliest world you can possibly conceive. Imagine it simply one heap of filth, containing everything that is most disgusting to us, for whatever reason, and the whole, as far as may be, without one redeeming feature… The only thing we are not entitled to imagine is that any human being ever has or ever, by any possibility, can, live in either, can ever see and enjoy the beauty of the one or hate the foulness of the other. Well, even so, supposing them quite apart from any possible contemplation by human beings; still, is it irrational to hold that it is better that the beautiful world should exist than the one which is ugly?” Let’s do it. To summarize, imagine 2 planets: a beautiful planet and an ugly planet. No one ever gets to experience either planet. So, any pleasurable effects of the beautiful planet or painful effects of the ugly planet are removed entirely. You can pretend these planets exist alone in their own individual universe if you’d like.

1. Even though there is no pleasure or pain, is the beautiful planet still better? If it’s better, that means pleasure isn’t the only valuable thing in the world. The above is Moore’s actual example, but we can make similar examples that can argue the same thing. Let’s say a magic genie comes to you and tells you that he can make you beautiful, but your life will also not get any better. Any benefits of being beautiful are countered by other negatives as part of the wish. Regardless of whether you choose to be beautiful, you and the whole world is equally happy in either life.
2. Would you choose to be beautiful? If so, this means you value beauty as something entirely different from the pleasurable effects. We also can move away from beauty. Let’s say a magic genie comes to you and tells you that he can allow you to realize truths and lies in the world. You’re not necessarily “smarter”, there are some things that you still won’t understand. However, you’ll know you don’t understand and you won’t be falsely convinced. The genie also tells you that *because* you have a drastically better grasp on the truth, you’ll actually be less happy. You’ll find that making friends is harder, keeping friends is harder, and fitting in with your culture is harder because the lies/distortions are just so clear to you.
3. Would choose truth over happiness? If so, this means you value something even greater than happiness. Please write at least 250 words (total) for these three hypotheticals. Include a section about why someone would disagree with you. (repeating questions does not count toward words counting)