Yes, I think newborns can compare their welfare with non-existence, to a small degree, but I’m uncertain about it. That is why I think it is so difficult to estimate whether my newborn sons have a positive or negative welfare. I tend to believe that my first son had a negative welfare the first few weeks and positive now, and my second son (who is a month old and lying next to me now) has an average positive welfare these days. But it could easily be indeterminate. For a nematode I’m much more confident that it is indeterminate. A question I would ask is: would the most empathic veterinarians prefer to euthanize a nematode, like they prefers to euthanize a dog when that dog has a negative welfare? I doubt it. Would the most empathic total utilitarians prefer to breed more nematodes, like they prefer the existence of more individuals with positive welfare? I doubt it. Would those people believe that a nematode happens to have exactly 0 welfare? I doubt it. So a nematode’s welfare is not clearly negative, not clearly positive, and not clearly zero. Then what is it? It’s incommensurable with 0.
Yes, if a nematode’s neutral range was smaller or zero, I would say that there is an objective fact of the matter whether the nematode has positive or negative welfare. just like when speed of light is infinite, there is an absolute reference frame, and every space-time event is either in the future, the present or the past of this space time-event I call “now!” That’s Newtonian physics.
Your case would be like assigning a probability of 0 to the possibility that the speed of light is finite. Note that the fact that welfare is continuous, is irrelevant: also time in special relativity is continuous.
Yes, I think newborns can compare their welfare with non-existence, to a small degree, but I’m uncertain about it. That is why I think it is so difficult to estimate whether my newborn sons have a positive or negative welfare. I tend to believe that my first son had a negative welfare the first few weeks and positive now, and my second son (who is a month old and lying next to me now) has an average positive welfare these days. But it could easily be indeterminate. For a nematode I’m much more confident that it is indeterminate. A question I would ask is: would the most empathic veterinarians prefer to euthanize a nematode, like they prefers to euthanize a dog when that dog has a negative welfare? I doubt it. Would the most empathic total utilitarians prefer to breed more nematodes, like they prefer the existence of more individuals with positive welfare? I doubt it. Would those people believe that a nematode happens to have exactly 0 welfare? I doubt it. So a nematode’s welfare is not clearly negative, not clearly positive, and not clearly zero. Then what is it? It’s incommensurable with 0.
I wrote some ideas about that neutral range here:
https://stijnbruers.wordpress.com/2021/10/16/person-affecting-neutral-range-utilitarianism/
https://stijnbruers.wordpress.com/2020/08/26/relativistic-welfare-farm-animal-abolitionism-and-wild-animal-welfarism/
Yes, if a nematode’s neutral range was smaller or zero, I would say that there is an objective fact of the matter whether the nematode has positive or negative welfare. just like when speed of light is infinite, there is an absolute reference frame, and every space-time event is either in the future, the present or the past of this space time-event I call “now!” That’s Newtonian physics.
Your case would be like assigning a probability of 0 to the possibility that the speed of light is finite. Note that the fact that welfare is continuous, is irrelevant: also time in special relativity is continuous.
Thanks for the discussion, and best wishes for your newborn son, Stijn!
yes, this was a fruitful discussion; thanks! I summarized my arguments here: https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/udcCBBwGnCneLRjkH/should-we-consider-the-welfare-of-small-soil-animals-on-the