Yes, that’s another problem indeed—thanks for the addition! Johann Frick (“Contractualism and Social Risk”) offers a “decomposition test” as a solution on which (roughly) every action of a procedure needs to be justifiable at the time of its performance for the procedure to be justified. But this “stage-wise ex ante contractualism” has its own additional problems.
Thanks for sharing! I think Frick’s approach looks pretty promising, although either with limited/partial aggregation or, as he does, recognizing that this isn’t the full picture, and we can have other reasons to balance, to appropriately handle cases with many statistical lives at stake but low individual risks. What additional problems did you have in mind?
Hmm I can’t recall all its problems right now, but for one I think that the view is then not compatible anymore with ex ante Pareto—which I find the most attractive feature of the ex ante view compared to other views that limit aggregation. If it’s necessary for justifiability that all the subsequent actions of a procedure are ex ante justifiable, then the initiating action could be in everyone’s ex ante interest and still not justified, right?
Yes, that’s another problem indeed—thanks for the addition! Johann Frick (“Contractualism and Social Risk”) offers a “decomposition test” as a solution on which (roughly) every action of a procedure needs to be justifiable at the time of its performance for the procedure to be justified. But this “stage-wise ex ante contractualism” has its own additional problems.
Thanks for sharing! I think Frick’s approach looks pretty promising, although either with limited/partial aggregation or, as he does, recognizing that this isn’t the full picture, and we can have other reasons to balance, to appropriately handle cases with many statistical lives at stake but low individual risks. What additional problems did you have in mind?
Hmm I can’t recall all its problems right now, but for one I think that the view is then not compatible anymore with ex ante Pareto—which I find the most attractive feature of the ex ante view compared to other views that limit aggregation. If it’s necessary for justifiability that all the subsequent actions of a procedure are ex ante justifiable, then the initiating action could be in everyone’s ex ante interest and still not justified, right?