Executive summary: Lexical threshold negative utilitarianism (LTNU), the view that some level of lifetime suffering cannot be outweighed by any amount of others’ well-being, can be derived from five plausible premises but has disturbing implications that are difficult to avoid.
Key points:
LTNU can be derived from five premises: completeness, transitivity, separability, CON-RRC (Contrary of the Reverse Repugnant Conclusion), and AO (always outweighable).
LTNU appears to support the desirability of human extinction, but this may not necessarily follow depending on the suffering threshold and other moral considerations.
Rejecting LTNU requires giving up at least one of the five premises, but this leads to other problems or weaker variants of LTNU.
The AO premise has important implications beyond LTNU, as the vast majority of animal lives may be barely worth living.
If AO is true, the cessation of all sentient life may be preferable; if false, creating very good lives could justify the continuation of sentient existence.
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Executive summary: Lexical threshold negative utilitarianism (LTNU), the view that some level of lifetime suffering cannot be outweighed by any amount of others’ well-being, can be derived from five plausible premises but has disturbing implications that are difficult to avoid.
Key points:
LTNU can be derived from five premises: completeness, transitivity, separability, CON-RRC (Contrary of the Reverse Repugnant Conclusion), and AO (always outweighable).
LTNU appears to support the desirability of human extinction, but this may not necessarily follow depending on the suffering threshold and other moral considerations.
Rejecting LTNU requires giving up at least one of the five premises, but this leads to other problems or weaker variants of LTNU.
The AO premise has important implications beyond LTNU, as the vast majority of animal lives may be barely worth living.
If AO is true, the cessation of all sentient life may be preferable; if false, creating very good lives could justify the continuation of sentient existence.
This comment was auto-generated by the EA Forum Team. Feel free to point out issues with this summary by replying to the comment, and contact us if you have feedback.