You can get similar value-independence in favour of extinction by using “bads” instead of “goods”. Many of the values in Oesterheld’s list have opposites which could reasonably be interpreted as “bads”, and some of them are already “bads”, e.g. suffering, pain and racism.
True—but how many people hold these inverses to be their primary value? (That is, I think the argument above is useful because almost everyone has something in the Goods set.)
I think even more people have things in the bads set, and there will be more agreement on these values, too, e.g. suffering, cruelty and injustice. The question is then a matter of weight.
Most people (and probably most EAs) aren’t antinatalists, so you would expect, for them, the total good to outweigh the total bad. Or, they haven’t actually thought about it enough.
You can get similar value-independence in favour of extinction by using “bads” instead of “goods”. Many of the values in Oesterheld’s list have opposites which could reasonably be interpreted as “bads”, and some of them are already “bads”, e.g. suffering, pain and racism.
True—but how many people hold these inverses to be their primary value? (That is, I think the argument above is useful because almost everyone has something in the Goods set.)
I think even more people have things in the bads set, and there will be more agreement on these values, too, e.g. suffering, cruelty and injustice. The question is then a matter of weight.
Most people (and probably most EAs) aren’t antinatalists, so you would expect, for them, the total good to outweigh the total bad. Or, they haven’t actually thought about it enough.
Ah I see. Agreed—thanks for clarifying.